Recently I observed yet another situation where an organization I work with had to let go of someone who just didn’t work out. Nothing wrong with the person per se but just not a good cultural fit. What’s remarkable in this situation — as is in many others — the hiring team pretty much knew that it wouldn’t work out from the get go. And yet they still decided to go ahead, hire the person — just to discover that it wasn’t the right fit after all.
Probably the most important lesson I learned in my life as someone building teams is:
People begin as they mean to continue.
There is very rarely a person where you have mixed feelings to begin with who turns around to be an amazing hire.
When building your team (and trust me: Nothing is more important than your team) trust your gut. Yes — make sure they can do the job. Look into their past performance — as this is the most reliable indicator of future performance. But also — check in with your gut. People are not machines. They need to fit.