Hire the right people
When Beauchamp first became CEO almost nine years ago, he called two of the top CEOs in the technology field. He asked them for advice, and one told him, “By now, you know what you are good at,” Beauchamp recalls. “Do more of that. You know what you’re not good at. Go find somebody else who is really good at it and hire them.”
It’s pretty clear that hiring the right people is crucial to any organization’s culture-building process. But, the challenge in hiring is trying to be as close to perfect as you can be. The wrong hire is going to happen, but the more times you get it right, the easier your life will be.
“You can’t run a great organization without great people,” he says. “A hiring mistake is really expensive.”
To complicate things, most potential employees are going to be on their best behavior and ready to impress you at a moment’s notice. You have to get candidates to relax during interviews so you can see more of what they will be like on a day-to-day basis after they’ve been hired.
“You wear them out,” he says. “You spend a day. Nobody can stay that tight all day long. Give them an opportunity to work off their jitters in some of the lesser important interviews so, by that time, the day has moved forward. I also know that sometimes when people are interviewing with me, because of my job title, they may be nervous.”
That’s something you have to take into account. If your company has an interviewing model where lower-level managers or employees will meet with the CEO, they may be on edge a little.
“If it’s a first-line person or a second-line person or a manager, a young person particularly, then, of course, you give them the benefit of the doubt and recognize they’re going to be a little wound up,” he says.
Don’t start the interview by asking them something negative, like, “What are the three things yo
u think people don’t like about you?’
“(You) just kind of try to make them at ease,” he says. “I try to relax and get them to talk about their family and talk about their background.”
