A long time ago a mentor of mine gave me some advice on both my behavior as well as on hiring people for my first startup:
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
Recently I came across the same phrase in John Ruhlin’s wonderful book “Giftology.” The mantra is about doing things right, caring for the details and not cutting corners. It does not mean things need to be perfect — but instead done deliberately and with care.
In hiring it became an incredibly powerful tool for us — as we looked beyond the CV and interview and tried to assess how someone approached life in general. What we found time and time again was that even if people’s experiences did not quite match up with the job — if we could see that they, throughout their lives and careers, did the right things and did those with care and well, they would be incredible additions to the team.
I believe this insight to be even more critical today than it was ten or twenty years ago. In an environment which shifts ever faster, consumer behavior changing on a dime and new technologies disrupting our businesses with unprecedented vigor and speed your company is your people. Having your team be smart, adaptable and caring about the details of your business has become paramount to excellent performance in the marketplace.
I am committed to asking myself if what I am doing could be done better continuously. I will also focus on the things that matter, put all my energy, care and love into those and drop the ones which don’t. As there is little point in doing something half-assed.