The 7 Stages of Champion Team Hiring

Yesterday we walked through the 3 Phases of hiring - how great leaders Attract, Assess, and Add top performers who advance their teams.  Today we break that down into the 7 stages that make the system complete.

PHASE I: ATTRACT

Stage 1: Strengthen Your Culture

Everything starts here.  Before you post a single opening, you need clarity on three things:  The true cost of hiring the wrong people, what a great hire actually produces for your organization, and why building a reputation for excellence is your most powerful long-term recruiting tool.

Stage 2: Create a Win-Win

Top performers don't chase jobs.  They chase opportunity.  This stage develops three things:  The standards you set for the quality of people you add to your team, a strategically written role description that excites "A" players instead of listing duties, and the assessment tools that confirm a candidate's strengths and expose their weaknesses before you commit.

Stage 3: Improve Your Scouting

Great coaches don't wait for talent to walk in.

They fish where the big fish swim.  In this stage you learn to promote your openings in the channels where superstars - your whales, as legendary NBA coach Pat Riley called them - are actually looking.

PHASE II: ASSESS

Stage 4: Lead Tryouts

This is where most hiring teams are weakest - and where we spend the most coaching time.  Three priorities:  Every person involved in hiring must be trained, not just assigned.  Your team needs a strong system of structured interview workouts, conducted in person or face-to-face, that reliably confirm superstars and expose misfits.  And your overall tryout process must be continuously refined to be both effective and efficient.

Stage 5: Sign Your Superstars

Landing a great candidate requires as much skill as finding one.  First, learn how to engage references effectively - talking with others about a candidate is a non-negotiable, not an option.

Second, learn how to close with sincerity and confidence so your best candidates don't slip away when the role is a genuine win-win.

Third, train your hiring team how to negotiate compensation and responsibilities respectfully and effectively so offers get accepted - not used as leverage elsewhere.

PHASE III: ADD

Stage 6: Onboard as a Team

A background check is mandatory before Day 1.  No exceptions.  Beyond that, this stage teaches you how to balance strategy and tactics so new players arrive enthusiastic and stay that way.  A written 30 to 90 day onboarding plan moves new hires to profitability faster - and dramatically reduces the 90-day failures that quietly drain your resources.

Stage 7: Win Championships

Hiring is the first of 4 Management Disciplines.  But it doesn't stop there.  Championship teams systematically fulfill all four:  Hire, Manage, Develop, and Retain.  This final stage confirms your investment in great hiring compounds over time - through st–––ronger management, deliberate development, and the retention strategies that keep your best people from being poached by competitors.

Is Your Hiring Process This Comprehensive?

Most leaders discover significant gaps when they walk through all 7 stages honestly.  The good news is that every gap is coachable - and every improvement compounds.

Use our free Bad Hire Calculator to quantify what your current gaps are already costing you.  

Then consider working with one of our Hire the Best coaches to build a hiring system this complete, this simple to follow, and this effective.

Great leaders hire great people.  They do it with a proven system, a professional coach, and the discipline to build that competitive advantage permanently.

Your championship team is waiting.  Let's go build it.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #CultureFit #ChampionshipTeam

Which of 3 Hiring Phases Are Failing You?

Hiring top performers isn't luck.  It's a repeatable, coachable system.

Over the past 20 years, we’ve proven the best hiring system is comprised of 7 stages.  I’ve used this same framework with thousands of leaders across dozens of industries - and the results are consistent. When you master all three phases, everything changes.

Here is an overview of our 3 Phase Hire the Best system.  We call it a 3 A's Framework

Phase 1 - ATTRACT Players to Tryout

1.     Have a compelling WHY that attracts your ideal top performers.

2.     Stop writing boring job descriptions.  Create inspiring strategic plans for their success.

3.     Post career ads that excite "A" players instead of just listing job duties.

4.     Craft an employer brand that makes superstars choose you.

5.     Develop a reputation that motivates great candidates to seek you out.

6.     Consistently attract enough qualified applicants for every opening.

Phase 2 - ASSESS Them Based on Culture Fit and Skills

1.     Conduct structured interview workouts that expose misfits or confirm superstars.

2.     Screen for culture fit before investing time on skills assessment.

3.     Spot red flags in the first five minutes.

4.     Identify who can leverage AI - but could never be replaced by it.

5.     Verify past performance claims instead of trusting résumés and stories.

6.     Make hiring decisions based on facts, not gut feel and assumptions.

Phase 3 - ADD Them to Teams as Profitable Contributors

1.     Prevent no-shows, reduce 90-day failures, and get new hires productive in weeks, not months.

2.     Create offers that connect top candidates to purpose - offers they gladly sign.

3.     Keep new hires engaged between offer acceptance and Day 1.

4.     Onboard systematically so they're contributing within two weeks.

5.     Reduce time-to-productivity by 60%.

6.     Manage, develop, and retain your best people longer.

Which phase is costing you the most?

Use our free Bad Hire Calculator to put a real number on what untrained hiring is already costing you.  Then tune in tomorrow for an introduction to our 7 stages of hiring.

Great leaders hire great people.  But they do it with a proven system and a coach who develops that skill permanently.

Work with a Hire the Best coach to transform hiring from a guessing game into a competitive advantage.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #CultureFit #ChampionshipTeam

3T to Championship Hiring Team

Most leaders want to hire better.  Few know exactly how to get there.

Our 3T Coaching Process gives you a clear, proven path from where you are today to hiring mastery - the balance of wisdom, discernment, knowledge, skill, and discipline that separates great companies from average ones.

#1 - TEACH:  Build the Right Hiring Skills, One Person at a Time

Generic training doesn't work because the ability to confirm culture and role fit are individual.  One interviewer talks too much.  Another accepts resume claims without verification.  Another can't assess culture fit without bias.

Our coaches develop each person's strengths and correct specific weaknesses through one-on-one coaching sessions, pre-recorded custom Hire the Best Academy trainings, guides, and sample documents tailored to the individual’s role in your hiring process.

At the same time, you can have our Done For You (DFY) Team work directly with your people to customize our best practice processes and proven tools to your organization.  This strengthens your hiring system while your team is developing stronger habits around how to attract, assess, and add new players to your team.

#2 - TEST:  We Don't Just Teach.  We Confirm.

Knowledge without application is theory.  We sit in on live interviews or review recorded ones.  We roleplay.  We debrief results and re-teach where needed.

Your DFY Team simultaneously evaluates your adaptations of our best practices, advises on improvements, and checks in to confirm how our tools are performing in the real world.

This is how you systematically attract people who can advance your team, more accurately verify their past performance and future impact, and then onboard them to profitability faster.

#3 - TRAIN AND MENTOR:  We Stay Until It Sticks

Great hiring skills fade unless the learning is reinforced, creating new neural pathways in your brain and best practices processes to follow within a solid hiring system.

Our coaches continue to train and mentor your hiring team for the full term of our engagement - because one session doesn't build mastery.  Repetition and accountability do.

Your DFY Team finalizes updates to your hiring system, guides, and tools - including evolving updates and necessary changes as your needs develop.

How Much Time Does This Take?

You invest one to two hours per week in coaching, learning, and applying what you've learned.

That's a small commitment relative to the cost of a single bad hire.

This Isn't Generic Advice.  It's 20 Years of Proven Coaching.

David Russell has spent over 20 years perfecting how to hire the right people across dozens of industries and virtually every role.  He has trained leaders and team members how to attract, assess, and add players who make a noticeable difference - and built the hiring system that sustains those results.

Now David or one of our other Hire the Best coaches will mentor you one-on-one to improve your ability to discern and close top performers, and master our Hire the Best system.

Great leaders hire great people.  But they develop that skill with the right coach, the right system, and the discipline to be their best permanently.

Use our free Bad Hire Calculator to see what untrained hiring is costing you today.  

Then consider working with one of our Hire the Best coaches to develop this critical leadership competency.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #HiringMistakes #CultureFit

What’s a Professional Hiring Coach?

Do you want to inspire more qualified people to join your team?

Do you need to more accurately assess candidates and make better hiring decisions?

Would you like new hires contributing profitably in weeks instead of months?

If you answered yes to any of these, you don't need more software.  You don't need another book.  You don't need an expensive recruiter.

You need a hiring coach.

Why Hiring Is a Required Leadership Skill

The greatest leaders in business and professional sports don't develop championship teams by accident.  They build them through disciplined systems, skilled assessment, and continuous coaching.

Hiring is no different.

Here's why coaching is essential - and why alternatives fall short:

1. Hiring skills fade without reinforcement.

Reading a book or attending a webinar gives you ideas.  But without personalized feedback, real-world application, and accountability, old habits return within weeks.

Coaching builds lasting competency because it develops new habits through repetition and correction - the same way great athletes are developed.

2. Your hiring mistakes are compounding right now.

Every untrained interviewer, every gut-feel decision, every weak job description is adding to your bad hire costs.

A professional hiring coach identifies exactly where your team's hiring breaks down - and fixes it before the next search begins.

3. Leadership development that pays for itself.

A single great hire delivers 10X the results of an average one, according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.  A single avoided bad hire saves you $50,000 to $1,000,000 in direct and indirect costs.

Coaching is not an expense. It is one of the highest-return leadership investments you can make.

4. You don't know what you don't know.

Most hiring managers have never been taught how to write strategic plans that attract "A" players, how to assess culture fit without bias, or how to structure interviews that reliably confirm future performance.

A hiring coach reveals the blind spots your team doesn't realize they have.

5. Coaching builds your capability permanently.

Consultants hand you a report and leave.  Recruiters charge $15,000 to $30,000 per hire and create dependency, not mastery.  Online courses give you theory with no accountability.

A hiring coach develops your people in action - through live interview workouts, group scrimmages, and real-time feedback - so your team gets better with every hire.

Why DIY Doesn't Work

You already have a full-time job.  You don't have the bandwidth, expertise, or outside perspective to objectively assess your own hiring gaps and correct them under pressure.

Most leaders who attempt DIY hiring improvement stall out within 60 days because urgent priorities win.

The hiring problems quietly continue.

Here's What Our Hiring Coaches Do Instead

Our professional hiring coaches assess every person involved in your hiring process - identifying individual strengths and the specific weaknesses in how they attract, assess, and add new players to your team.

Your coach then develops each person to mastery through one-on-one coaching, live and recorded interview workouts, group scrimmages, and negotiation practice.

Where your hiring system has gaps, we build the missing pieces for you.

Great leaders hire great people.  But they don't figure it out alone.

Consider working with one of our Hire the Best coaches to develop this critical leadership competency - and build the hiring system your team deserves.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #HiringMistakes #LeadershipDevelopment

7 Questions Reveal If You're in the Top 18% or Bottom 82%

Gallup research shows that 82% of companies hire the wrong person.

That's not a hiring market problem.  That's a hiring skills problem.

Most leaders never get trained on how to hire the right people.  They rely on gut feel, hope, and resumes - and pay for it in turnover, lost productivity, and bad hire costs that compound for years.

So… here's a quick self-assessment.  Answer honestly.  Your answers reveal key strengths - or costly weaknesses - in your hiring team:

1.     Do you know the difference between a job description and a strategic plan for a new player’s success?

2.     Can you identify three types of candidates who interview well, but perform poorly?

3.     Do you have a system to verify past performance claims instead of trusting resumes and stories?

4.     Can you spot red flags in the first five minutes of an interview?

5.     Do you know how to assess cultural fit without bias?

6.     Can you structure questions and exercises that reliably confirm future performance?

7.     Do you have a method to prevent top candidates from accepting counteroffers or ghosting you?

If You Answered "No" or "I'm Not Sure" to Any of These...

You're probably in the 82% who hire the wrong people.

Not because you're incompetent.  

Because nobody trained you.

Want to know what that's already costing you? 

Use our free Bad Hire Calculator to put a real number on it. 

Then consider working with one of our Hire the Best coaches to master the hiring skills and system that separate great companies from average ones.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #HiringMistakes #CultureFit

How Much Are Your Untrained Hiring Practices Actually Costing You?

Use our Bad Hire Calculator to find out.

This tool - built on over 50 years of hiring expertise - shows you exactly what bad hiring decisions are costing your business. 

One bad hire.  Many bad hires.  Years of bad hires.  The numbers will surprise you.

And while you're losing money on bad hires, your competitors are stealing your best talent.

Not because they pay more.  Because they've trained their teams how to hire better and built a stronger hiring system.

Reed Hastings (Netflix) has said: 

"The best performer doesn't add 10% more value.  They add 10 times more value."

One great hire doesn't just fill a seat.  

They elevate everyone around them, deliver 10X results, and stay for years.

And in the age of AI, the stakes are even higher. 

Bad hires - the ones who aren't a culture fit or role fit - need AI to survive. 

But when you hire headlining superstars and solid role players aligned with your culture, they leverage AI instead of rely on it.

While many of your competitors are redirecting client relationships to bots, your championship team builds the deeper human connections that no algorithm can replicate. 

You team of humans provides high value:  Strategic thinking.  Expert judgment.  Full commitment.  Detailed excellence.

It's called trust.

It's what wins championships and retains customers for full lifetime value.

But you'll never attract those superstars without a trained hiring team and a proven hiring system.

How much are bad hiring decisions costing you?  Use our free Bad Hire Calculator to find out. 

Then consider working with one of our Hire the Best coaches to develop this critical leadership competency.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #CultureFit #BadHireCalculator

Nobody Trained Your Hiring Team How to Hire

But you assigned them the responsibility to attract, assess, and add new players to your team.

Think about every other critical business skill your people have mastered:

Sales.  You trained them.  Role-played.  Coached them until they mastered it.
Customer Service.  You set standards.  Gave them scripts.  Held them accountable.
Technical Skills.  Certification courses.  Continuing education.  Required.

But hiring?

You assigned people to interview candidates and assumed they'd figure it out.

Here's what actually happens instead:

1.     Your leaders write job descriptions by copying something generic from Indeed.  "A" players scroll right past them.

2.     Interviewers walk in with few questions planned.  Most won't probe for weaknesses or confirm culture fit.

3.     Hiring decisions are made on gut feel and hope instead of verified performance data.

4.     Onboarding means "Here's your desk.  Here are some videos.  Good luck."

Nobody taught your hiring team employee hiring best practices.  For instance, HOW TO:

1.     Write strategic job descriptions that attract top talent. 

2.     Assess culture fit without bias. 

3.     Verify past performance claims instead of trusting résumés. 

4.     Structure interviews that reliably predict future performance. 

5.     Make offers top candidates are excited to accept. 

6.     Onboard new hires so they're productive in weeks, not months.

You're expecting untrained people to make $50,000-$1,000,000 decisions

And you're shocked when it doesn't work out.

Here's the truth:  

Great leaders hire great people.  But they don't do it by accident.  They develop a disciplined hiring system and train everyone on their team how to hire better.

You can't build a great team with an untrained hiring team and a weak hiring process. 

But you can do something about it.

1.     Improve your system. 

2.     Train everyone who interacts with candidates. 

3.     Develop this critical leadership competency constantly.

Want a quick start? 

Consider working with one of our Hire the Best coaches.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #HiringMistakes

Hiring Is the Glue That Holds Championship Teams Together

You already have headlining superstars on your team.

You have solid role players who contribute every day.

But what's hindering your success?

You need to make more complementary hires.

Most organizations focus exclusively on finding stars.  They chase credentials, résumés, and past performance.  Then they wonder why talented individuals don't gel into a cohesive unit.

And now they're letting AI make these critical decisions.  BIG MISTAKE!

Championship teams are built differently.

They hire people who complement existing superstars and role players.  People who fill gaps.  People who advance the team.  People with the right character, aptitude, and drive to make everyone around them better.

AI can't assess any of this.  It can screen résumés, but miss unscripted details.  It can schedule interviews.  But it cannot discern whether someone will complement your existing team, fill your gaps, or advance your culture.

2022 Golden State Warriors Championship

When the Warriors won their fourth title in eight years, they didn't do it with five superstars.

They did it with strategic complementary hires.

Draymond Green said it best after the championship:

"Championships are won 6 through 10. Championships aren't won 1 through 5. We see great 1 through 5s all the time, and everybody in the world is like, 'Uh-oh, watch out for that team, that starting five.' You go against that team, and they lose in the first round, and you realize, oh, they ain't that good.

"That's because they were 1 to 5 dominant. The teams that you see that have a really good 1 to 5 but their 6 through 10 are strong, those are the teams that are going to compete for championships."

Golden State understood this.  They had superstars Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.  But they won the championship because they added the right complementary pieces:

Otto Porter Jr. - A veteran who understood his role and executed it perfectly.

Andrew Wiggins - Once labeled a bust in Minnesota, he became the second-best player in the Warriors' championship run because Golden State hired him to complement their stars, not replace them.

Kevon Looney - A "perfect complementary piece" who grabbed nine more offensive rebounds than anyone else in the playoffs.  Not flashy, but essential.

No algorithm would have identified these complementary fits.  Human scouts and coaches assessed how each player would interact with the existing roster.  

They evaluated character.  Tested chemistry.  Made judgment calls based on intangibles.

What Makes Someone a Complementary Hire?

Championship organizations look for five qualities:

1. The Right Character - Trustworthy, reliable, emotionally stable. They make others better through their presence, not just their performance. AI cannot assess character.

2. The Right Aptitude - Conscientiousness (organized, systematic, punctual, achievement-oriented, dependable) is the one personality trait that uniformly predicts high performance across virtually all jobs.

3. Self-Starters - They take initiative without constant supervision.  They're self-directed learners who join or lead new projects independently.

4. Constant Learners - They don't just adapt to change, they anticipate it.

5. Systematic Perfectionists - They plan their work and work their plan.  Research shows individuals who exhibit systematic behavior are more likely to be successful and promoted.

Here's What Most Companies Get Wrong

They hire people who look good on paper, but don't complement the existing team.

They bring in another headlining superstar when what they really need is someone who fills a critical gap.

They overlook character because they're dazzled by credentials.

They hire on assumptions, hopes, and unspoken expectations.

And now, they're outsourcing these critical decisions to AI.  They let algorithms screen out candidates based on keyword matching.  They trust AI assessments to evaluate culture fit.  They automate interviews and decision-making.

The result?

A collection of talented individuals who don't work together.  Dysfunction.  Unmet expectations.  Stress.  Turnover.  Mediocre results despite impressive résumés.

Championship Organizations Hire Differently

They use AI strategically - to automate basic administrative tasks, not replace human judgment.

For instance, AI handles résumé screening for basic qualifications, scheduling interviews, sending follow-up communications, and tracking candidates.

But humans make the decisions that matter:  Does this person complement our existing team?  Will they fill our gaps or create new ones?  Do they have the character to thrive in our culture?  Will they advance our team or just occupy a seat?

They train everyone involved in the hiring process to assess these qualities.  Because hiring is too important to leave to untrained judgment - and way too important to delegate to an algorithm.

The glue that holds championship teams together isn't talent alone.  It's the right complementary hires who strengthen every connection, fill every gap, and advance every goal.

Identifying these people requires human discernment that no algorithm can replicate.

Ready to hire the right people who will advance your team?

Work with a Hire the Best coach to master the discipline of hiring for culture fit and building a championship team.

Learn employee hiring best practices that transform hiring from a transactional process into a competitive advantage - with AI handling administrative tasks while humans make the critical decisions.

Great leaders hire great people. And they do it by understanding that championships are won through complementary hires who strengthen the whole team.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #ChampionshipTeam #CultureFit #TalentAcquisition

Shortcuts in Hiring do NOT Build Championship Teams

What makes a championship team?

It's a recipe.   However, you must have the right ingredients.

1.  A leader or head coach.

2.  Headlining superstars who are self-driven, team contributors.

3.  Solid role players who enable superstars to be their best while also making important contributions themselves.

4.  Special teams who enable your core team - coaches, superstars, role players - to advance against the competition.

Bottom line:  People drive your results more than anything else.

So...  what's the game changer today to stack your team full of people who are the best match for your culture, the open role, and the results you are seeking?

Tell the media hype to use AI for hiring interviews and decisions to go to hell.

Shortcuts NEVER build a sustainable championship organization.   People and systems do.

The Kansas City Chiefs Dynasty: A Case Study in Strategic Hiring

In 2013, the Kansas City Chiefs were coming off a 2-14 season.   They needed a turnaround. 

Owner Clark Hunt made the most important hiring decision in franchise history:  Andy Reid as head coach.

It wasn't a shortcut.   It was a strategic choice.

Reid didn't promise instant results.  He promised to build a culture, develop a system, and hire the right people at every level.  Four years later, in 2017, Reid and his team made another critical hire:  They drafted Patrick Mahomes, a quarterback with raw talent who needed development.

Reid didn't rush Mahomes into the starting role.  He sat him for a year.  Coached him.  Developed him.  Assessed his readiness.  Then unleashed him.

By 2018, Mahomes was MVP.  By 2019, the Chiefs won the Super Bowl.  Then they did it again in 2022.  And again in 2023.  Three championships in five years.  Nine straight division titles.  A dynasty.

But here's what matters:  It wasn't built on shortcuts.

Reid hired carefully, surrounding Mahomes with the right role players.  Travis Kelce.  Chris Jones.  Tyreek Hill, then later other receivers who fit the system.  Each hire was strategic.  Each player was assessed for culture fit and ability to contribute to team success.

The Chiefs didn't automate their draft decisions.  They didn't let AI screen their coaching candidates.  They invested in human judgment, relationship-building, and the discipline to hire the right people.

Isn't this what you want to happen in your organization?

You want a cohesive unit working for the common good.  You want superstars who elevate everyone around them.  You want role players who make critical contributions.  You want a culture where great leaders hire great people who build a championship team together.

Here's the problem:

Your people have never been taught how to hire.

Even your leaders.  Possibly not even you.

Your people are:

1.     Told to "look at this resume," but never taught how to really scan a resume.  Or worse, AI is screening your resumes. 

2.     Given an applicant tracking systems that rejects qualified candidates. 

3.     Told to “interview this person,” without being trained how to interview.

The players on your team involved in your hiring don't know how to avoid bad hires because they've never been taught hiring best practices.

Let us coach them and rebuild your hiring system to world-class.

1.  Our Hire the Best coaches develop your team's ability to Attract the people who can advance your organization.

We teach you how to build a strong team culture that top talent wants to join.  We show you how to position your opportunities, so superstars choose you over competitors.  We help you understand what makes candidates say yes to your offers instead of accepting positions elsewhere.

2.  Let us coach everyone involved in your hiring process how to Assess candidates - to discern, test, and confirm a player can definitely advance your team.

This is a key area where shortcuts kill organizations.  AI can't assess hiring for culture fit.  Algorithms can't identify the intangibles that separate good hires from great ones.  Only trained humans can spot character, adaptability, and the drive that creates championship performance.

We train your managers how to hire better by teaching them to look beyond resumes.  We develop their ability to conduct interviews that reveal truth.  We show them how to test for competency and cultural alignment before making offers.

3.  We fine tune your new hire onboarding process to more quickly transform new employees into profitable, meaningful, positive additions to your team.

The Chiefs didn't just draft Mahomes and hope for the best.  They developed him.  They coached him.  They integrated him into their system.

Your new hires deserve the same.  We help you create onboarding systems that turn potential into performance.  Because learning how to hire the right people is only half the battle - developing them is what separates good companies from great ones.

The choice is yours:

You can keep taking shortcuts.  Let AI make decisions about the most important factor in your success.  Keep hoping that the next resume the algorithm surfaces will be your next superstar.

Or you can do what championship organizations do:

1.     Invest in people. 

2.     Build systems. 

3.     Develop the hiring discipline that compounds over time into sustained excellence.

Great leaders hire great people.  They do it through systematic, disciplined processes and human reasoning that no AI shortcut can replace.

Ready to build your championship team?

Work with a Hire the Best coach to transform hiring from a transactional process into a competitive advantage.

Learn how to Attract, Assess, and Add top talent who'll help you achieve your vision.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #ChampionshipTeam #TalentAcquisition #CultureFit

No Superstar Would Ever Accept a Job Offer From AI

Think about the last time you evaluated a potential employer.

You researched the company.   You checked Glassdoor reviews.   You looked up your potential boss on LinkedIn.   You tried to understand the culture, the leadership, and what it would really be like to work there.

Now imagine this:  

1.     You apply online.   An AI bot screens your resume in milliseconds. 

2.     Another AI bot conducts your first "interview" over video, asking pre-programmed questions and analyzing your facial expressions. 

3.     A third AI algorithm scores your responses. 

4.     And finally, an AI system decides you're hired and sends you an automated offer letter.

Would you accept?

According to recent research, top candidates increasingly answer "no."

A Fortune investigation found that job seekers are "outright refusing to do AI interviews, calling them dehumanizing and a red flag for bad company culture."

One IT project manager who used to work as a recruiter described his AI interview experience as "cold" and actually hung up the first time the AI bot contacted him.

Here's what 54% of US job seekers discovered when they encountered AI-led interviews: they're talking to a machine, not a person.   And that tells them everything they need to know about the company.

What your hiring process reveals about your leadership

When you let AI make hiring decisions, you're sending a clear message:  "We value efficiency over people.   We trust algorithms more than judgment.   We'd rather automate than engage."

The best candidates hear that message loud and clear. 

And they walk.

According to a Greenhouse survey, only 8% of job seekers believe AI makes hiring fairer.    Among Gen Z entry-level workers, 62% have lost trust in the hiring process over the past year.   Overall, 46% of candidates say their trust in hiring has decreased, and 42% blame AI directly.

Think about what that means. 

Nearly half of all job seekers now distrust the hiring process.   They don't believe the system is fair.   They don't think they're being evaluated properly.   And when top talent has options, they choose companies where humans make decisions about humans.

The questions superstars ask themselves:

• "If they won't invest time to meet me personally, will they invest in my development?"

• "If an algorithm decides I'm a good fit, does anyone actually understand what I bring to the table?"

• "If leadership trusts AI to hire, what else are they automating that should require human judgment?"

• "Do I want to work for a company that treats hiring like a transaction instead of a relationship?"

According to Gartner research, only 26% of applicants trust AI to evaluate them fairly.   That means three out of four candidates doubt the system before they even start.   And the best people don't stick around to fight an algorithm.   They find companies with leaders who understand that great leaders hire great people, not great algorithms.

The superstar's calculation

Top performers know their value.   They have options.   Multiple offers.   Companies competing for their talent.

When they encounter AI-driven hiring, they don't see innovation.   They see a company that does NOT:

• Value human connection. 

• Invest time in relationships. 

• Trust its own managers to make hiring decisions. 

• Understand hiring for culture fit requires actual humans assessing cultural alignment.

And the superstars move on.

What top candidates really want

1.     Meet the people they'll work with.   

2.     Understand the leadership philosophy. 

3.     Assess whether your company culture matches their values. 

4.     Know how to build a great team together, not how to game an algorithm.

5.     Evidence that you know how to hire the right people through thoughtful evaluation, not automated screening. 

6.     Experience that your hiring best practices matter to your organization.

Most importantly, they want to work somewhere that recognizes what AI cannot replace:  

• Human judgment

• Relationship-building

• Potential, not just their past

Your strongest competition understands this

While you're optimizing your AI screening tools, your competitors are training their managers how to hire better.   They're investing in developing each employee’s hiring skills.   They're building relationships with candidates.   They're demonstrating through their hiring process exactly what kind of company they are.

The result:  The win the war for top talent whenever they compete with AI.

According to the research, candidates are voting with their applications.   When they encounter AI-heavy hiring processes, they're increasingly opting out.   They're choosing companies that treat hiring as what it actually is:  The most important decision you make as a leader.

Want a stronger organization?

Stop automating the most critical function in your business.

Work with one of our Hire the Best coaches to master the hiring skills and processes that separates good companies from great ones.

Because no algorithm can replace the discernment required to build a championship team.   And no superstar wants to work for a company that thinks it can.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #CultureFit #TopTalent

Can You Spot a Deepfake in a Job Interview?

Dawid Moczadło, cofounder of data security firm Vidoc Security, was interviewing a software engineering candidate online with video.   The conversation seemed normal at first.   The candidate answered technical questions confidently.   His resume looked solid.

Then Moczadło noticed something odd.   As the candidate moved, his screen started to glitch.   The edges of his face blurred.   His facial features looked slightly out of sync with his words, like a sophisticated Snapchat filter was failing in real time.

Moczadło asked the candidate to hold his hand in front of his face.   The candidate ignored him and kept talking.   He asked again.   Still ignored.   Moczadło ended the interview.

It was a deepfake.   The entire "candidate" was AI-generated, hiding someone else's true identity.

And this is just the beginning.

According to a recent Resume Genius survey, 17% of hiring managers have already encountered candidates using deepfake technology in video interviews.   At Pindrop Security, executives reviewed 827 applications for a software developer role and discovered that approximately 100 were attached to fake identities.   The FBI has documented over 300 US companies that unknowingly hired operatives using stolen identities and AI-generated personas.

Here's the problem AI cannot solve:

Jesus once said that Satan cannot cast out Satan, because a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.   The same principle applies here.   AI cannot reliably expose AI deception. 

Why?  Because AI doesn't understand what it does wrong.   It follows patterns.   It optimizes for outcomes.   But it lacks the discernment to catch the subtle signals that something isn't right.

According to Harvard Business Review's recent trends report, employers are caught in a candidate fraud arms race.   Candidates use AI to generate perfect applications.   Companies deploy AI to screen them out.   Fraudsters use better AI to slip through.   Companies add more sophisticated AI detection.   Round and round it goes.

Meanwhile, AI screening tools miss the human signals that matter.   A Gartner survey found that 39% of candidates now use AI in applications.   And 6% admit to using deepfake technology in interviews.   By 2028, Gartner predicts one in four candidate profiles will be fake.

What AI misses that humans catch:

The glitch in the video when someone moves unexpectedly.   The split-second delay between words and lip movement.   The unnatural stiffness in facial expressions.   The candidate who refuses simple requests like waving their hand.   The inconsistencies in a story when you dig deeper with follow-up questions.

These are the nuances of discernment.    And no algorithm can teach them.   Only trained humans can spot them.

This isn't just about avoiding fraud.   It's about how to avoid bad hires entirely.   When you train your managers how to hire better, they learn to assess not just credentials, but authenticity.   Character.   Presence.   The intangibles that separate real talent from fabricated profiles.

Great leaders hire great people.   And they do develop their people’s ability to know when something doesn't add up.

According to employee hiring best practices, the best defense against deepfakes isn't more AI.   It's trained human discernment at every stage of your process.   Employee skills developed to have real conversations online and in-person interactions when possible.   Follow-up questions that test for consistency.   Multiple interviewers comparing notes.

Train discernment BEFORE mistakes are made.

Don't wait until a fake candidate slips through your process and compromises your systems.   

Don't discover too late that the person you hired isn't the person who interviewed.

Hiring skills are the key to team member cohesion because what people learn to discern about others continues on as they work together.

Work with a Hire the Best coach to train your managers and team members how to catch the nuances of real people meeting you to discuss an opening versus AI-generated imposters trying to infiltrate your organization.

Learn how to hire the right people by mastering the human skills that technology can't replicate.

Don't get fooled.   Get trained.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #DeepfakeFraud #AIinHiring

The Best Candidates Will Turn You Down

They will when you rely on AI to make decisions for you in your hiring process.

According to recent research, only 8% of job seekers believe AI makes hiring more fair. 

46% of candidates say their trust in hiring has decreased in the past year. 

And here's the kicker: when top talent has options, they're choosing companies that treat them like humans - not data points.

Here's where AI makes costly hiring mistakes:

• AI rejects qualified candidates who don't fit the mold.   A LinkedIn report found that 62% of hiring managers believe AI tools reject qualified candidates who don't match traditional patterns.   That engineer with the non-linear career path?  Gone.   The talented professional who changed industries?  Filtered out before a human ever sees their resume.

• AI perpetuates historical bias.   Amazon learned this the hard way.   In 2014, they built an AI recruiting tool trained on 10 years of resumes - mostly from men.   The result?  The system automatically downgraded any resume containing the word "women's" (as in "women's chess team captain") or graduates from all-women's colleges.   Amazon scrapped the project in 2017, but not before missing countless qualified female candidates.

• AI can't assess cultural fit or growth potential.   Algorithms match keywords.   They can't detect passion during a conversation.   They can't sense when someone lights up talking about a challenge.   They can't evaluate whether a candidate shares your company's values or has the adaptability to grow with your team.

• AI creates "false positive" nightmares.   The Amazon story gets worse:  Their AI didn't just discriminate - it also recommended unqualified candidates "almost at random" for positions.   When your screening tool returns results that unreliable, you're not saving time.   You're wasting it.

• AI turns hiring into a keyword-matching game.   Savvy candidates now stuff resumes with keywords or use white text to game the system.   Meanwhile, genuinely qualified people who don't know these tricks get automatically rejected.   You end up screening for "ability to manipulate AI" instead of actual competence.

• AI screening frustrates top talent.   More than half of employers worry that AI screening excludes highly qualified applicants.   And 21% are concerned that AI diminishes the overall candidate experience.   When the best people feel like they're being judged by a bot, they go elsewhere.

• AI lacks human judgment on what matters.   One professional applied to over 100 jobs at companies using Workday's AI screening tools.   He was rejected from all of them after taking personality assessments - assessments allegedly designed to reveal mental health conditions like his anxiety and depression.   A lawsuit followed.   How many other qualified candidates are being screened out for reasons that have nothing to do with job performance?

The Cost of Small Business Hiring Mistakes

Here's what happens when you let AI make hiring decisions:

You miss the exceptional candidate whose resume doesn't match your keyword list.   You hire the person who gamed the system instead of the person with real skills.  Y ou lose top talent to competitors who use human judgment.   And you open yourself up to discrimination lawsuits when your AI exhibits bias you didn't even know existed.

According to one survey, 74% of companies say AI has "improved the quality of their hires" - but more than half worry it's screening out qualified candidates. 

That's not improvement.   That's wishful thinking.

Want to hire the right people and avoid bad hires?

Stop outsourcing judgment to algorithms.

Great leaders hire great people - and they do it by mastering employee hiring best practices that AI can't replicate.   They know how to build a great team by assessing culture fit, growth potential, and the intangibles that separate good hires from great ones.

Use AI to handle scheduling and basic screening.   But train your people how to hire better by developing the discernment to identify talent that algorithms miss.

Work with one of our Hire the Best coaches to master the hiring skills and system that separates average companies from great ones.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #AIinHiring #HiringMistakes

“Forward-thinking Employers Restore Humanity to the Hiring Process.”

According to a recent article in The Harvard Business Review, the “hiring arms race” has reached a breaking point.   For instance:

Candidates use ChatGPT to generate perfect resumes, but employers use AI to instantly reject 75% of them.   

Bots apply to hundreds of jobs automatically, but companies deploy more sophisticated screening algorithms to filter them out.

According to Gartner, by 2028, one in four candidate profiles will be fake.   Only 8% of job seekers believe AI makes hiring more fair.   46% of candidates say their trust in hiring has decreased in the past year.

The good news?  Smart companies are reversing course.

Forward-thinking employers are discovering that restoring humanity to hiring isn't just the right thing to do - it's their competitive advantage to attract and retain top talent.

Here's how the best companies are bringing the human element back to hiring:

1. Humans make final decisions.   AI can recommend and rank candidates, but trained recruiters and managers make the actual hiring calls.   This keeps critical judgment, cultural fit assessment, and relationship-building stay front and center.

2. Transparent communication about AI use.   Leading companies tell candidates upfront when and how AI is used in their process - and some give candidates the option to opt out.   Why?  Because transparency builds trust.

3. Strategic human touchpoints throughout the process.   Rather than automating every interaction, smart employers use trained humans for interactions and limit AI to backend fact checking and research.   This builds relationships while demonstrating respect and creating connection.

4. Skills-based assessments with human validation.   AI might be able to identify technical capabilities quickly, but humans validate the individual completed the assessment versus a bot or friend, plus the candidate’s adaptability, growth potential, and hiring for culture fit - the intangibles that predict long-term success.

5. Face-to-face interview workouts.   As fraud concerns rise, companies are returning to in-person or video interviews where real humans assess real candidates.   Body language, passion, and chemistry matter.

6. Identity verification checkpoints.   Forward-thinking companies add lightweight verification steps before final interviews to combat the rising tide of fraudulent applications - without slowing down qualified candidates.

7. Manager training on how to hire the right people.   The best organizations invest in developing the hiring competency of every employee involved in their hiring process rather than outsourcing judgment to algorithms.

Before and After:

Here’s a realistic scenario, with a made-up company.

BEFORE:  TechStart Inc.  used AI to screen all 2,000 applications for a key engineering role.   The algorithm rejected 1,500 candidates in seconds based on keyword matching.   The remaining 500 went through automated video interviews scored by AI. 

Ten "top candidates" advanced to human review - but three turned out to be fabricated profiles, and the seven real candidates felt so disconnected from the process that five declined further interviews.   The role stayed open for six months.

AFTER:  TechStart redesigned their process.   AI still screened for basic qualifications, but a recruiter personally reviewed the top 100 candidates.   They added a 15-minute phone screen to verify identity and assess communication skills.   Skills-based assessments tested real capabilities. 

Final candidates met the team face-to-face.   Time-to-hire improved by 40%, candidate satisfaction scores doubled, and they hired an exceptional engineer who didn't perfectly match the AI's keyword profile, but brought the exact aptitude and team chemistry they needed.

According to Harvard Business Review, 2026 is seeing a clear backlash against over-automation in hiring.   Companies are rediscovering that employee hiring best practices require human judgment, not just algorithms.

Ready to develop your competitive edge in hiring?

Limit AI in hiring.   Go with people to hire great people.   Great leaders hire great people - and they know how to build a great team by mastering the fundamentals.

Train everyone involved in meeting job candidates how to discern players who can truly advance your team.   When you learn how to avoid bad hires, hiring skills positively affect how everyone works together.   Hiring aptitude is the ultimate employee development program.

Teach your people how to work as a team to build a championship team culture from the ground up.

Great hiring requires the human touch that no algorithm can replace.

Consider working with one of our Hire the Best coaches to develop this critical leadership competency.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #CultureFit #AIinHiring

AI crashes when flying solo in hiring

I called Puesto restaurant at the Westin Anaheim for a dinner reservation last week.   A pleasant woman's voice answered - but within seconds, I realized it was a bot.

It talked too fast.   Cut me off mid-sentence.   Didn't listen.   I almost hung up and picked another restaurant.

However, my wife and I decided to walk the half mile anyway.   The hostess who greeted us?  A wonderful REAL HUMAN who was helpful, engaging, and made us feel welcome.   We had a great meal.

The woman ahead of us in line was also complaining about the reservation bot.   The hostess told us:  "Everyone hates it."

So why are companies rushing to let AI screen resumes and interview candidates?

Here are just some of the critical flaws and risks:

1.     AI misses what matters most.   It can't detect passion, adaptability, or culture fit - the intangibles that predict success.   Hiring for culture fit requires human judgment that no algorithm can replicate.

2.     AI perpetuates bias.   Systems trained on historical data replicate existing patterns, screening out diverse candidates who don't fit narrow profiles.

3.     AI can't build relationships.   Hiring is fundamentally about trust and human connection.   A bot can't establish either.

4.     AI frustrates top talent.   The best candidates have options.   When they encounter impersonal, clunky AI screening, they choose competitors who treat them like people.

5.     AI creates legal exposure.   When AI makes hiring decisions, companies struggle to explain the rationale behind rejections - opening doors to discrimination claims.

According to Harvard Business Review, 2026 is seeing a backlash against over-automation in hiring.   Smart companies are rediscovering that the human element isn't a "nice to have" - it's a competitive advantage.

The restaurants that succeed aren't the ones with the slickest AI.   They're the ones with great people creating great experiences.

The same is true for hiring.

Ready to develop a competitive edge in hiring?

Limit your reliance on AI.   Instead, train your managers and leaders how to hire the right people by developing relationships and building trust with candidates.

Great leaders hire great people.   If you want to improve your hiring process and avoid the costly mistakes that AI screening creates, consider working with one of our Hire the Best coaches to develop this critical leadership competency.

#HiringStrategy #Leadership #TalentAcquisition #AIinHiring

What’s Missing in Your Leadership Development Program

Companies are investing millions in leadership development right now.

Programs on AI integration.  Workshops on avoiding burnout.  Training on navigating disruption and uncertainty.  Courses on emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and change management.

All valuable.  Possibly all necessary.

But there's one critical leadership skill most organizations completely ignore - the skill that determines whether every other capability actually matters.

How to hire exceptional people.

Think about it:  A leader can master AI fluency, maintain perfect work-life balance, and navigate uncertainty with grace.  But if they consistently hire the wrong people, none of those skills will save their team from underperformance.

The math is brutal.  

One leader making average hiring decisions over 20 years will cost your organization millions in bad hires, lost productivity, and cultural erosion.  Multiply that across every manager in your company, and the impact is staggering.

Yet most leadership development programs treat hiring as an HR function, not a core leadership competency.

The best organizations understand differently.  They teach every leader - from team leads to executives - the systematic discipline of hiring.  Not posting jobs and hoping.  Not relying on gut instinct.  But a proven process that consistently delivers top performers.

We call it the 3 A's:  How you Attract, Assess, and Add exceptional talent.

1.     Attract means knowing how to find and inspire top performers to want to join your team, not just fill open seats with whoever applies.

2.     Assess means fully extracting the facts about how candidates have performed in the past, how they'll mesh with your culture, and whether they'll advance your organization to the next level - not just conducting pleasant conversations that reveal nothing.

3.     Add means onboarding new hires in ways that exceed the expectations you set during interviews, not disappointing them within the first 90 days and watching them quietly disengage or leave.

When leaders master these three phases, everything else in leadership becomes exponentially easier.  They build stronger teams.  Reduce turnover.  Elevate culture.  And free themselves to focus on strategy instead of constantly fixing people problems.

This is the first of the 4 Management Disciplines every leader needs:  How to Hire, Manage, Develop, and Retain top talent.

Your leadership development program can teach AI fluency and burnout prevention all day long.  But if your leaders can't hire right, those investments won't deliver the returns you're expecting.

Ready to close the gap?

Work with a Hire the Best coach to build hiring discipline into your leadership development program.

Teach your leaders to Attract, Assess, and Add top talent - and watch every other leadership capability multiply in impact.

Abraham Lincoln Saved the Union by Hiring His Enemies

When Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, the United States of America was dying.

Seven states had already seceded.  The Confederacy had formed its own government.  Federal forts and arsenals across the South had been seized.  Armed rebellion was imminent.  Within six weeks, Confederate forces would fire on Fort Sumter and plunge the nation into civil war.

Lincoln inherited a country literally tearing itself apart - a constitutional crisis unprecedented in American history. T he Union faced extinction.

And Lincoln himself?  He was widely dismissed as unqualified.  A one-term congressman from Illinois.  A prairie lawyer with zero executive experience.  He'd lost his Senate race just two years earlier.  Political insiders were shocked this backwoods politician had somehow captured the Republican nomination.

But Lincoln had something his critics didn't understand:  An extraordinary ability to recognize talent and put aside personal ego for the mission at hand.

His solution?  He did the unthinkable.

Lincoln appointed his three fiercest rivals for the presidency - men who had publicly ridiculed him, questioned his qualifications, and considered him beneath them - to the most powerful positions in his cabinet.

• William Seward, the presumed front-runner who thought the nomination had been stolen from him, became Secretary of State.

• Salmon Chase, who privately called Lincoln incompetent, became Secretary of the Treasury.

• Edward Bates, the distinguished elder statesman, became Attorney General.

• Later, Edwin Stanton - who had openly mocked Lincoln as a "long-armed ape" - became Secretary of War.

These men were accomplished, nationally known, and considered far more presidential than Lincoln.  They were shocked and humiliated at losing to this obscure Illinois lawyer.  Initially, they barely spoke to each other.  The cabinet was plagued by rivalry, jealousy, and contempt.

Lincoln's philosophy was unprecedented:  Surround yourself with the strongest minds available, even if they hate you, and channel their talents toward the mission that matters.

As Lincoln explained:  "We need the strongest men of the party in the Cabinet.  I had looked the party over and concluded that these were the very strongest men.  Then I had no right to deprive the country of their services."

Lincoln gave each man authority over his department, listened to their conflicting advice, mediated their feuds, and ultimately made the decisions himself.  His emotional intelligence transformed bitter rivals into a functional team.

Seward became Lincoln's closest friend and advisor.  Even Chase, who undermined Lincoln for years, was later appointed to the Supreme Court because Lincoln recognized his abilities were too valuable to waste.

The result?  

The Union was preserved.  Slavery was abolished.  The United States survived its darkest hour.

Lincoln proved that in a crisis requiring unprecedented leadership, the willingness to hire people smarter than you, more accomplished than you, even those who despise you, can save everything that matters.

Great leaders have powerful visions and strategies.  But they achieve significance by hiring people who bring strengths they lack, challenge their thinking, and share their commitment to a mission larger than personal ambition.

Want a stronger organization?

Work with one of our Hire the Best coaches to master the hiring discipline that separates good companies from great ones.

Learn how to Attract, Assess, and Add top talent who'll help you achieve your vision.

Bill Belichick Built the Patriots Dynasty on Hiring Discipline

When Bill Belichick became the Patriots head coach in 2000, the franchise was coming off another disappointing season.

Belichick himself arrived with his own baggage - fired by Cleveland after five mediocre years, then infamously resigning as Jets head coach after just one day on the job.

His first season in New England went 5-11.  Critics said he was overrated.

But Belichick had something other coaches didn't:  Complete control over personnel decisions and an unmatched talent for evaluating players everyone else overlooked.

While other NFL teams chased high-priced free agents and first-round superstars, Belichick obsessed over something different:  Finding the right 53 players, not the best 53 players.

His solution?  He built a system that turned castoffs, late-round picks, and undrafted players into champions.

In his first draft, with the 199th pick, Belichick selected a quarterback from Michigan named Tom Brady as his fourth string quarterback - arguably the greatest draft steal in NFL history.  

But Brady was just the beginning.  Belichick found Pro Bowlers in the seventh round, signed All-Pros other teams had discarded, and turned practice squad players into Super Bowl heroes.  Wes Welker, Mike Vrabel, Rodney Harrison, Malcolm Butler, Julian Edelman - the list of overlooked talent Belichick transformed is legendary.

His philosophy was brutally simple:  Attract players others overlooked, Assess them for character and role fit, Add only those who bought into the culture, define each player's job precisely, hold everyone accountable to "Do Your Job," and move on from anyone - no matter how gifted - who doesn't fit the system.

The numbers prove the success of his hiring and other management disciplines.  Under Belichick, the Patriots won six Super Bowls in nine appearances, 17 AFC East titles, and compiled a 266-121 regular season record.  His 31 playoff wins are the most by any coach in NFL history.

Belichick proved that in professional football's ultimate team sport, superior talent evaluation and cultural discipline beats star power every time.

Great leaders have powerful visions and strategies.  But they achieve significance by hiring people who passionately share their vision, match their culture, and exceed the needs of the role.

Want a stronger organization?

Work with one of our Hire the Best coaches to master the hiring discipline that separates good companies from great ones.

Learn how to Attract, Assess, and Add top talent who'll help you achieve your vision.

The ROI of Teaching One Manager to Hire

You just promoted Sarah to team lead.  She's smart, hardworking, respected by her peers.  You're confident she'll succeed.

Then you watch her hire three people over the next six months.

One quits after four months.  Another requires constant supervision and then is fired for poor performance.  The third is solid - but nothing special.

Sarah didn't fail because she lacks leadership ability.  She failed because nobody taught her how to hire.

Here's the math most leaders miss:  When you promote someone into a management role without training them hiring skills, you don't just risk one bad hire.  

You risk every hire they'll make for the next 20 years.

Let's just focus on the next five years.  Let’s estimate Sarah manages a team of 8 people with 25% annual turnover…

• That's 10 failed hires over the next 5 years.

• Estimated loss is $50,000 per hire.

• That's over $500,000 in losses - from one untrained manager.

Now imagine you invest in teaching Sarah how to Hire the Best, and avoid the rest who are not a good fit for your company or the role - before she makes her first hire.

You teach her how to:

1.     Attract people who align with company values and role requirements, not just fill seats quickly.

2.     Assess candidates systematically for both capability and cultural fit, not simply make assumptions.

3.     Add them strategically to elevate team performance, not hope they figure it out.

The difference compounds exponentially.

When Sarah hires right, she gets team members who think like owners, take responsibility for results, build cohesion, and increase effectiveness.  They require less training, fewer accountability conversations, make fewer mistakes, and free Sarah to focus on strategy instead of fixing problems.

More importantly, those high performers stay.  They attract other high performers.  Turnover drops.  Culture strengthens.  And Sarah's team advances to levels that average players could never reach.

As Jim Collins wrote in Good to Great, when you get the right people on the bus, they fuel organizational success.  But most leaders never teach their managers how to identify who the right people actually are.

The best ROI in leadership development isn't teaching managers how to give feedback or run meetings.  It's teaching them the first of the 4 Management Disciplines: How to Hire with precision.

Get hiring right, and managing, developing, and retaining talent becomes exponentially easier.

Get it wrong, and even your best managers will struggle forever.

Ready to multiply your leadership impact?

Work with a Hire the Best coach to train your managers in the discipline of Attracting, Assessing, and Adding top talent.

One trained manager.  Decades of better decisions.

Truett Cathy Built Chick-fil-A on Hiring Discipline

When Truett Cathy opened the Dwarf Grill in 1946, he was just trying to make a living in a tiny diner with ten stools and four tables.  

By 1967, when he opened the first Chick-fil-A, he'd learned something that would separate his company from every competitor:  Hiring wasn't just important - it was everything.

While competitors chased customers with bigger menus and flashier marketing, Cathy obsessed over one thing:  Finding the right people.

His solution?  He made hiring the hardest thing to do in fast food.

Cathy personally interviewed every prospective franchise operator - called "Operators" at Chick-fil-A.  The process took 12 to 24 months.  He asked about their families, their community involvement, their character.  And he had a famous 16-word test:  "I want to know that you and I can work together until one of us dies."

Think about that.  While other franchises looked for people with money, Cathy looked for people with commitment, values, and character who would build something that lasted.

The numbers prove his discipline.  Chick-fil-A receives 20,000+ applications annually for operators, but accepts only 75-80 - a 0.4% acceptance rate.  That's more selective than Harvard.

The results?  

• Chick-fil-A operator turnover is less than 5% versus the industry average of 35%.  

• Hourly worker turnover is 60% versus the industry average of 107%.

• Average store sales hit $9.3 million - with some locations exceeding $19 million - while being closed every Sunday.

• Chick-fil-A generates the highest sales per square foot in fast food and legendary customer service that competitors can't replicate.

Cathy proved that in a "regular" business like fast food, superior hiring discipline creates extraordinary results.

Great leaders have powerful visions and strategies.  But they achieve significance by hiring people who passionately share their vision, match their culture, and exceed the needs of the role.

Want a stronger organization?

Work with one of our Hire the Best coaches to master the hiring discipline that separates good companies from great ones.

Learn how to attract, assess, and add top talent who'll help you achieve your vision.

Angela Ahrendts Transformed Apple Retail

When Angela Ahrendts joined Apple in 2014, she inherited a retail operation in crisis. 

Despite launching in 2001 with Steve Jobs and Ron Johnson's revolutionary store concept, Apple Retail was struggling with leadership instability, warring online and retail divisions, and no integrated customer experience.

Ahrendts inherited 50,000+ employees and three major problems.

Her solution?   She didn't focus on technology or merchandising strategies.

She focused on hiring.

Ahrendts completely transformed Apple's retail by finding people who could create human connections - hiring for empathy, emotional intelligence, and problem-solving skills rather than just technical expertise. 

She also built a leadership team that elevated Apple Stores from transactional spaces into experiential destinations.

The results?  Apple Stores became vibrant community hubs while competitors' stores sat empty.  Apple Retail became the most profitable retail operation per square foot in the world.

Ahrendts proved that a leader who masters hiring can transform any organization.

Great leaders have powerful visions and strategies.  But they achieve significance by hiring people who passionately share their vision, match their culture, and exceed the needs of the role.

Want a stronger organization?

Work with one of our Hire the Best coaches to master the hiring discipline that separates good companies from great ones.

Learn how to attract, assess, and add top talent who'll help you achieve your vision.