Avoiding hiring mistakes

Avoiding hiring mistakes

When hiring, if you’re looking for a way to clone yourself to shrink your task-list, stop. You already have you and don’t need another you.

No one wants to hire the wrong person, and it's tempting to hire someone that reminds you of yourself. Hiring the 'right people' is also one of the hardest skills to learn, in part because unless you’re working at a very fast-growing company, you typically don’t get a lot of practice.

Before making your choice about whom to hire, bring your motivations to the surface for examination. How are you expecting to “feel better” as a result of this new hire, what do you plan to solve, and how can they address a knowledge gap?

You want to ensure that you hire people with varied skill sets, who are seeking different learning from you, and who don’t always agree with you. You need people who aren’t like you, who challenge your thinking and who will tell you what you don’t know.

By thinking about these things carefully, you become less likely to hire the wrong person for the wrong role, and more likely to hire a great person for a great role; someone who brings something new to the team, someone who can innovate in new ways.


Inspired by: Harvard Business Review - 3 Common Hiring Mistakes New Managers Should Avoid, by Whitney Johnson