Clearly the right hire
The best hire I ever made took no more than a handful of days.
Not because I rushed. But because I knew exactly what I needed - both for now and for the future. Four years later, that hire is leading their own teams, using the same clear process.
Most leaders get told to “grow the team” and then they’re left to figure it out alone. After almost 20 years of hiring (and yes, some firing) people in different roles, I’ve learned that speed isn’t the enemy.
Lack of clarity is.
Who do you really need?
How did I manage to hire someone in just a few days? The truth is that while the process with the candidate might have been quick, I spent a lot of time upfront getting clear on what we needed. More specifically, I spent a lot of time getting clear on my Four Pillars.
These are:
- An understanding of what role the organisation needs now.
- An understanding of what role the organisation needs in the future.
- An understanding of what the company culture is.
- An understanding of what your values as a leader are.
Let me tell you the full story of how they helped me making the perfect hire.
One of my first objectives when I joined Baby Journey as their CTO was to hire a developer to replace the contractor we used at the time. This was a big objective, because it was the first time the company did tech recruitment. I felt I had to get it right.
A less experienced manager might have just looked at what the organisation needed at that time and hired a developer with a similar skillset to the contractor. Make it a 1-to-1 replacement. But since I knew that Baby Journey as a company had great ambitions to grow, I realised that I also had to look ahead.
This person, I realised, would become my right hand person. So I not only had to get clear on the company values, but also my own. This led me to formulate questions around my core values, such as Self-Leadership, Release Cadence, and Blameless Not Nameless and more on top of company values such as Passion (don’t laugh, we actually have a good definition for that word).
These values needed to be aligned from the start. While you can easily teach skills, it’s almost impossible to change someone’s values. Getting it right would create an extension of me, which in turn would give me space to think about the bigger picture.
As chance would have it, I managed to find a perfect fit almost immediately. Or maybe it wasn’t chance. Maybe I found the right person fast because I was perfectly clear about what I was looking for.
Whatever the reason, as I mentioned in the opening that person is now building their own teams. Hiring their own leaders using a process based on the same four pillars.
Act Fast When Wrong
I wish every recruitment I’ve done would have been as successful as my first hire at Baby Journey. But that’s not how leadership works.
Over the years, I’ve made all kinds of hiring mistakes. Sometimes I took a chance on someone I knew deep down wouldn’t cut it. Other times I’ve hired people who seemed perfect but had values that clashed with the team. It’s part of leading - if you hire, you’ll sometimes hire wrong. The real mistake isn’t making a bad hire. It’s how long we wait to fix it.
I learned this the hard way. I still remember the exact moment when a trial period ended for one hire. Right then, every small flaw I’d labeled as “probably coachable” suddenly felt massive. But now they were a full-time employee under Swedish law, which meant months of difficult conversations before they found a new role.
The surprising part? When they left, not only did my team’s work improve - that person found a job they truly loved. They needed the push to look for a better fit.
This taught me that acting fast on a wrong fit isn’t cruel - it’s kind. Keeping someone in the wrong role holds everyone back. The team loses focus, the work suffers, and most importantly, that person misses chances to find where they could truly shine.
Wrap Up
To end this piece, I want to talk about the difference between being clear and being rushed. Having speed is great, but it needs to come from having clarity, not from skipping steps in your process.
I’ve found one test that helps: If I hire this person today, how will I feel in three weeks, three months, and three years?
When your gut says “amazing” at all three points, you’re probably ready to move. But if you feel any doubt, it’s worth pausing to check your four pillars:
- Do their values truly match yours?
- Are they right for now, or just for later?
- Does the role fit where your team is heading?
Getting clear on these questions isn’t slowing down - it’s making sure you can move fast in the right direction.
Want to dig deeper into your four pillars? Book a Clarity Call with me here. Or just hit reply - I’d love to hear your hiring stories.
