Who Not to Hire, Who to Keep, and 3 Simple Hiring Rules

3 Heuristics for Hiring

I once was interviewed for a podcast and the interviewer asked what my hiring process was like as the Chief Operating Officer for a mental health organization and Founder of a group practice. He didn’t like how simple my answers were, because frankly, it doesn’t have to be that complicated.

We didn’t book the podcast but you’ll get what I think about regarding hiring anyway:

No 7s

Not to be overly objectifying, but we exist in a capitalist society, and we’re running businesses, not families. So, if we were to ask you to rank your current staff based on the value they are providing your organization, where would you put them on a 0 to 10 scale?

If you look at the numbers you come up with, your organization needs as many 8s, 9s and 10s as you can get. All-star players push all-star players to continue to perform. They work faster, smarter, are more self-directed, ambitious, (sometimes more humble), and tend to be more conscientious team players.

1s - 6s should be easy to spot, and guess what – if you have those on your team – well, we need to chat about moving them off your team.

The hardest folks to figure out what to do with are your 7s. Good enough to continue to perform, but not good enough to excel.

7s are terrible for business, and you should only have one per team of five employees. 7s drag high performers down. They set a “just good enough” precedent that aggravates your top performers, and makes them second guess your leadership – or worse – your bravery in addressing the 7’s averageness. Worse yet, 7s don’t motivate your other employees to push themselves. They like the status quo – they don’t ruffle feathers, they fly under the radar – they just barely deliver – maybe consistently even, but never exceptionally.

In a way, you can live with bottom performers (1s–6s) because you can put them on performance plans and see if they can rise to the occasion. 7s, on the other hand, do just enough to avoid that kind of support or attention — they skate by without forcing a decision, which makes them far more dangerous to your culture.

Rule # 1 when hiring: spot 7s and move on from them. The best way to spot them in an interview is to ask them about their high performance experiences. Here are a few good interview questions:

• Tell us about your leadership style and experience?
• Would you consider yourself a high performer – if so, provide examples?
• What type of leader are you?
• On an A to F scale, A being the best – how do you think your peers would score you on your ability to lead? Why do you think that you’re getting that score? (look for C’s)

Would you be comfortable working for this person if they were your boss?

This one comes from the CEO of one of the largest tech companies in the world – Mark Zuckerberg's Meta.

That’s it. Super simple.

Rule #2: When you're sitting across the table from a prospective candidate, you should be checking to see if this is a person you’d feel comfortable taking orders from and following their direction.

Could you see yourself spending a 5 hour long car ride with this person?

This one comes from legendary coach, Ben Bergeron, who outlines another heuristic worth holding onto the next time you look to hire someone – could you actually spend time with this person on a 5 hour long road trip?

​You’re going to spend A LOT of time with the people you work with, so you better have a feeling that they are worth spending time with.

Sure, this heuristic doesn’t account for their skill, their knowledge or how they might perform – but don’t mistake relationships and high EQ as being irrelevant.

Rule #3: You can work with the best and brightest out there, but if you don't like being with them, then it won’t matter – they are probably not going to fit.

Thanks for reading as always.

Time to win the week 🏆

See you next week :)

– J

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