Only hire people who are smarter than you are. Smart people make you look good, and you don’t need to do everything yourself. If smart people threaten you, quit now because you are paranoid and will fail.
Scan a candidate’s resume in front of them, then turn it face down on your desk. It’s boilerplate, a sterile document filled out from some form posted on a ‘how to interview for a job’ website. Besides you don’t care about their junior semester abroad which you know from your own kids meant getting drunk in Prague. Instead ask them about their accomplishments. You learn a lot more about a person when they tell you who they are and what excites them.
Look for candidates that got into your office the hard way: the military academies, the state universities, the scholarships, summers working on a fishing boat. Two weeks in Haiti putting up Habitat houses with their church group, then tennis camp at the club is not evidence the candidate will stay until midnight to finish a project.
You want to fuel the business with high energy people. Smart people like to show off what they can accomplish. They love challenges, and if you don’t want them to quit you need to recognize their achievements.
Always hire vets over anyone else equally qualified.
Everyone has prejudices in one form or another; leave yours at the front door.Being prejudiced is being stupid. You don’t care anything about anybody except that they will be a positive addition to your company in their attitude, demeanor, intelligence and character.
Hire women every chance you have for any position they are qualified for either by experience or intelligence. Use the power of your office to protect women by promoting according to ability and treating them as you would treat a man. Make it obvious. Every firm has a few knuckle draggers who liked it better in the old days.
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