8 korrents from this piece · 1 of them a turn
Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.
Our reading
"Hire great people and get out of their way" is dangerous advice for anyone in a leadership role.
Their wordsEarlier this year I started writing a piece on why “hire great people and get out of their way” is such terrible, dangerous, counterproductive advice to give anyone in a leadership role.
Their wordsYou should ALWAYS have as few employees as possible. Always. Hiring more people should never be the first lever you reach for, it’s what you do after exhausting your other options.
Their wordsEither can work. Both have tradeoffs and implications. If you try to import either philosophy wholesale, it will break in unexpected ways; if you try to mix and match, it will probably be an unfettered nightmare.
Their wordsCan you be calibrated as an interviewer on every single opening, for every role? My God, no, not even close.
Their wordsI’ve said many times that if I had to choose between interviews or references, I would pick references every time.
Recalls holdingI used to cast a much wider net, like I felt like people ought to get to interview anyone who was being hired over them.
Their words nowI’ve come to realize that having too many veto points in the system is dangerous and doesn’t actually add more value.
Their wordsyou want to hire people for their unique strengths, not their lack of weaknesses. If they’re strong where you need them to be strong, it’s okay if they aren’t equally superpowered at everything — that’s why we build teams, to supplement and balance each other out.
Their wordsHere’s one small mental hack that makes a world of difference: remember that you are trying to hire the right people to join your team/org/company. Not the “best” people. The right people.