May 15, 2020

Jackie Ross
May 18, 2020
2 min read

Hey Gang,

The tide is shifting! A number of companies have hired senior executives without meeting in person (data to come next week when I reveal our survey results). This recruiting environment reminds me of online dating. Back in the early 2000s, couples concocted stories about how they met because saying, “Match Dot Com” was taboo. “I can’t tell my grandmother that we met online!” These days, our grandmothers are meeting people online. These days, people prefer online dating to lurking around bars and the frozen food section at Safeway. From the comfort of your couch, you can filter through lots of data and generate a long list of seemingly qualified matches. So efficient! And with such minimal effort!

Yeeeaaaaah… No. As a recovering online dater myself, I can tell you it's an exhausting process. So many bad leads. So many, “looked good on paper…” situations. So many 10-year-old photos, imaginative ways of couching circumstances (“I know it says I’m 45 and single, but…”), and buried psychological conditions. There’s just zero quality control. On the flip side, I put a premium on people I met “in the wild.” If someone was in my orbit, it seemed more likely we’d have things in common. If we were introduced through a mutual connection, even better. “He can’t be a nutjob if he’s friends with Andy.” Oh… but he can!

Point being, right now, we only have online relationships. And we worry, what if this person isn’t really who she appears to be? What if he behaves differently in person? What if she doesn’t pass the “airport test”. All fair questions, which is why more rigorous diligence and inputs are critical. But maybe this is a really good thing. Maybe we took too many shortcuts in the past. Maybe hiring someone because the VC said she’s good wasn’t the best idea. Maybe the guy who “showed well” in interviews proved to be more sizzle than steak.

There’s no question that nonverbal communication is a thing. Chemistry is a thing. We need new ways of assessing that right now. But I propose that this new level of rigor in our recruiting decisions needs to stick around long after the virus disappears. I bet companies are making even better hires as a result.

News & Resources

HBR: How to Find and Practice Courage
Virginia Restaurant To Fill Empty Seats With Mannequins Under COVID-19 Restrictions – “I’ve always had a thing for mannequins ― they never complain about anything and you can have lots of fun dressing them up…”
Escaped Goats in San Jose Live Out Our Shelter-in-Place Fantasies – it wouldn’t be Vital Signs without a farm animal article

Food Fight – send me yours!

Today’s winner is Toby Schilke, CFO at Revance Therapeutics! Toby, I’m curious about your wine pairing on this one. Feels like a lifetime ago that you introduced me to Migration.

Chef’s simple comments: Roast Chicken and a rhubarb dessert.