"I think we made a hiring mistake!"

That’s what a founder told me last week after hiring a senior leader who just wasn’t ramping up.

He continued.

"I'm spending all my time with him and it's just not working."

Sadly, I see this a lot.

Leaders hire a senior executive who's great on paper. They have strong experience, impressive credentials, and the right resume for the role.

But once they start working, it all falls apart like a house of cards.

Instead of going downstream and talking about how to coach a bad hire, I want to take you upstream today.

I want to talk about how you can hire great talent.

I’ve been studying how the world’s best operators evaluate talent. Today, I’m sharing Sam Altman's (CEO of OpenAI) hiring framework.

By all accounts, Sam has cracked the hiring code. Some of his early hires are now running multi-billion-dollar companies.

Here's how he describes his framework on hiring A-players.

"Hire for values first, aptitude second, and skills third.”

On values

I see so many companies skip this criteria. They assume that the person they bring in will be a value-match. Here's how Sam sees it.

"If you’re trying to scale fast, values are most important. You really need someone who is aligned with the values of the company so that when things change or when they have to make a decision, they’ll make the one you would make if you can’t be there or they will be a good team player and go do that thing.”

On aptitude

If you're running a business where things are always changing, hiring for aptitude is what you need. Here's Sam:

“You need someone who has high aptitude because the role is going to constantly shift. And the rate of learning - the rate of improvement - dominates skills.”

I want you to pay attention to the last part of his quote "And the rate of learning...dominates skills."

This could not be more true in the age of AI. I'm amazed at how few corporate employees are leveraging AI.

On skills

Most leaders hire for skill but Sam ranks skill as his 3rd criteria.

"Specific skills and experience obviously matter, but for me its third on the list. The very best companies take this exceptionally far in how much they’re willing to hire a non-traditionally qualified executive.”

Some of the best employees I've hired had high IQ but they had another ingredient. They were hungry. I've always bet with High IQ + high hunger. This makes for a killer combination.

Now you know what to look for in your next hire: values, potential, and skills.

But that's half the battle.

Knowing what to actually ask in an interview to uncover those qualities is the other half.

I've done the work for you. I trained ChatGPT and Claude on Sam Altman's hiring philosophy. I asked it to give me actionable interview questions broken down by values, aptitude and skills.

After a little back and forth prompting, I think what I got back is pretty incredible.

Want the interview questions? Reply back and I'll send them your way!

Keep leading

Ali

PS: I’m opening 2 coaching spots for senior leaders and senior IC[s]. Past clients have landed exec roles, secured signifiant pay raises and built high-performing teams. Reply back if you want to talk.