Hiring (and Firing) Criteria

As an entrepreneur, who I work with and how they see their work (culture) is basically my highest leverage thing.

My criteria for hiring is always evolving, but here is the current list of things that guide the decision.

Basics

1. You become the average of the people you associate with. Hire people better than you. You should feel pushed to be better.
2. Hire people who are capable of being the captain — replacing you and leading the whole company. Because they will when you’re not around.
3. The reason companies get disrupted is that their most important trading partners (eg: customers) find a better deal elsewhere. Hire people who are obsessed with offering the best deal to those they serve.
4. To succeed, we need three kinds of creativity. Does the person show any of these, while respecting all of these?
   • Creativity in technology / product
   • Creativity in product planning
   • Creativity in marketing
5. Hire people who are great at communication. Not just giving, but also receiving comms. Not just when it’s easy, but also when it’s an awkward conversation. Makes it so much easier to work with them.

+ If a person doesn’t check even a single one of these adjectives, don’t hire:

1. Hungry
2. Humble
3. Happy
4. Honorable
5. Highly intelligent

The hard thing — the thing that defines what kind of person you are — is what you do when a candidate seemingly meets all the criteria except one.

Do you choose to let it slide and hire them regardless, because you’re in pain and you need some help immediately? Or do you stick to your values?

Extras

There’s one thing I especially look for:

Heart of a teacher

It encompasses a lot of things: communication, empathy, patience, selflessness all in one.

I like to be around people who can empower and uplift others, because I try to be like that myself.

Firing

I buy into the belief that there are 5 “team dysfunctions” — forces that cause any relationship to break apart:

1. Lack of trust
2. Fear of conflict
3. Lack of commitment
4. Avoidance of accountability
5. Inattention to results

When you find evidence of any of these, and you don’t see any way to improve the situation, do everyone a favor and let the person go. Nobody deserves to work in a dysfunctional team.

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Hiring and firing can decide who is ON the team, but how they actually behave on a day to day (and whether they decide to stay) is dependent much more on the culture.

Culture is decided by what you do everyday, and especially what you do when it’s extremely inconvenient.