Chapter 1: Leadership Begins with Mastering the Art of Hiring

"The best leaders are those who understand that their first role in management is not to be the chief, but rather the chief recruiter."

This wisdom invites us to confront a hard truth: the essence of your number one challenge —"People"—inevitably circles back to you,? the hiring manager. Effective leaders need to excel first as recruiters. Drawing on two decades of experience with giants like Uber and Nubank, and now supporting many startups to scale, we've pinpointed three critical hiring leaders pitfalls:

1. Failing to Embrace Radical Responsibility in Hiring?

True leadership in recruitment is a hard journey, recognizing that every ripple in the recruitment process starts and ends with you as the hiring manager. It's about wholeheartedly owning the process and its outcomes, embodying a commitment that transcends mere participation. If you're leaning too much on a recruiter - you're doing it the wrong way.?

2. Underinvesting Time for Hiring

The currency of successful recruitment is time—invested in deeply understanding the roles, engaging with other leaders and candidates,? sculpting a hiring strategy that's as meticulous as it is heartfelt. Anything less, at best you're not thinking long-term and at worst you will face the headaches of mismatched connections.

3. Neglecting Proven Best Hiring Practices

?In a society that celebrates quick wins and dopamine hits, the bedrock of traditional hiring wisdom—clear job descriptions, structured interviews, objective assessments, thoughtful diversity strategies, reference checks, among many others we will uncover in our method— are our guiding stars. These practices are not just HR buzzwords or waste of time; they are the canvas upon which you paint our teams' future.

If you're in the Hiring Manager seat, shaping an exceptional team is your mission. It all rests on your shoulders, period.? When a team member falls short, it's a reflection of your leadership. Struggling with a recruiter who misses the mark? That too falls under your purview. Encountering less-than-ideal candidates, a lack of diversity, unaligned interviewers, sluggish processes, lost offers, or an uncompetitive salary range? These are not mere occurrences; they're signals, pointing right back at you.

But let's shift the lens here. This discourse isn't about attributing fault; it's about recognizing the immense influence you can wield. The top hiring managers possess an innate ability to bring in stellar referrals and re-hire top performers they worked with in the past, they design descriptions that speak to the souls of top talent, they call experts to help, they craft challenging yet inclusive processes that shows that the bar is high and they run reference checks. Yeah, you heard it right, they actually call people - what a strange thing to hear those days…? Their real magic lies not just in their hiring acumen but in their capacity to elevate everyone in their team, they do so by caring about hiring and cultivating a network of top folks in their fields, even when they are not hiring.

When faced with challenges, exceptional leaders see opportunities for innovation rather than impediments. Struggling to spot the perfect candidate? It's time to leverage your and other experts networks or reimagine the role to broaden its appeal. Confronted with financial limitations? Here's your moment to think outside the box, offering unique non-financial benefits or growth opportunities. And do you have a recruiter off track? Invest your time to guide them—transformational results often follow genuine effort.

Being a proactive manager means taking ownership of the entire hiring journey, from the initial decision to hire to the celebratory moments when your new hire thrives in the role. It's about cultivating not just any team, but a team that makes people think: "That's where I belong",? "This is where I grow and make a difference" and "I trust and will follow this manager"

To navigate away from these common pitfalls requires a proactive stance, not a reactive one. It demands a holistic engagement with the recruitment process, embracing every challenge as a chance to demonstrate leadership, to take radical responsibility. Your goal is to not only assemble a team but to forge a collective that inspires, innovates, and impresses.

Now that you've embraced the principles of "Cultivating ownership, investing time, and following proven paths", these insights form the cornerstone of our Ahead Method for Hiring. We positioned intentionally as one of our opening chapters, as the foundation of great companies is built on exceptional hires and visionary leaders who prioritize hiring appropriately.? By starting here, we aim to transform hiring managers into strategic leaders, equipped to navigate the competitive talent landscape successfully.?

Let's continue diving in. Every Wednesday we will share more hiring wisdom from before you even open a role to when a hire starts to outperform in their roles. We'll explore the nuances that transform good hiring practices into great ones.