Lesson: Team & Culture with Dave Kashen

Step: #9 Values Hiring: Hire people who have values aligned with the company being building and the market being addressed

You contribute to the conditions where a certain culture emerges, largely through your role modeling because as the founder or CEO, you're the central figure that people look to for what is appropriate behavior. I think there's one way to describe culture, which is sort of how people behave when no one is watching. I think that's a useful way to think about it.

So it's interesting to think about what dictates that. So one is the person's own values and proclivities. So that's where hiring is really important, because if you're thoughtful and intentional about hiring people who already have the right values and tendencies, and when I say “right”, I mean aligned with the company you're trying to build, given the market that you're in, that’s kind of 70% of the battle. So is that leadership? Is that hiring? I mean, certainly they're related, but building a process where you end up hiring the right people who have the values is a big part of winning and creating that alignment and great culture.

So that's an area where it's a little different. You could be a certain kind of leader that exactly embodies the values that you want, but if you hire a bunch of people for whom those are just not their values, it's going to be really hard to create that kind of culture. In fact, the culture might end up creating you, and you'll have to shift your behavior. That happens. So I think they're distinct but highly related.