Don't Hire the Wrong Person Even for the Right Reason

by Howard Tullman
December 12, 2014

 

             Don’t Hire the Wrong Person Even for the Right Reason

It’s the holiday season and everyone wants to lend someone else a helping hand. But let me just say, without seeming too Grinch-like, that, while I heartily agree with the idea and the sentiment, it’s important to remember that – even in the working world – charity begins at home. It’s sweet to be Santa, but not if your business suffers as a result. 

There’s an old (and somewhat naïve) adage about friends and finance. When you’re considering making a loan to a friend, you should give a lot of thought to which you’d most prefer not to lose: the money or the friend. The reason that the adage is naïve is that, in the vast majority of cases, you can almost certainly count on damaging the friendship and/or losing the friend entirely – even if you get the money paid back.

There’s something about being in debt to a friend that’s awkward and humbling and just never bodes well for the long-term life of the relationship. So it’s much smarter (albeit not often easy) to be a good enough friend to give your buddy a straight and simple “no” rather than starting down the slippery slope of becoming a lender. Better a friendly refusal than an unwilling promise.

I got to thinking about this when one of our startup CEOs asked me an interesting question recently about hiring. He had heard me talking about the “Hotel California” syndrome here at 1871 – that’s the idea that no one ever really leaves our place even if their particular business idea doesn’t work out. As The Eagles’ song says: “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”.  Instead, at 1871, the smartest of the guys whose businesses have gone sideways or who’ve run out of cash before they found their footing or their market niche have an interesting reaction.

They don’t sulk. They don’t make excuses. They don’t expect the world to owe them a living. Instead, they get busy. They start looking around; they do their research and homework, and then they try to attach themselves to a better and hopefully more viable idea at another member company with more traction and momentum. It’s very Darwinian, it’s productive, and it works all day long.

I think that this is one of 1871’s greatest accomplishments – to have built an organic community that’s so additive and supportive of everyone here that it’s almost as if there’s a safety net that assures a soft landing and a new start for the serious and committed folks who want to stay in the game, get right back up in the saddle, and get rolling again.

Now, of course, there are two sides to this process and honestly the job’s a lot harder for those on the helping and hiring side than it is for the guys (and girls) looking for their next gig. And that difficulty, in fact, was exactly the subject matter of the question which I was asked.

It went something like this: How do I figure out if it makes sense for me (and for my company) to hire someone whose business just blew up? Especially if it’s someone I feel like I know pretty well; who I think is smart and committed; and someone who’s been working 3 desks away from me for the last year – head down – 24/7 – balls to the wall?  In fact, I have to admit, that there were plenty of weeks when – just watching from the sidelines - I felt like a slacker compared to this guy. So really, what more about him (or her) do I need to know and what are the right questions that I need to ask in order to find out whether this is a smart hire?

I’d say that there are five basic questions that you need to ask the person and to get clear and convincing answers to before you move forward. And, by the way, don’t expect this to be an easy or comfortable conversation. It should be hard and it should be honest because it’s important to get this right at the outset or you’ll regret it for a long time later.

So here are my five questions:

(1)  Are You Done with Your Dream?

It’s not ever easy for an entrepreneur to give up on his dream, but it’s essential for you to make sure that you’re not paying someone to work for you whose head really isn’t into the game and who’s spending the bulk of his time and emotion trying to figure out how to resuscitate his old business and get the show back on the road. There’s no lie detector test for this kind of thing – you’ve just got to look each other in the eye and decide whether there’s a real commitment to leave the past behind so that you can count on getting the full attention and energy that are required directed toward the success of your business.

(2)  Are You Down with My Dream?

It’s easy to fall in love when you need a job. That’s not enough of a commitment to make things work in the start-up world because it’s never just a job. It’s signing up to give the dream everything you’ve got and you really have to care about the vision, about making a difference (not just a paycheck), and your heart needs to be in the game just as fully as your head. This is an essential part of the down-and-dirty conversation that needs to take place and the best candidates will tell you upfront what they like about your idea and your program and what they think could be changed or could be better. But they can’t be signing on with the idea that - once they’re in the clubhouse - they’ll have a chance to start rearranging the furniture and changing things. They need to buy into your dream and then help make it better – not try to turn it into their dream. And they need to sign on 100% on Day One. If they have serious reservations, they need to work someplace else.

(3)  Are You Already Ready to Re-Up?

A dying dream is a debilitating thing and sometimes we don’t even realize at the outset just how hard a hit we took or the extent of the damage done. It takes a while for the reality to sink in and for all the conversations to take place where a hundred random people ask you how your business is doing and you have to break the news to them. Every one of those “chats” is just more salt in the wound that you were hoping was getting better every day. I get that it’s great to get over the past and pick yourself up off the floor and move forward, but you also need to catch your breath and make sure you’re settled before you start off on the next adventure. Catching someone too soon on the rebound isn’t any better an idea in your business affairs than it is in your love life. Make sure the new guy is really ready to start and knows what he’s signing up for.

(4)  Are You Sure You Can Be Second Chair?

There’s only one seat at the top and one captain of the ship and you need to make sure that everyone understands the pecking order from the get-go. And, just to be clear, this isn’t just something to get straight between you and the new hire – it’s important that it’s clear to the whole team so that everyone knows what to expect and how to proceed. It’s easy to fall into a trap here and start talking (while you’re still in the “selling” mode of convincing the guy to come on board) about being “partners” in the journey and working closely together. And, while that’s a good ultimate goal, it’s a bad way to start the new relationship off. You’re the boss in your business. He or she used to be the boss in their prior businesses. The new relationship needs to be clearly understood from Day One.

                   (5) Are You in It for the Long Run?

You don’t want to waste your time and money training and integrating the new guy into your business if he simply regards it as a stop-over on his way to his next start-up. You’re not a way station to anywhere and – while there are no guarantees that anything will last forever or that everyone will ever work out perfectly, you can’t afford to have someone coming into the business who already has one foot out the door. Make sure they’re there for the duration or don’t do the deal.

I feel a little like Smokey the Bear talking about an ounce of prevention and going through these things which should be fairly obvious to all of us, but which, in fact, too often get lost or overlooked when we’re in a hurry to get a good new guy on the team. All I can say is that it’s a lot better to avoid the potholes entirely than it is to get a great deal on the towing service that comes to bail you out of the hole. 

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