The Art Of Hiring
Edition #142
Introduction
Welcome to The ContraMind Code.
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The Code helps you reboot and reimagine your thinking by learning from the best and enables you to draw a blueprint on what it takes to get extraordinary things done. Please share your valuable thoughts and comments and start a conversation.
Take a journey to www.contraminds.com. Listen and watch some great minds talking to us about their journey of discovery of what went into making them craftsmen of their profession to drive peak performance.
Machines Of Loving Grace - How AI Could Transform the World for the Better
This is one of the seminal articles on AI written by Dario Amodei, an Italian-American artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur. He is also the co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, the company behind the large language model series Claude AI. He was previously the vice president of research at OpenAI.
This is a must-read for everybody, irrespective of any field you belong to, as Dario outlines how AI is expected to transform various industries and society at large.
Dario writes about five industries in which he expects AI to have a profound impact:
Biology and physical health
Neuroscience and mental health
Economic development and poverty
Peace and governance
Work and meaning
Read the article here.
Dr. Gagandeep Kang on Virology, COVID-19, and Public Health Policy
Dr. Gagandeep Kang takes us through her journey in clinical research, her inspirations, and the challenges faced in groundbreaking medical studies. From her early work on rotavirus vaccines to her role in India’s fight against COVID-19, Dr. Kang shares invaluable lessons for researchers, policymakers, and healthcare professionals.
Here are some key topics that are a part of this conversation:
On pursuing a career in clinical research
On clinical research and building trust with communities
The Role of Technology in India’s response to COVID-19
Dr. Kang’s new role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
On improving India’s disease surveillance systems
Preparing for the Data Revolution in Life Sciences
You can listen to the entire podcast also on:
Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube
Brian Chesky - Founder Mode & The Art of Hiring
This is a follow-up to the article in one of the earlier newsletters, the Founder Mode. Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb, talks about how, as any organisation scales, leaders create an environment where the organisation becomes complacent and loses focus if the leaders at the top of any function don’t manage the work but start managing the people. It’s laced with powerful quotes, and you must listen to this with zero distraction and deep intent.
Here are some interesting insights that Brian shares from his experience of running Airbnb:
“The reason there are too many meetings in a company is that there are too many people. People create meetings.”
“B players hire a lot of C players. Because they are the people who like building empires.”
“You can manage a company (or a function) only if you are an expert.”
“As a head of industrial design at Apple, Jony Ive said, I manage my team's work. It’s crazy having career conversations with people all day long.”
“The health of an organisation is the relationship between engineering and marketing.”
“Founder mode is to be present in the details. Great leadership is about presence, not absence.”
“The less involved I got on a project, the more dysfunctional it got.”
“How do you make people work harder? Have a launch deadline, make them think crazy ambitious and check every week.”
“Leaders get hiring wrong because we hire them at the wrong time. Also, the person we hired was managing and not building business.”
“Start with results and work back to people you need.”
“I prioritise references over interviewing. Hiring should be like network building rather than a sales pipeline.”
“Recruiters want to sell the company as a country club.”
You can click on the above video and watch it.
The Art Of Hiring
This is indeed an art, and the quality of hiring makes or breaks an organisation. It sets the tone for culture, work ethic, performance benchmarks, quality, personal ambition and excellence.
The reason why it is hard is that people join companies for various reasons and purposes. Are those reasons and purposes aligned with what you want to accomplish as an organisation? That is a crucial question to ask yourself every time you hire somebody. Why is this important? Let’s look at some downstream impact when we get the hiring right or wrong:
The intensity of the effort and work can vary across companies' nature and stage. People often underestimate the effort and intensity and get overwhelmed after joining a company.
The ripple effects of the above gap and dissatisfaction not only stay with the person but also start to be passed on to other people in the team. This has a massive bearing on the culture and creates politics in the company.
How you ‘manage work’ philosophy is wildly different in different companies. In some companies, leaders are hands-off, while in others, leaders are hands-on. When people come from opposite environments, leaders often get perceived as micro-managers. In reality, the state and phase of company growth and development may require a leader’s attention to detail to drive clarity and focus. This affects how work gets done every day. Hiring has to reflect this culture and need.
Most people tend to overestimate their capabilities, contribution and their achievements. When they walk into work environments that require a different level of capabilities and contribution, they begin to blame the system or people rather than themselves. Some people who are very intuitive course-correct quickly, but a vast majority find it hard. This affects the quality of the work and creates a sense of insecurity among people who work with them.
Therefore, when hiring, we need to look for people who have gone through successes and failures in the work that they have done. You may want to look for the following attributes and find out more about the people you are about to hire:
How they have recovered from the failure will determine the quality of their resilience and tenacity to bounce back in any condition.
Look for pointers in what they do to skill themselves beyond their work time. This points to their personal and professional ambition, which also tends to show up in the workplace.
If hiring a senior, probe more into the people they have groomed and where they have reached in their careers—it is an excellent way to discuss what they did to help them grow.
When checking for references, check with juniors and colleagues rather than peers or seniors - have a good mix of this. Juniors go through the brunt of the leader’s wrath or outstanding mentorship or guidance. They give you a good insight into the person and how they work.
Try to understand why they left their earlier jobs. This will indicate whether they have the patience to stay or if they press the ‘eject’ button too fast.
‘Talking them out of the job’ is an excellent way to find motivation and purpose why they want to consider this assignment. It gives you a lot of insights to observe and make decisions. This recruitment advertisement by Ernest Shackleton for his Antarctica expedition says it all. The men who joined knew what they were getting into:
Use external advisors - They have an excellent way of identifying blind spots that you may have or points that you may have missed.
Understand the person’s backstory - the family background and the values they have grown with. This often shows up in the workplace in terms of attitude and accountability when they are given any responsibility or during a crisis.
Find out how many people they are in touch with after they leave any company - for professional discussion and input. It’s often a good indicator of respect and the ability to network with good talent and professional expertise.
When you hire, if purpose and attitude are not aligned, no amount of expertise or capability will make a difference to the company.
Some of the lessons we learnt from this week’s mission:
AI is expected to transform various industries and society at large. Being ready for it is vital.
Leaders at the top must manage the work rather than the people.
The quality of hiring makes or breaks an organisation.