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Be meticulous
Be very meticulous in choosing the people that you invite to join your team. Every single hire sends a message. Every hire has an asymmetrical impact on the team as a whole. You can’t rush a hire. Which by the way, too many people do. We get so stressed in those moments that we’re short-staffed that we hire the wrong person just to fill a gap even though a month later we recognize that that person wasn’t right and we have to let them go. And we’re right back to where we started. We need to be comfortable being short-staffed for a bit longer if it means that we ultimately will bring the right person onto our team.
Control for team chemistry
Back in the day when I used to sit down for an interview, I’d always have this list of questions that I would ask people. It’s a completely inauthentic way to begin the process of building a relationship. So then I switched. Trusting in the fact that if they were sitting across the table from me, they had the required experience or education or whatever I deemed was a requirement for the role.
And then in my time with them, I would just engage in conversation getting to know them. Looking for three things. One, did I think they had integrity? Two, did I believe they would work hard? Did they have a work ethic? And three, rather than looking for people that I thought I could get along with, I instead focused on people that the people who already worked for me would get along with. Because if I could control for chemistry within that team, there was no limit to what we could collectively accomplish.