A VC in Vacationland

I have always tried to hire people who were smarter than I was.  How can you grow a company if you do not keep adding people who can build on current successes and define new paths to grow in the future? Anyone who has had luck with a different path is welcome to comment on this Blog.

How did I determine if potential hires had the leadership skills to carry us forward?

First and foremost, I sought people who had the experience and ability to make things happen.  You can meet a lot of nice and talented people when you interview without effective screens.  Most of them will turn out not have the skills in hand to help you succeed.  It is important to set careful screens for your recruiters to ensure that only the candidates with required experiences and abilities get through.  Recruiters will bombarded you with candidates that are not quite qualified.  Do not waste your time or theirs doing an interview.

Next, look for people with positive, can do attitudes on life, ones that can pass these on to people who work for or with them.  You are running a start up.  People need to be adaptable, not complain every time a change is made in the workplace or to their assignments.  Ask if they like change, new challenges, constantly shifting requirements, etc. etc.  You will be surprised how many self select away from such an environment.  Recommend they interview at some big, stable corporation.

Look for people who really want to be on the team and pitch in to do what needs to be done. Beware the smart ass who uses the interview to nit pick your strategy and business model–unless they make some good points. But you still may not want them on your team if that is their normal modus operandi.  Lone wolfs or "do-it-myselfers" are also poor candidates for a small startup, or for almost any company.  Ask about verifiable team related accomplishments, especially ones involving cross company collaboration.  Most start ups today really need strong partner networks to survive and prosper.  Having leaders who can make this happen is a key requirement for an executive hire.

Candidates who make great leaders should also have a clear view of your industry, who are the key competitors, where the challenges will be going forward and how they think those challenges can be met.  Beware of "Internet knowledge" candidates. It is easy to do a lot of research on the web and sound impressive in an interview.  I always ask who they know in the industry and how they have interacted with them.  If they are dealing with companies and people who are leaders in the industry, confidence levels around their potential success in your company increase.

I always wanted people with high levels of personal integrity.  Although references are a great place to gain insight into this subject, I have found that open discussions with candidates on business ethics often yields some surprising answers–like the potential hire who told me that maximizing consulting revenue from clients was his greatest strength. On the surface, this was a good thing if you are hiring consultants.  But his idea of maximizing revenue was to underbid engagements to win them, then spend all his time up selling additional work to make up for the underbid.  Next candidate, please.

I never put a lot of stock in fancy degrees from top schools.  Don’t get me wrong.  Some of my best performers were Ivy League MBA’s.  But many more were from state schools, paid their way through college working nights at a UPS sort facility, did entry level manager jobs at top companies to learn the ropes of an industry, etc. etc. These guys had paid their dues and were ready for the next challenge. They did not think that the world owed them a living.

Finally, career failures should not an automatic rejection for a candidate. Remember Winston Churchill, who failed miserably numerous times while leading the United Kingdom, but turned out to be one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century. Failure is OK if the candidate grew out of the experience.  Ask them why it happened, what they learned and how they recovered from the failure. If they blame other people and take little responsibility themselves, their failure may repeat itself in your world.