Pancake series: đ„ Hiring A-Players by utilising a value-driven approach
After intense training for my first cycling race, LâEtape by Tour de France, in Denmark and attending an amazing conference for People Leaders in California, I eagerly returned to Prague to reconnect with my friends. Milan Huzvar and I decided to meet for brunch, where we savored delicious pancakes and cappuccinos. Interestingly enough, I typically do a training method called âFat maxâ early in the morning on empty stomach, allowing me to fully enjoy and indulge as much food as I desire afterwards đ. Milan and I caught up on various topics including our experience in the startup world, hiring practices, and our shared passions for sports. Milan, who has moved countries, has recently joined Surfer, a MarkTech scaleup as a CFO and is building his team. So obviously this discussion quickly zoomed in on hiring âA Playersâ.
A-Player illusion
The concept of âA Playersâ has been a common buzzword. Everyone strives to attract the most exceptional candidates, but the true definition of an âA playerâ often eludes us. Moreover, statistically, itâs impossible for everyone to have them. đ€ When we talk to hiring managers, recruiters, or founders about what theyâre looking for in a role, they always come up with something super generic. Not many really know what an âA playerâ means when you start digging into that. They all are eager to attract all these outstanding candidates, but besides not even being able to name what it means, itâs very possible that their hiring process might not match up to that level of excellence either.
How to spot one
So, letâs ask ourselves the question of the day⊠Are you confident in your ability to recognize that someone whoâs considered an A player at Company X (Meta, Google, Spotify) might only be a B player at Company Y (Trezor, Productboard, scrappy unrevealed startup)? And more importantly how do you even screen for it?
Hereâs the case that everyone here is super familiar with for sure: You are hiring a head of accounting for a data tooling company. In our quest to find a suitable candidate for this position, there is a very familiar challenge of aligning the perspectives of all these various stakeholders: The recruiter, the hiring manager, CEO and in this particular case also an interviewer from the finance team, often a peer like a financial controller.
đ”đ»ââïž The recruiter perspective: âWe need a hands-on person who is a hustler. Someone who is always ready to roll up their sleeves.â
đ€ The hiring managerâs perspective: âWe need a senior leader who will grow into this role within a year, possesses a more generalist skill set, capable of overseeing various aspects of accounting within the company.â
đŹ The interviewer (peer)âs perspective: âThey have in-depth knowledge of local accounting laws and are effective in communicating with local offices.â
đč The CEOâs perspective: âWe need an absolute star. A player. Ideally from Stripe or Meta. Or B2B SaaS. Ideally exposure to data science.â
It becomes even more complicated when you are hiring for a managerial position. You look for pattern-matching that may not apply to your situation. Or, frequently, a candidate with a brand name may not have that deep understanding of the subject since he/she just joined a great company with a strong market pull, and was able to succeed without a lot of effort. A sales leader at one of Milanâs past companies was prioritising executives from companies with less successful products, since they must have been really good to hit their numbers.
Instead of focusing purely on observable facts, such as company brands or positions held, companies are moving towards âvalue driven criteriaâ to find an âA playerâ for a particular role in a particular context. Milan uses three key value driven criteria to align with the hiring committee in his company to identify the right candidates for his team.
3 key value driven criteria for hiring into your team
1. Hiring for an extra brain, not an extra hand
Can you bring something extra? In general, you bring diversity of thought to the team and are an interesting person to work with. We will spend a large part of our days together. We may as well enjoy it.đ As a specialist, you should ideally be better in your functional area than me. âI want an extra brain, not an extra hand.â It does not really help me if I have to do all the thinking and then you just execute. Well, then maybe I can do it faster myself.
From a vertical perspective, I need to learn something new, and you need to bring something new to the table. There are two elements to this. One is the team skillset, since you are building a team, and how does this person contribute to âcollective intelligenceâ. Second part of the contribution is within a vertical. This is often tested by asking to solve a real life problem and then compare it with your existing approach. I was recently hiring for a managerial accounting position. The pool of great candidates with strong SaaS knowledge and international experience is limited and as a smaller company you are competing with the established companies and star brands.
Also, as an innovative company you will only find a person who has done something close, but not the same. In any way there would be a gap. After interviewing the finalists weâve had a âsplit decisionâ in the hiring team. I was preferring a more generalist candidate and the other members rather someone who has strong hands on experience, i.e. more technical knowledge. My reasoning was around values, team contribution, excellence and growth potential. Since neither of them was a perfect candidate and we would need to work together to get to âhow good looks likeâ, Iâve felt that a generalist might also be more intellectually flexible in this case and not set in her ways. She was also stronger on the second and third criteria.
2. Hiring for excellence
You have demonstrated excellence in the past, whether itâs in work, sports, or leisure activities. Ideally, you know âhow good looks likeâ in your field. This is not necessarily about being a hardworking high achiever, nor solely about ambition or competitiveness. It is about the ability to sustain effort over time and think deeply about a problem to find ways to improve it. The 80/20 rule or settling for âgood enoughâ can only take you so far, but without âexcellenceâ, you will never build a great product or company.
For example, if I wanted to start riding a bike, I could easily start pedalling and ride. Easy peasy. đ However, to truly perform to my potential, I needed to delve into the technical aspects of cycling and I realized that it is a challenging & complicated sport. đ€Ż I needed to start learning about power based training and zones, heart rate zones, oxygen intake, downhill techniques, and more. It becomes a complete discipline that requires continuous learning, watt counting, training volume and intensity, nutrition considerations, seeking inspiration and coaching from experts, and ultimately increasing the chances of improvement.
3. Hiring for growth potential
Growth potential is also essential. Can you scale yourself? This is crucial in innovating companies, since again, the company changes as it grows and may have a completely different business model than in the past or any other company in the field. Are you curious and do you possess the mental and intellectual capacity to continue learning, solving problems, and growing as a person within the company? Itâs about maintaining constant curiosity. Strong intelligence typically helps, but it can be a hindrance if someone has an âI know it allâ mentality. You can see the interests listed on the CV, but always ask!
I had a great candidate who had an interesting hobby, but when I asked about it, she had actually downplayed it, and immediately lost credibility and my interest. To assess curiosity, you can ask questions about learning outside your JD, time abroad or travelling or how deeply they have explored their hobbies. As a follow-up, you can check if they have good self-awareness and have reflected on their experience by asking if any of their learnings from cycling or football, or martial arts, or wherever their interests may be, could be applied to their work.
These qualities do not necessarily have to be work-related. In emerging companies, where something new is being created, pattern matching has its limits, but personal qualities tend to remain consistent over time.
How to think about A-players
When thinking about A-players, it is better to think about who can be successful in our organisation. In football, I have observed top players who have struggled under one coach, but then became indispensable under another one, or a different team. It has amazed me. Lobotka, from the Italian champion Napoli comes to mind. Sitting on the bench under Gatusso, and then a crucial player under Spalletti. Or Odegaard at Real Madrid, sidelined, and now an Arsenal captain. Or two absolute superstars released earlier by Chelsea, Kevin De Bruyne and Mo Salah, who are now shining at Manchester City or Liverpool respectively. Similarly, you have to have the player at the right position where the person can be at his/her best. We all know the individual contributor vs manager dilemma. This does not mean to compromise on your criteria, but hire a player that will excel at a position and a style of play a team has. It has to fit the way you want to run your team, your company, its maturity, on-site or remote, and maybe also local context.
Your key takeaway
Transitioning from hiring âA Playersâ by typical tellsigns to embracing a value-driven approach requires a shift in mindset and a reevaluation of hiring processes. By focusing on criteria such as bringing something extra, demonstrating excellence and growth potential, companies can attract and retain exceptional talent, âA Playersâ in your context, that aligns with their values and drives long-term success. We want to move away from generic hiring practices and embrace a paradigm that places value at the forefront.
