Issue #10 - Are there mercenaries amongst your team?

“I did not have sex with that woman”

Some of us are old enough to recall those famous words spoken by a former US president regarding an accusation of personal misconduct.

Beyond the matter of what the President actually did or didn’t do, was the hotly debated topic of why it mattered.

Did we really care what a head of state does during his/her free time (work office notwithstanding) as long as they do the job they were hired/elected to do?

We are not here to re-ignite that particular conversation but it has a bearing on the subject of the teams we work with and more specifically, the people we hire.

In fledgling start-ups and burgeoning businesses the temptation (even given as wise advice) is to hire people who get the job done. Regardless of how they get it done or what they are like outside the office, if they perform (or if their resume has a record of smarts and success) then that’s what we’re looking for.

Maybe that works if you’re hiring someone to fix your car or roof. Do you really care what kind of character they have? Do you need a reference from their most intimate relationships about how they handle conflict? As long as they know to get the job done on time, that’s all that we truly care about.

But is that really true? Is it wise? Does it work?

Perhaps for one time transactions (like fixing your roof) it seems acceptable but we would propose that in any prolonged engagement, in order for it to be enduring, skills alone are not enough. From our experiences we would conclude that if you hire people exclusively for their skill but who lack the will to be contributors to your culture, it will ultimately result in disastrous effects for your business. 

The culture of a company is defined by a set of universal behaviors we choose to live by. It is not something we simply wish for, it is something we create through the people we choose to hire. Every person on the team, every role we hire, shapes the culture of our team…for better or for worse. The character of a person - how honest they are, how they deal with conflict or difficulties, how humble they are and whether they truly care about people - will ultimately leave a much bigger mark on the business than their skill set or productivity.

The reason it matters for EVERY role in the organization, is that the person who “gets it '' and subsequently “achieves it” is often promoted into a leadership position. Unfortunately, in most organizations expertise and experience are subtly and perhaps unconsciously valued over character.  

It is during times of celebration or crisis that the shortcomings of someone’s inner character are truly revealed.  This manifests in many ways but mostly commonly is expressed as self preservation, where an individual prioritizes themself over what is in the best interest of the collective group and thereby becoming a mercenary. This behavior sabotages team dynamics, leading to frustration and dysfunction in execution and ultimately putting your venture at serious risk.

We can excuse ourselves by saying “they had the highest qualifications” or  “I didn’t think they would go that far” but ask the hard question; were you really even looking at their character when you hired them? I bet if you are honest with yourself you placed much of your decision on if you liked them and their past experience, including where they went to school and where they previously worked.  Inner character is the most important determination of a hire being a long term performer and fit, however if you do not have a way to reveal this in a candidate, you are going to make decisions based only on superficial character traits. 

It’s time we stop separating who a person is from the work that they do.  We hire a whole person, not a skill set; all of who they are affects all of what they do.

So how do you evaluate or “see” who a potential team-member is, beyond what their resume says or who recommended them?

How do you reveal their inner character and know what kind of influence they are bringing with them into your existing team culture?

Chapter 6 of StartUp Santa is titled “Assemble the Perfect Toy Box” and tells stories from Brad’s past missteps in trying to build and then scale a team.  It uses comparisons from the brilliant narrative of Pixar’s Toy Story to explain the key attributes and virtues required in the people you want to make up a high performing team. 

One of the stories recalls an experience of employing someone who was incredibly gifted in their role but would eventually be exposed as a talented terrorist. It was during a time of tumult in the business, that this individual went into self preservation mode, exposing their mercenary traits that led to subsequent actions, which were contributing factors for the bankruptcy of the business.

The chapter identifies a number of tools available to help guide a founder in their hiring strategy. One of these resources is Patrick Lencioni’s book The Ideal Team Player. Lencioni reveals three character traits that must be identified as part of the discovery process in selecting top talent.. These are summarized as:  Hungry, Humble and Smart and are analogous to Warren Buffet’s three I’s: Intelligence, Initiative and Integrity. 

Hungry and Smart are usually revealed through external results that make up the vast majority of the resumes, however the most important to discover (in terms of the right team fit) is the degree of someone’s humility. 

The question remains how do we truly reveal an individual's“humble” side?  This is a much more difficult task and requires a willingness to ask better questions and to do a more thorough audit on someone’s history and peer group.  It is really hard to reveal inner character through questions alone (especially if the individual is already smart) however here are a few different approaches to consider:

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• Don’t be overly impressed with responses on performance questions; rather observe how they respond to behavioral interview questions (because past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior) about conflict resolution, failure or ethical dilemmas?
• Has this person worked in teams before, and in what role?
• If so, can we get references from those other team members?
• Who else on your team has a nose for good/bad hires? 
• Can they honestly identify and speak about their weaknesses (We never want to hear “I’m a perfectionist” or “I work too hard,” which are really meant to be disingenuous humble brags) and how that has negatively affected their work/team in the past? Note: Self-awareness is one of the key signs of maturity
• Do their values line up with yours? Not sure what yours are? Check out our previous issue “Don’t Bring the house down”
• Ask them to rank themselves in the areas of hungry, humble and smart (be wary of those who rank themselves lowest on the attribute of humble)
• Insist on references and ask the reference to rank the individual on a scale of 1 - 10 with respect to how humble, hungry or smart they are. Follow up this question that if given the opportunity would they hire and/or work with individuals again? 

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One other helpful practice can be to look back and reflect on the hires you have made in the past (the good, the bad and the ugly) and unpack the lessons. 

We do not learn from what happens to us, we learn from reflecting on what has happened.  During these reflections, it is about mining the events of our lives to then extract the learnings.  If we choose not to learn from our history, we are condemned to repeat the same mistakes. 

In your reflections ask yourself some valuable questions:

• What did you not see then that is so clear now? 
• What small red flags did you see but chose to ignore and why? 
• Who has positively contributed to the culture of your current team? 
• What is it about them that you want to see more of in other/future team members?

If this is landing then be encouraged. If you are an active founder that has or is scaling then likely you've made some hiring/firing decisions that have negatively affected the culture of your team.  When you find yourself in that place the true test of your leadership will be the time it takes from when you realize it and then when you choose to act.  

Have you ever fired somebody too soon?  It might seem like a silly question to ask but if you are honest with yourself I think you will land on the truth: it was always too late. If that is the case then at what was the cost of that indecision to yourself and your organization?

Your culture is sacred and as the leader of your company and by default the chief executive of culture, it is up to you to build but then protect what is ultimately your most valuable asset.the chief executive of culture, it is up to you to build but then protect what is ultimately your most valuable asset.