I have started this post several times over the past few years. Some of the hardest decisions I’ve faced as a manager have been directly related to the structure of my team(s). These are the people that you support, work with, collaborate with, and will survive crunch time with. Having the right mix of skillsets is equally important to having the right mix of personalities.

ON HIRING

Fear of hiring the wrong person can lead to analysis paralysis. Having worked in a number of companies, I’ve experienced strong team cultures, teams that ‘show up, do work, go home’ and teams that are stressed out to the point of being hostile.

Building a team with a strong culture is an artform and I have no idea how I managed it. There are people that specialize in creating slide decks about team and company culture, defining values, etc…which results in lot of fancy words that have a vague relationship to what your job actually is. Maybe I’ll make a future post where I focus on a catchy phrase such as ‘innovate, communicate, and support.’

The things I look for when considering a candidate:

  • Can you learn? STEM fields are constantly evolving and you either embrace learning or fall behind. However, this can be extremely hard to get a feel for in a limited time. I find it helpful to have a screening or follow up interview that is a ‘more natural’ conversation that is allowed to go off on tangents.

  • Do you have the correct skillset. Or more importantly, do you have a strong background that can adapt to the required skillset and future challenges.

  • Can you communicate while solving a problem? I don’t care as much about solving the problem the ‘right way’ and rather can you communicate in a way that gives me confidence you will be able to create a logical approach to understand an issue, identify potential solutions, and collaborate with others.

  • Take a vote. Everyone on the team involved in interviewing gets to cast a vote (yes, no, or maybe) as to whether or not to hire the candidate. If there is a strong no, we move on to other candidate. If there is a maybe, we discuss what the concerns are and if what others observed may address the concern. If everyone is a yes, we immediately extend an offer.

ON FIRING

Letting someone go, even for the ‘right reason’, is an extremely difficult and often emotional process. Even more difficult is letting someone go for reasons outside of your control.

  • Have a script. Work with your upper management, HR, or the legal department to draft how you will present the decision.

  • Keep it short. Delivering the news is difficult. Receiving the news is difficult. Drawing it out is unnecesarily painfull.

  • Give them time. They will need to process the news, review any materials, and formulate any questions.

  • Be available.

Afterwards, determine how you will present the decision to others on the team and be prepared for questions. Every scenario will have ‘common questions’ that you can prepare for, e.g. responding to questions about a performance based vs financial based removal.

Know the policy on providing references, many companies will only verify dates of employment and the role for former employees to limit liability.