How to make the right hiring decisions for your startup
June 7, 2021
In this episode, we talk about a 3-question framework that will help with your hiring decisions.
Hiring a new person for your organization can be a very daunting experience first. You're scouring the internet and your friends and family, asking them who would be a good fit for this job. And then you start interviewing everyone. And every single interview from the perspective of the employer, we are hoping that this person is it, this person is the one, right? So here's how we evaluate whether this person is right for the role.
And this is actually from the book attraction Gino Wickman and we just use what he outlined in his book and he pretty much said that when you are hiring you are looking at three different things. Do they get it? Do they want it and, are they capable? And we recently started hiring for a new content scheduling type role and we interviewed several people, we had 25 applications come in and we ended up interviewing three people and one of the people that we interviewed, she seemed like an awesome fit, like a great fit, matched all our core values, had a great attitude. The way the conversation was in the zoom meeting room, it just felt effortless. I felt like we were already a team and it was amazing. So she got the job.
Does she get it? Yes, he got it. Did she want it? I'll come back to that. Is she capable? Yeah, I think she was more than capable. She would have been an awesome employee. What happened at the end of the job acceptance? She said that she had to get permission from her mother and that ended up putting our company in a precarious situation because we were waiting to plan her onboarding and we couldn't plan it until we got confirmation back. Long story short what happened is she never actually responded and confirmed and we felt like we had to chase her. Not only did we have to chase her, we had to figure out exactly how to onboard her on time whether she was going to come and it was just a big mess from that one experience.
My gut instinct told me that she doesn't want this job because if she wanted it, she would have stuck to her word, she would have told me, you know, yes, I spoke to my mom and I'm all in and etcetera, but instead she was scared to make this decision and at the end, we had to make the decision for her. The reason I'm sharing this is because I really made this decision based on a gut instinct. I felt like I would have to chase this person and this person would eventually not be serious about working for a company and they might try to look for employment elsewhere, etcetera. So this is my thoughts and my feelings. And I think using your gut instinct is a great way to make decisions when you're hiring for your team. Because there's not that much quantitative data that you can pull to see if whether there's a fit or not.
Getting a right fit is really about a feeling, and if it doesn't feel right, you should cancel that plan. But if it does feel right, then you'll know. So one of the things that I used for myself is when I'm looking at my gut instinct, as soon as I know that this person is not going to fit, there's been instances in the past where I should have fired people much earlier, but I tempered myself and I decided that I didn't want to be unreasonable. So let me see how this goes. And every single time that I've made a decision where I'm trying to give the other person a chance, what happens is that other person lets me down and I realize I should have fired that person a long time ago.
There were these two graphic artists, for example, that I was working with. I interviewed them, I was a little desperate for a graphic artist, so I just ended up hiring them. And these two people, they were, they were a team, they were partners. Interacting with them was one of the most difficult things ever. Every single time that I felt like I got on the phone with them like I left the conversation upset with a headache. It was just so difficult to talk with them. They talked over everything that I would say and me trying to be polite to these two graphic artists, I would just listen and they're clearly not getting the information correctly, but I don't want to interrupt them. And every time I try to explain myself, they actually end up interrupting me thinking they know what I'm talking about when they have zero idea.
And in those instances where I feel like there's a lot of friction and I'm doing way more to chase them for things that I want. Like I'm hiring them to make my life easier to make the lives of my staff easier and so we can move frictionless and start creating more profit and more value for customers. However, you do have these employees that will create more friction and as soon as you sense with your gut instinct that this person is creating friction and this person is probably not for the company, not right for the company, you should fire that person right away. Because the truth is, there are a lot of great people out there and you can always find someone better for your team.
Don't let your team lose motivation and start dying out because you have one bad apple, that's killing the team. And this can easily happen. You have to protect the team at all costs. So I'm sharing this because we decided to actually rescind the job offer for the person we were so excited about hiring because I think at the end of the day it would have been more trouble than what it's worth. And we are looking for people that are trying to take the trouble off of our plate, not to add the trouble onto our plate. So if you're looking to hire someone, use your gut instincts, I give you permission to use your gut instincts. You definitely should use your gut instincts. Then after you've got instincts, you use that framework from Gino Wickman in traction where you evaluate, do they get it? Like do they understand the job? Do they want it. Is this something that they actually want to do? Are they excited about it? Are they grateful? And are they capable? Like, do they have the skills? Do they have the brainpower to be able to learn it and be able to execute it? I hope this helps for your hiring decision. This is Robin Copernicus. Boom. Bam. I'm out.
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
And this is actually from the book attraction Gino Wickman and we just use what he outlined in his book and he pretty much said that when you are hiring you are looking at three different things. Do they get it? Do they want it and, are they capable? And we recently started hiring for a new content scheduling type role and we interviewed several people, we had 25 applications come in and we ended up interviewing three people and one of the people that we interviewed, she seemed like an awesome fit, like a great fit, matched all our core values, had a great attitude. The way the conversation was in the zoom meeting room, it just felt effortless. I felt like we were already a team and it was amazing. So she got the job.
Does she get it? Yes, he got it. Did she want it? I'll come back to that. Is she capable? Yeah, I think she was more than capable. She would have been an awesome employee. What happened at the end of the job acceptance? She said that she had to get permission from her mother and that ended up putting our company in a precarious situation because we were waiting to plan her onboarding and we couldn't plan it until we got confirmation back. Long story short what happened is she never actually responded and confirmed and we felt like we had to chase her. Not only did we have to chase her, we had to figure out exactly how to onboard her on time whether she was going to come and it was just a big mess from that one experience.
My gut instinct told me that she doesn't want this job because if she wanted it, she would have stuck to her word, she would have told me, you know, yes, I spoke to my mom and I'm all in and etcetera, but instead she was scared to make this decision and at the end, we had to make the decision for her. The reason I'm sharing this is because I really made this decision based on a gut instinct. I felt like I would have to chase this person and this person would eventually not be serious about working for a company and they might try to look for employment elsewhere, etcetera. So this is my thoughts and my feelings. And I think using your gut instinct is a great way to make decisions when you're hiring for your team. Because there's not that much quantitative data that you can pull to see if whether there's a fit or not.
Getting a right fit is really about a feeling, and if it doesn't feel right, you should cancel that plan. But if it does feel right, then you'll know. So one of the things that I used for myself is when I'm looking at my gut instinct, as soon as I know that this person is not going to fit, there's been instances in the past where I should have fired people much earlier, but I tempered myself and I decided that I didn't want to be unreasonable. So let me see how this goes. And every single time that I've made a decision where I'm trying to give the other person a chance, what happens is that other person lets me down and I realize I should have fired that person a long time ago.
There were these two graphic artists, for example, that I was working with. I interviewed them, I was a little desperate for a graphic artist, so I just ended up hiring them. And these two people, they were, they were a team, they were partners. Interacting with them was one of the most difficult things ever. Every single time that I felt like I got on the phone with them like I left the conversation upset with a headache. It was just so difficult to talk with them. They talked over everything that I would say and me trying to be polite to these two graphic artists, I would just listen and they're clearly not getting the information correctly, but I don't want to interrupt them. And every time I try to explain myself, they actually end up interrupting me thinking they know what I'm talking about when they have zero idea.
And in those instances where I feel like there's a lot of friction and I'm doing way more to chase them for things that I want. Like I'm hiring them to make my life easier to make the lives of my staff easier and so we can move frictionless and start creating more profit and more value for customers. However, you do have these employees that will create more friction and as soon as you sense with your gut instinct that this person is creating friction and this person is probably not for the company, not right for the company, you should fire that person right away. Because the truth is, there are a lot of great people out there and you can always find someone better for your team.
Don't let your team lose motivation and start dying out because you have one bad apple, that's killing the team. And this can easily happen. You have to protect the team at all costs. So I'm sharing this because we decided to actually rescind the job offer for the person we were so excited about hiring because I think at the end of the day it would have been more trouble than what it's worth. And we are looking for people that are trying to take the trouble off of our plate, not to add the trouble onto our plate. So if you're looking to hire someone, use your gut instincts, I give you permission to use your gut instincts. You definitely should use your gut instincts. Then after you've got instincts, you use that framework from Gino Wickman in traction where you evaluate, do they get it? Like do they understand the job? Do they want it. Is this something that they actually want to do? Are they excited about it? Are they grateful? And are they capable? Like, do they have the skills? Do they have the brainpower to be able to learn it and be able to execute it? I hope this helps for your hiring decision. This is Robin Copernicus. Boom. Bam. I'm out.
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
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