You never really know who you’re hiring, until you’ve spent time with them
Bringing a senior hire into your team is an important decision. The great ones improve culture, raise standards and drive growth. The poor ones create friction and damage long before it becomes obvious there’s a problem.
Isn’t that what the recruitment process is for? Yes, but the interview only tells half the story and most senior hires are experienced at interview. They know how to communicate well and present their achievements, they ask the right questions and give a great impression but leadership goes way beyond performance in an interview.
The interview process doesn’t show: how someone treats people day to day, whether they gehuinely listen, how they handle informal situations and whether they create energy or tension around a team or in a room. This is why spending time with senior hires outside the interview room is so valuable.
Use ‘getting to know you’ as part of the recruitment processInviting your candidate to a dinner, team social or industry event can tell you much more than your interview ever will. Spend a decent amount of time with them and you’ll notice how they interact with those more junior, whether they dominate conversations or actually allow people to be heard. If they show curiosity and humility and how naturally they build relationships.
Informality Lowers The Mask
When the environment is more relaxed, people become more natural, more often than not candidates will come across even better outside of the interview room, more thoughtful, collaborative and emotionally intelligent but it’s also where patterns appear problems with ego, poor listening or dismissive behaviour won’t be able to hide in an informal setting for long.
Interview isn’t the end game Not for senior hires, there’s too much risk this way. Spending time in real world settings and having conversations outside the boardroom is critical. You don’t get to know someone by interviewing them only when you spend time with them. It might make the recruitment process longer, add an extra layer but to get the right hire and eliminate the wrong ones it’s’ worth it.