<aside> <img src="/icons/token_blue.svg" alt="/icons/token_blue.svg" width="40px" /> **You’re looking for…**a systematic approach to determine exactly what level of hire your organization truly needs right now to solve both immediate challenges and support future growth.
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TL;DR: You know that feeling when someone just gets your organization? When they light up at exactly the things that make your culture unique? That's what we're talking about here - finding the humans who will truly thrive in your environment. Here's a practical guide to identifying and attracting people who will succeed in your unique context, drawn from real experiences in different organizational cultures.
What's in it for you (WIIFY):
Before you can find the right humans for your organization, you need to get really honest about your culture. Not the culture you wish you had or the one written in your values statement - the real, day-to-day experience of your team.
Ask yourself:
Understanding what types of humans will thrive in an organization isn't about finding the exact right list of skills or experience - it's about being honest about your environment. A person who loves structure might feel lost in a scrappy startup, while an entrepreneurial spirit could feel stifled in a more established organization. As always, there’s no such thing as right or wrong - it’s just about matching your organizational culture with the types of humans who will flourish within it in this space and time!
Let me share some real examples:
After some painful misses (and a few lucky hits) with bringing on team members at Think of Us, we realized something crucial about the kind of people who actually succeeded there:
We didn't need: