I’ve written about the Right Person, Right Role, Right Stage model with hiring. Then how Right Person was a cascading gate model of Integrity, Ability, Standards and then Reliability. I’ve covered the Integrity gate, then the Ability gate. Now onto Standards.
Standards govern how a person deploys their ability to their work. A person can have abundant integrity and ability. But they need to approach their work in a way that is compatible with how you do things as a company. That is one of the many great things about starting a company. You get to take the critical first steps (that you then evolve with the team you build) in defining the standards. This is not about group think. But rather that people approach their work in a fundamentally aligned way. It is a product of your values, so it is invaluable to define those as well (a post for another time).
My two big learnings on this:
Don’t be afraid to be explicit in defining your values and your standards. Think them through thoroughly. Then stand behind them, all the time. It’s not about judging people. Everyone is free to choose their own standards. But these are the standards they need to internalise (and can then be a part of iterating on) if they are going to work here;
Standards are teachable. This Bezos 2017 Amazon Letter to Shareholders has a great section on standards. High standards are contagious. A key Founder responsibility is to define and live those standards so as to create the environment for contagion.
For me, there are three things I look for when it comes to standards:
Do they strive for delight? I love AirBnB’s idea of an 11* customer experience;
Mas Que Un Job (from the Barcelona Football Club motto of Mas Que Un Club). Is work an opportunity for expression and to be part of something. Vs simply a case of a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay that they hopefully find stimulating enough;
Are they an animal? Which comes from this Paul Graham post to mean someone “who takes their work a little too seriously; someone who does what they do so well that they pass right through professional and cross over into obsessive”. This is not at all about the hours they work or other vanity metrics. But rather about their attitude to what they do and deliver. Whether I could imagine myself describing that person as an animal when it comes to the way they approach their work.
That’s everything on Standards. Next the final gate of right person, Reliability.