Mediocre people kill high-performing teams

a story + few macro principles I've developed over the years

Today at a glance:

• A story on why recruiting & feedback systems matter

• 10 recruiting macro principles = a set of beliefs I’ve developed from applying for jobs and from building teams

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Looking at my notes from 3 failed startups, Minecraft, and Streamlabs - there are pages of lessons, hyper-specific dos and don’t, systems etc. I’d love to share it all, but there is 0% chance anyone is reading a novel on email. Current thinking is I break this out into several parts (like poker). If there is interest on this topic - can move faster on finishing this section.

Before we get into it, let me share a story. I’ll obfuscate a few things, but the crux of the story is real. And I bet you’ve had similar experiences.

We decided we need a non-engineering hire for role X. I unilaterally wrote a JD, did a few screens, put the strongest 2 people from the batch in front of 2 other teammates, and made the final call on Blake¹ - our new teammate.

Blake said all the right things on Zoom. We needed help. Plus, if we get it wrong (mistakes happen = hiring is hard) - we can give feedback, hold high bar, and figure it out. Let’s go!

Blake joined the team and was high energy. He attended the few meetings we had, was active in team chat, and dug into onboarding materials. He seemed engaged, but results were not there YET. Team lead gave feedback. Lot’s of nods and “we are on same page” during the feedback call. Initial project is now delivered, but late and weak effort for someone 100% dedicated to this.

Blake stays active on most non-work things (i.e. company trip, catering) and brings energy to stand-ups/zoom calls. Teammates like him. He will have a hot take (good), talk with enthusiam about his workload for the week, and celebrate his work. Results continue to be mediocre. Not egregious, but far from A+.

Blake is also active in slack. Sometimes he would start a thread celebrating the work of his immediate team and sometimes he would write a thoughtful reply to a thread started by another teammate. This made everyone feel good. His points are often truisms with no practical solutions -“would be good if we did XYZ” or “we have this problem” or “users want XYZ and we serve the user” . Execution on the project he owns remains weak. There is zero follow-through on his slack ideas or Zoom enthusiasm. Hard zero.

People on his strike team are not growing.

Blake would sometimes blame other factors for not getting results: (1) not enough support within team, (2) outright blocked by someone on team, (3) blocked by outside/ecosystem factors - the world is hard. None of this was false - building is hard and that is why we are here. When Blake is blocked - he doesn’t help other teams or take on new tasks. He just waits or pontificates.

So Blake was given help. His team got headcount from another project and we hired someone via his referral. Everyone loves referrals! Nice guy who also said all the right things on Zoom and nailed our values. Team felt like he’d be a culture fit that could help on a # of projects (i.e. easy hedge if Blake’s project doesn’t need long-term help).

Punchline:

• Blake was a mediocre teammate. His work was 6/10 at best and he dragged others down. Existing teammates working with Blake didn’t grow. Projects took too long and missed quality mark.

• BUT Blake was pleasant, especially on Zoom and in slack. He said the right things, formed relationships, and did public grandstanding with truisms that boosted his image.

• I believe we suffered.

• I sometimes think about every mediocre teammate I’ve hired and retained. How much potential I’ve wasted. How much further could we’ve gotten if we had a 10/10 teammate instead. I am not exaggerating - this haunts me when my mind wonders.

So what?

• I ran a bad recruiting process. More on how we fixed in future posts, but I fucked it up at the source. And then the feedback machine failed.

• Mediocre people kill high-performing teams. Truly weak people you can spot and handle. Mediocre people will float. They will have enough redeeming qualities, but they will not be exceptional. They will often be pleasant and will be strong communicators.

• BUT they will not break through a concrete wall to make their product/team successful. New ideas are fragile and need relentless energy. New ideas need exceptional people, not mediocre people.

• Mediocre people bring others down. People on their immediate teams may stop growing and/or adopt their ways. We are all imitation machines. They may recruit other mediocre people. You now have more than a single project team lagging, but the culture of the entire team at risk.

• As the team grows, mediocre talent is harder to let go. And if you are a public company with a formal PIP processes - letting go of a Blake might be impossible. You can extrapolate what happens to culture/results over a long-enough time horizon.

Recruiting macro principles:

Below are some of the principles that I’ve developed over the years on the recruiting process. Specific actions in future posts are rooted in these principles. Different actions will work for different teams, but I believe that these principles are the foundation.

1. Recruiting is searching for great people to join you on your mission, including searching for people who are not actively looking. Hiring can be construed as getting anyone in the door. You don’t hire a teammate to deliver on your mission. You recruit a teammate. It’s a subtle mindset shift, but subtle things matter when it comes to the #1 thing. This shift also implies that we are searching (pull) for people, rather than relying 100% on who applied (push).

2. Recruiting is everyone’s responsibility and a P0 task, but above all - it is a leadership responsibility. If something is not going well, if the role is hard to fill, if a team is having trouble - you need to jump in and do whatever it takes to get this on rails. Whatever it takes ranges from clarity (if something is unclear - its on you) to grunt work to finding new ways to source to upgrading the process. Whatever the team needs. At best you will lead by example and others will work harder and at worst you will power through, help the hiring manager feel less lonely, and get it done. Specific examples: (1) cold-outreach to ~500 people/week for a hard to fill role, (2) playing admin for dozens of roles so that devs/hiring leads can focus on higher-level work, or (3) sourcing new recruiters/platforms until we get a big enough top of the funnel for the role.

   

   red were tasks/ calls for hard to fill role / not my favorite, but had to be done

3. Recruiting is an irreversible decision. Investment in people is significant by design. People > product > profit. People are the greatest input in culture. And so we must treat recruiting as P0 task. Do not settle. Optimize for false negatives. Think deeply and iterate on the process. 

4. Empathy: important to treat candidates with max empathy. Prompt responses! Let’s be respectful of people’s time. Thoughtful and kind responses for next steps and for rejections (iterate on response templates). Regardless of the outcome - interacting with us should be a bright spot in everyone's day. Recruiting is a difficult process for candidates. Some companies are callous. Let’s give candidates a warm experience!

   • Winter of 2020 I was trying to find an engineer to help one of our seed projects. It was a specialist role, but at that point everything was dialed in. Had the principles, the right process, and a strong pipeline. It was a matter of time. 3 weeks in I had nobody at final round stage, but was confident we’ll find someone. Then one day I get an email from a candidate asking for an update on his take-home. We reviewed his assignment with 3 independent reviewers 2 weeks ago and my custom rejection note sat in drafts. My chest tightened and I felt immediate dread. Years of being ghosted by recruiters and waiting on hiring managers to get back to me bubbled up. I sent the note, did a 1v1 call with the candidate to apologize, and adjusted my admin process.

   • What’s the point of this story? Think the point is that the impetus for empathy and fast turnaround shouldn’t be bad Glassdoor reviews. It should be rooted in being kind to others. And everyone who is involved in recruiting should feel a personal sense of responsibility over how the candidates feel and how we come off as a company. It should be the same feeling you have over shipping a buggy product or writing sloppy copy.

5. Ensure that everyone involved in recruiting is aligned: (1) understands the importance of recruiting/the why/the how (your process) and (2) understands your principles - how you are thinking about it. As the team grows, treat recruiting the same way you treat company strategy/values/operating principles and repeat/clarify a lot. It may seem redundant to you, but it is imperative that everyone is on the same page.

6. Treat recruiting like a strike team/work project.  There should be structure, intensity, clarity. There should be owners, stand-ups and/or public accountability. If any role is treading water after 1-2 weeks - take action. Any action will do as long as you are not letting it stall for weeks on end. In plain english, do at least 1 thing differently if you feel like you are stuck. Most common issues are: (1) weak pipeline, (2) not prioritizing applicants.

7. Take an iterative approach to recruiting - same as with culture or product. It’s healthy to upgrade. It’s healthy to re-evaluate principles, take home assignments, questions you ask in the final round etc. In practice what does this mean? Iterating on how we hire, where we source from, how we send a cold outreach to candidates for XYZ role, how we reject candidates with max empathy at ABCD stage, what the JDs are (be deliberate with word choice to be inclusive), what the assignments are and why. Everything matters. 

8. Be mindful of biases and take action to combat them. There are many biases and we are all susceptible. Some of the main ones to watch out for are: (1) confirmation/anchoring - we are quick to judge, (2) similarity - we like those who are like us, (3) conformity - we want to be likable and we conform to group peer pressure (ex. final panel voting).

9. Do retros, think independently and try to learn from each experience. Great hire? Let’s quickly review how we sourced this person and/or how the final panel went and 2x down on this. Someone is not a fit? Happens. Sit down and figure out what we can learn for next time. Was there any signal that was glossed over during final round that we can now connect to performance? Maybe we could have given feedback faster? Didn’t close a strong candidate? Why?

10. Who to look for: Look for intellectual curiosity, ownership, positive attitude, strong communication (esp. written). Avoid brilliant jerks. Do they have a good heart/attitude? Skill can be developed, but it is near impossible to change attitude. Do you want them on your team? If they started tomorrow and they were on your immediate strike team - are you thrilled to work shoulder to shoulder with them?

There is a lot of nuisance, but these are some of the things I believe in when it comes to recruiting. If you think this is nonsense and I am lost - let me know. If there is something you believe in - please share. I’d love to learn from you.

More to come on specific actions → how to setup up a recruiting process, where to source ranked by ROI, what actions didn’t work for, how to close candidates and more.

1. Apologies to all the Blakes reading this. No bad intent <3. Just tried to pick a name that I’ve never worked with