Hire higher

Hiring. Firing. Two of the most difficult and critical functions for a leader.

I’ve posted a few videos about this in the past two weeks and thought it would be helpful to take a deeper dive into the subject here.

Let’s start with a question posed to me recently: “Do I want to have a beer with this guy?”

I was sitting with a founder CEO, chatting about the huge challenge we’ve all faced - hiring the right people.

He told me that over the years, he relied on the beer question to help him make decisions about bringing someone onto his team. He believed that if he wanted to hang out with someone outside of work, that person would be a good hire. He’s not alone in using this method.

I don’t buy it.

One of the great privileges we get as a founder or CEO is having the ultimate decision on hiring - especially when the company is at its early growth stage. You are the person choosing those first few employees who will lead the charge.

The beer test just doesn’t work for several reasons. First, if we only hire people we want to hang out with, we’ll end up with a homogeneous team versus one with complementary skills.

I wanted people who could fill in the gaps where I wasn’t as strong.

Of course, you do want people who have a personality you enjoy as that’s critical to building company culture, but it shouldn’t be the litmus test.

Ultimately, it comes down to two questions for me.

First, can the person handle a large, complex and very dynamic environment? And when I say large, I’m not solely talking about the size of the organization, but rather the huge number of questions that will need to be answered, often with incomplete information.

Second, do they have the right balance of humility and cockiness? I want someone who says: “Sure, I haven’t built a fire station before, but I know I can… because I’m going to think about the problem carefully before I lay down the first brick.”

Ultimately, hiring the right people requires an investment of time. I truly believe that you don’t get to know someone unless you spend time with them in different situations… and certainly not just on Zoom.

Go for a walk with them. Meet them at a cafe. Go to a museum together. Learn what kind of human they are.

A number of years ago, I was asked to write a book on hiring for one of the big executive recruiting firms. I turned them down, because at the time, I felt I couldn’t explain it. There were too many intangibles.

And honestly, it’s a lot easier to explain why you don’t hire someone versus why you do. Usually.

Let me end this topic with a cautionary tale.

A number of years ago, one of the companies I was leading needed to hire someone to do a very specific and technical job. The role had been open for a while and it was putting a lot of strain on my team as they tried their best to do it themselves.

There was a potential hire for the role and my team was really excited about the person (and the chance of getting this painful task off their plates.) The person we were considering had all the expertise we needed and had demonstrated it before.

But in the interview process, I just got the feeling that they weren’t going to be the right fit. It’s hard to explain exactly why, but my Spidey senses were tingling and telling me that this person wouldn’t be good for morale or our company.

I didn’t trust my gut.

We hired the person because I knew how much pressure my team was under and I wanted to please them by removing this burden. Nine times out of ten I would have said no, but this time I said yes.

It was a nightmare. Not only was this person toxic for the company (especially dangerous as we were relatively small) but it was a huge burden to get rid of them and lawyers had to get involved, which is never fun… or inexpensive.

Bottom line: if you have any doubts that a potential hire won’t be the right fit in your organization, walk away. I don’t care if you’re covered in flames and this person is holding a fire extinguisher.

It’s just not worth it.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week,

Peter

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