Genuine VC

Very, very true. And there are two sides to that coin: I have hired the wrong people early on that have had a major negative impact on the evolving culture of the company. Early hires are hyper-critical to get right. I suggest the use of trial periods for people you don't know really well.

I absolutely agree with you David. This falls right in line with Jim Collins "Good to Great" study.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review found hat, "It's not experience that counts, or college degrees or other accepted factors; success hinges on a fit with the job."

I suggest you compliment the standard interview process by employing assessment tools that have been certified for their validity and reliability in predicting success in a given company and in a given position.

Michael Beek
President, eSessments

well that's why it is better to start a startup with some of your friends initially and then recruit only by word-of-mouth. This way you don't get trapped into hiring someone who needs a job but is very interested in being a part of startup. But then there are other drawbacks too like you disclose everything to that friends too usually even if he is an employee but I think this should be a manageable and a less risky option rather than bringing in someone who doesn't fits the organization which is more riskier.

What seems the simplest things become very complex the more we analyze them. The immediate thought that came to me after I read this is:

SHOW vs. KNOW

Whether it is project intelligence or the hearts of people, where SHOW and KNOW becomes a vs. is when "evalue" becomes more important than value. In other words how do extract value in its human form rather than evaluation in its mechanical one?

So now my thoughts bring me to how do I put the AND in SHOW vs. KNOW and this boils down to whether we are taking a geniune interest in our employees which brings this to:

SHOW ME AND KNOW ME

which is an invitation to not only appreciate the capacity talent but to remove those barriers that inhibit the demonstration of talent.

As a task masters there is a fundamental changes to the nature of the "AND"

KNOW "AND" SHOW

this way of looking at the AND sets up an expectation about the goals of enterprise above and beyond the goals of the individual. Yet it also still relates to all employees chief concern: "What did you hire me for?".

My attitude is that you come to work every day as a new employee. If familiarity breeds contempt in personal relationships, then what does it breed in professional relationships?

Please realize that I am simply thinking these things out as I type them here in the present moment, so what strikes me instinctively is the mindset we bring and indeed the things we manage to get right at the front end pay handsomely at the back end. This has to be balanced by the compounding effect of inviting freshness and creating the space for an employee to SHOW his talent and in demonstrating this talent to learn or to KNOW in the process of SHOW.

Of course what sounds great in th way we think things has to become innate in the way we do things. So this thinking out here does help me, because it is so easy to get caught up in turning people into projects rather than make projects inspired by people. Nobody should become our project but I guess it boils down to primarily utilizing strengths and fostering capability around the catalyst which is a focal strategy.

Anyway these are simply raw thoughts and early employees should in my mind foster to give all employees that "new employee" feel - and yes for sure starting right compounds excellence down the road and front end investments take out the pain that can also compound in the backend.

In the end I guess the culture one fosters becomes the magnet for like-minded people. If new hires are of a certain quality and the new hires replace defected talent, then there is a culture that probably needs to fix, not simply plugging in an improvement to how one attracts talent.

Anyway that is all I can think of in the present moment as I contemplate this scenario, this does not mean that I have found the Rosetta Stone of hiring, but simply that the hiring process can be viewed as a hiring gymnasium - where enterprise fitness and talent become the focal points.

M.