Why it matters
What this principle is for.
The hiring bar is the culture. Lower it once because you need six people by year end, and you will spend years managing the damage. I would rather slip a date than put a weak person on a strong team. Interview until you are sure. Empty is better than wrong.
Hiring people who might be smarter than you is the job. You are not filling a seat. You are looking for someone who will get bored doing the same work and will raise the standard around them.
Hiring is not enough. If you are an individual, your career is yours. Take the learning. Demand stretch work. Do not wait to be developed. If you are a manager, developing people is the day job, not the leftover. When they get better, the product gets better.
Holding a star because they make your team look good is a local optimization. Moving them is how the company gets stronger, and it opens stretch roles behind them. Net exporters of talent are doing this principle. Hoarders are not.
Calibration
Under, just right, over.
Look for a hire they walked away from, a person they developed and then let go, and a low performer they actually moved. "I care about people" is not this principle. Neither is hunting for a reason not to hire anyone, or filling a seat so a program can start.
| Situation | Under | Just Right | Over |
|---|
Examples
What it looks like in the work.
Empty is better than wrong
You need six people by year end. A candidate is fine, not great. The under move is to hire them so the initiative can start. I would rather miss the initiative. Weak hires hire more weak hires. Look for a time they held the seat open, and what they shipped (or slipped) because of it.
Export the star
Your best person has outgrown the team. Keeping them makes your metrics look good this year. Moving them makes the company stronger and opens a stretch role behind them. Tell me about the person you developed and then let go. If every star is still on the org chart, this principle is not landing.
Hire someone who scares you
The just-right hire could do your job. That is uncomfortable. The under move is to hire someone junior to take the work you do not like. The over move is to wait for a unicorn or to expect a more junior person to already operate at your level. Hire bigger.
In the role
Individual and manager.
Individual
You take your own development seriously. You ask for stretch work. You coach peers without being asked. In a hiring loop you will vote no when the person would not raise the bar, even if the team is tired of interviewing.
Manager
You treat coaching as the day job. You move low performers with speed and clarity. You export talent on purpose. You would rather slip a date than lower the bar, and you hire people who might make you look less like the smartest person in the room.
Go deeper
Questions that make the principle concrete.
- When did you last walk away from a candidate because they would not raise the bar?
- Who have you developed and then moved to another team, and what happened to both sides?
- What did you do with the last person on your team who was below the bar?
- When you hire, are you filling a seat or raising the standard for the people already there?
- Who do you coach who does not report to you?
- What stretch work did you give someone, and how did you follow up without taking the work back?
- When did you hire someone who could do your job, and how did that change the team?
- How do you keep a senior core so new hires have someone to learn from?
- What hiring miss did you make, and what did you change about how you interview?
- If you need the work done this quarter and the candidate is only fine, what do you do?
From the blog
Writing that goes deeper.
- Hiring First. Everything Else Second.
Excellence starts and ends with hiring. Most leaders agree. Few behave like it.
- The Most Dangerous Lie In Project Plans: "We'll Hire"
A plan that depends on people you have not hired is not a plan.
- People Management Is Not a Hobby
Developing people is the day job, not the leftover after the product work.
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