A promotion packet that has no constructive feedback is actually a warning sign to review committees.

It starts with asking yourself (or your management team) a very simple question in relation to a specific team member: ‘If everyone in the organisation had the same cultural values, attitude and level of talent as this employee, would the bar (the average) be raised, maintained, or lowered?’

These preparations should take you half an hour or so, a small investment that can make a significant difference in the quality of the people you hire. To avoid halo effects, you must collect the information on one trait at a time, scoring each before you move on to the next one. Do not skip around. To evaluate each candidate, add up the six scores

Make interviewers give each candidate a numerical likability score. Quantifying your personal feelings about candidates makes it easier to control for them.

After the interviews, everyone who had participated in the hiring process gathered and expressed one of four opinions about each individual: strong no hire; inclined not to hire; inclined to hire; or strong hire. One holdout could sink an applicant.

What criteria should be applied to people we hire, those we promote, and those we let go? What makes someone a good person versus a bad person? How should hard-to-resolve conflicts be handled at our organization? What’s your preferred form of communication and why? What enables you to deliver your best work? What stops you from it?