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I don’t interview anyone anymore. First, I hate doing interviews on video conferences (bad for body language). I also hate interviews sitting in a room across from someone (just plain awkward). I learned this from a Managing Partner at Sequoia Capital who I was lucky enough to have as a mentor starting early in my career. 

He said, “Always interview people outside the office, in a different setting. People can’t be rehearsed when they’re rigging a hook.” 

His preferred method is to take people fishing. In fact he and I met that way and he wrote me a check with a handshake on the way back from the boat ramp. It was the first time we met, we went fishing. 

Formal interview settings get rehearsed answers. When you’re in a different setting, ask questions like: "Walk me through the most significant professional failure you've had."

Then stay quiet. Let them fill the silence while you’re walking, biking, fishing, whatever you’re doing. 

A-players own it. They explain what went wrong, what they learned, and how they've applied those lessons. They don't blame others or make excuses.

B and C players? They either minimize it or point fingers at everyone but themselves.

Don't ask generic questions. Create scenarios that force them to reveal how they actually think and behave under pressure. Challenge their answers and see how they react. A-players get more specific. B-players get defensive or vague.

A casual lunch is fine for seeing how they treat waitstaff, but go karting is way better for understanding how they act under competitive pressure. 

In a conference room, the brain is in performance mode following the script they think will get them the job. On a boat or a track or a walk, the brain shifts into human mode. The mask slips. You stop seeing the candidate and start seeing the person beneath.

Hiring isn’t the end of the process, it’s the starting line since selection is an ongoing process. People have bad days, but the position doesn’t belong to you because you were selected, it means you have a chance to earn your role anew each day. 

My biggest lesson from years working with US Military Special Operations Community: 

Hiring/selection isn't about credentials. It's about survival. 

Navy SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers and other Special Ops Units’ Operators stake their lives on who makes it through selection. One wrong person on the team and people can die.

Your business might not face life-or-death decisions, but the principle is the same. One A-player can transform your operation. One B-player can sink it.

We all know A-players hire A-players. Here's how that actually plays out in selection.

A-players are secure enough in their abilities to hire people smarter than them. They want to be challenged. They want to grow. They understand those people don’t make them look worse by being as good or better than they are, they make them look like rockstars for hiring rockstars.

B-players? They're threatened by talent. So they hire people they can never surpass them. And just like that, your organization starts its slow decline. 

You aren't filtering for intelligence but for the suppression of ego. This is why Special Operations maintains such brutal standards. They know one compromise causes a cascade of mediocrity.

When Special Operations assess candidates, they're not looking just at resumes. They're testing psychological profiles; they're looking at what happens under stress, and what happens when no one is looking.

I won’t hire anyone without all of these traits that separate candidates who transform operations from those who just fill seats. I've been at a 90%+ success rate since I began screening with them over a decade ago. They’re the reason my second exit was a staffing company. 

We all know what sounds like an A Player. They need a Bias Towards Action with a reasoned Risk Tolerance. Mission-Driven  Self Teaching Problem Solvers sound great. And most of them have the Honesty. Integrity, Tenacity, and Grit that are the bare minimum for a Customer Obsessed team player.

But that’s really the table stakes. Those are what a B or B+ looks like. A Players have a deeper level of self improvement.

These 4 just don’t come up in an interview or single discussion, they are habits that require demonstration over time.

If you're not confident a candidate will elevate your entire team's performance, don't hire them.

An empty seat is better than a B-player. An empty seat doesn't create work, doesn't drain your A-players' energy, and doesn't lower your standards. An empty seat forces your A-players to step up temporarily. A B-player forces them to step down permanently.

The moment you compromise on a hire because you "need someone," you've started the slide. This especially happens in fast growing companies. You’ll hear, “We need bodies”. You don’t need bodies, you need excellence. 

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