Apply now to join Glue Club, the home base where the strongest startup leaders in the world come together to find sanity, opportunity, and growth amidst the chaos of building a company. I pour all my mentorship and coaching energy in to Glue Club, in case you’re looking for something more than a blog post… Head over here to learn more.
In December, my friend Don Faul came and talked at our first in-person event for the Glue Club (side note: it was so fun!) If you don't know who Don is, let me just tell you that everyone in the world who knows Don wants to work for him. He's widely regarded among the people who know him as one of the best managers in the world. And every time you talk to Don, or hear him talk, it makes you want to spend more time with him. Don is currently the CEO of CrossFit but he's been the CEO and head of operations at multiple companies before that. I met Don when we were both at Facebook and he was running operations (think: user support, developer support, advertiser support, etc, for millions or billions). At Facebook, he was universally recognized as (again) one of the company's best managers (if not the best).
Anyway, now you know that you should try to go work for Don Faul. But this post is because he said something during his talk that I’ve been thinking a lot about. It's something I believe but, as is always true of me and Don, he said it much more elegantly than I ever could. We were talking about why some roles don't work out — why people get fired or quit quickly or whatever — and Don said, “At some point in your career — when you know what you're exceptional at — if things don't work out, it's not about you, it's about fit.”
[I have to admit, I'm writing this post for those of you that are mid-career, self-aware, and have been successful in your previous roles. If you have a pattern of being fired or making enemies in your roles or whatever, then maybe it's not about fit. I'm writing this for those of you who got fired for the first time when you were in a C-level role. Or who just took a job and have a sinking feeling that you made a mistake but are scared of what other people will think.]
It's not about you, it's about fit.
I recently wrote about this a bit in my post about Joy: the idea that finding a role has two sides to the equation — the jobs you want and the jobs that want you. Fit is about where (and whether) those two sides meet.
Often when we’re searching for a job or being recruited for a job, we’re too focused on the company side — Do they want me? Can I pretzel myself into the space they’ve created for this role?
But the most important questions are where the two sides come together, particularly as you get more senior. Here are three questions I often ask when I or one of my friends are considering a role:
1) Are they hiring YOU?
2) Is what they want what you are great at?
3) Does what they need match up with what you want to do?
All of these questions are about looking for where the two sides meet. Do they really understand what you are spectacular at — your unique, extraordinary strengths — and are those strengths aligned with what their business and their company need? Do they show awareness of that overlap?
I’ve always been amazed at how long I can talk to a company and how much they can NOT KNOW about me. Often, companies talk entirely about what they need and not about YOU. They leave it up to you to figure out whether you’re a fit for what they need. It’s terrible recruiting, and it honestly drives me crazy.
The best executive recruiting in the world starts with you — what you are great at and what you want — and maps that to what the company is looking for.
I sometimes get asked about my interview style or questions. I started crafting an interview style at Facebook that was based on the strengths-based philosophy — trying to figure out what people were great at and how it mapped to what we needed. Over time, it has evolved into what I would call a motivation interview. What I look for, truly, is the intersection in the two sides of the equation: does what we NEED match what this person WANTS to do? As I said, most companies and most interviews focus more on the question: can this person do what we need? But if you’re trying to recruit the best talent in the world, it needs to start with them. Who are they? What do they love doing? What are their ambitions? How does their past shape what they want for their future? What are they insecure about? What do they want to prove? My interview style is really about mapping that. [Side note: I have multiple very good friends that I have met by interviewing them. My style is about deeply understanding the person and getting to know them and then deciding if they are a fit for us. Often, even if it’s not a fit, we end up as friends because of the conversation we have :)]
Once I understand who they are and what motivates them, my job is to overlay that with our needs as a company — how does what they want match up to what we think we need?
Two other exercises that I encourage my friends and Glue People to do when they’re considering a job also help get at the question of fit.
The first exercise is to define the worst-case scenario. Often when we’re interviewing for a job, our brains want to be optimistic: the company is a rocket ship, all the people are collaborative, and the CEO is a great boss. Usually, we’re taking the job for a couple of reasons, some of which are optimistic: the company is a rocket ship, it will go public in 2 years, I'm going to get to learn XYZ, I will extend outside my comfort zone in the following ways, I love the CEO, etc. In my mind, the best jobs can be great jobs even when a couple of those things turn out to not be true, so I always ask “What's the worst-case scenario if you take this job?” This question is often equivalent to “Would you be excited about this job and still motivated to do it if the company isn't as successful as you think it will be? What if it fails?” In the best jobs, the worst-case scenario isn't that bad, e.g., “Even if the company isn't as successful as I hope it will be, I still get to learn XYZ and push myself in the following ways and I still get to work with and learn from the CEO.” Always ask yourself what the worst-case scenario is before you take a job; don't take a job if you're only excited in the best-case scenario. (This is similar to my point in the Joy post about the difference between being excited to DO a job and being excited to HAVE HAD a job. “Are you excited about the day?” is a good way to get at this as well.)
This exercise is also helpful when you’re on the company side. There is nothing worse than hiring “fair weather employees” — people that are only there BECAUSE it’s a supposed rocket ship. You need people who are motivated in the darkest of times and who have reasons to be there that are real regardless of extrinsic factors. Mark Zuckerberg used to say “I’d rather be underestimated than overestimated” and part of that is because when you’re overestimated there’s nowhere to go but down but you also REALLY find out who your friends (broadest possible definition) are when times are tough — when your stock is down, when the press is shitting all over you, etc. When you’re hiring, you want to know that the person will be motivated and excited by the substance of their role regardless of what else is going on.
The second exercise is to try to determine the most likely reason you are going to quit or get fired. Taking a job is just a series of bets. You’re betting that what the company has said about the role is how it will be once you get there. You’re betting that your boss will be a good person to work for. You’re betting that you’ll be able to be your best self at work. And lots of other bets that are specific to you and whatever job you’re considering. When you get more senior, you can usually start to guess which one of those bets is the riskiest based on the interview process. And it’s important to take a moment and ask yourself, “Which is the bet that is most likely to fail?” or said differently, what do you think is going to be the reason you eventually quit?
I like to do this exercise for the same reason as the “worst case scenario” exercise. Often, when we’re interviewing or being pursued for a role, it’s exciting and enchanting and a lot like being in the honeymoon phase of dating. It’s easy to get caught up in optimism and excitement. But as anyone who is married will tell you, the question of fit comes down to how things go when times get tough. The same is true of jobs. So it’s important to take time before you say yes to ask yourself whether you still want this role if some of your bets fail or the company starts to struggle, etc. Fundamentally, it is essential to know what’s in it for you regardless of what happens to the company — THAT is your North Star through any storm.
It’s also important to recognize that in any long career, you will be wrong sometimes. You will make bad bets. The more senior you get, generally, the riskier the bets are. In theory, you get better at evaluating fit as you get further along, but the bets also get bigger. I don’t know anyone who has made it through a 20-year career without feeling like at least one of their bets was terrible. The most important thing to realize is that, if you’re lucky, your career is long. No one job will define you. Just because something didn’t work out doesn’t mean you are not exceptional. Remember: “At some point in your career — when you know what you're exceptional at — if things don't work out, it's not about you, it's about fit.”