If you’ve been listening to podcasts and panel discussions on the keys to hiring team members, you’ve probably heard seasoned pros say things like Hire the person, not the position. Doug Stoakley, the COO at ClearCam, recently told me something similar – I believe in recruiting, not hiring.
You may have found yourself agreeing, then later asking yourself what exactly does that mean?
It means that people are more than their resume, more than their credentials, and that you’re looking for great people, not just a technical skill set. You’re also looking for people with a portfolio of competencies and diverse strengths, not just a narrow functional capability.
This may seem like a no-brainer in the startup world where it’s widely known that “everyone wears lots of hats.” It isn’t.
Yes, you will need certain skill sets on your team. For instance, investors like to see at least one founder with deep technical product knowledge (see Building a Fundable Startup Team – The Right People). Beyond the founding team, however, every team member – including technical team members – needs to bring a collection of capabilities to the team.
Why? If I need a Python programmer or a geneticist or a microbiologist specializing in rare anaerobic bacteria strains, then I’m going to want the best one of these special folks I can find, right? Why should I care about other capabilities?
Because every person is a package deal. When you hire expertise, you also hire prior experience, a personality, a work ethic, task preferences, and a host of other intangibles. And these intangibles are often what make or break a team.
So what criteria should you be using to evaluate prospective team members in addition to their technical capabilities? Here are my suggested must-haves:
- Enthusiasm
- Willingness to learn
- Change readiness
- Team fit
Enthusiasm
People express enthusiasm in different ways, so this isn’t about rah-rah and pom-poms – though at your company, it might be. It is about finding people who identify with and feel excited about the opportunity to be part of the company mission and bring to life the products that will fulfill that mission.
Gino Wickman, creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), calls this “Get it. Want it.” The person understands the mission and vision, and they want to help make it happen.
Willingness to Learn
Most startup companies grow slowly for 1-5 years. There will be far more work than people. Everyone will be called upon to do work outside their primary area of expertise. Quality testing, administrative work, competitive analysis, customer service, and regulatory compliance are just some of the jobs that team members may be called upon to do. Everyone can’t do every job, but everyone must be ready, willing, and able to learn whatever it takes to do at least some of what needs to be done.
For seasoned pros, this is “obvious” – it’s the reality of startup work. For new founders bringing deep-tech to market who may have come out of highly-specialized academic settings, it may be a bit of a rude awakening.
Change Readiness
Change readiness is the proactive cousin of willingness to learn. In addition to being willing to learn how to do tasks outside their area of expertise, team members must anticipate that change is inevitable and act accordingly, proactively monitoring the “early warning signs” – FDA Proposed Rule announcements; regional disasters that can disrupt supply chains; patent awards signaling an emerging competitor.
Even if your company is pursuing a consistent product vision for a consistent market, you will be continually revising, improving, and refining both the product and your processes. Change will be a constant companion on your journey, so look for team members who are willing and able to adapt to changing conditions and demands – and even enjoy doing so.
Team Fit
Finally, there’s the ephemeral chemistry. This one is tricky. We often experience an “easy-ness” with people similar to ourselves that we call chemistry. It’s great to discover shared tastes in music, beer, art, sports, or politics, but these are nice-to-haves. The success of the enterprise depends on the ability to assemble and align diverse knowledge, expertise, and perspectives to drive toward the same goal.
Gino Wickman emphasizes the importance of shared values. It doesn’t matter what the values are, only that you, the founder(s), are clear on the core values for your company, and then use them as the key criteria for assessing all prospective team members.
Doug Stoakley emphasizes pace. “I’m a big believer in pace. When people are out of sync on pace when trying to solve a problem – one person thinks all possible decisions should be made within 24 hours, and the other is more of a let’s-wait-and-see-what-happens kind of person, it creates microfractures in the team that erode morale.”
Other founders have spoken with me about the importance of a sense of humor, consistency, introversion and extraversion… Every team will be different, so the qualities of “fit” will be different. What’s important is that you know what those are and that they serve the company mission. That said, I think Gino’s focus on values and Doug’s emphasis of pace provide a solid starting point. Everything else is gravy.
Given the importance of these intangibles, many founders begin by hiring contract talent to keep things moving forward while either assessing fit or continuing to shop for the right person to join the team long-term.
The next challenge: If you are successful in assembling such a diverse, talented team, your next challenge will be learning how to make the most of their full portfolio of talents. I’ll pick up on that topic in the next post.
As always, feel free to schedule a free 30- or 60-minute consultation to discuss how to amplify your own team’s capabilities.
