A Contrarian’s Guide to Hiring

predictor of leadership success can be summarized in 6 words: ability to operate at all levels.

“Think about one person who has not enjoyed working with you. Picture them. What would they say?”

To find some of the most effective people that others may not know about, I make sure to leverage my network. Before hiring for a new role, I ask people who they consider to be the top 1% of performers for a certain function. I then reach out to the people who were recommended to me for calibration meetings, but my secret goal is to actually hire t... See more

Before a candidate meets with me, I send them a list of questions to respond to in writing. It allows me to see how structured their thinking is and how they perform on asynchronous tasks without time pressure. I ask questions like:

• How do you practice becoming better at what you do?


• What’s an unpopular opinion you hold?


• What’s something that wouldn’

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“Just because they worked well for a different company doesn't necessarily mean they'll do well at yours!”