The Hiring Gap…..
Why most hiring mistakes are preventable (and what a structured process actually looks like)
Most hiring decisions are made with incomplete information.
A CV tells you what someone has done. An interview tells you how they present under mild pressure. A reference check tells you what a previous employer is willing to say. None of it tells you how this specific person will operate inside your specific team, under your specific leader, when the pressure is real and the honeymoon period is over.
That's the gap where most hiring mistakes live.
The process I use with founders closes that gap before the offer goes out. Here's how it works.
We start before the role is even advertised
Before we write the job description, we look at the team the new person is walking into. Every team member involved in or affected by the hire is profiled, along with the leader they'll report to. We also take into consideration the business vision and goals, the culture, and what this role actually needs to deliver, not just the task list but the behavioural requirements of operating well in this specific environment.
From there, we build a job description that reflects the real role, and a set of interview questions for round one that go beyond technical skills to start surfacing cultural fit and natural working style.
Round one is about technical skills and cultural feel
The first interview is relatively straightforward. Can this person do the job? Do they feel like someone who fits the culture? This is the founder's call, and gut feel has a legitimate place here.
If the candidate moves through round one, the profiling begins.
The candidate completes the same profiling process as the existing team
This gives us a behavioural picture of how they naturally operate, how they make decisions, how they communicate, how they respond under pressure, where their strengths sit and where the gaps are. We then map that profile against the leader they'll report to, the team around them, any direct reports and the specific demands of the role.
This is where the picture gets real.
We identify where the fit is strong, where it will stretch, and where friction is predictable. We don't sugar coat it. If the candidate's wiring doesn't match the behaviours the role genuinely requires, we say so before any decision is made. A hire that looks right on paper but creates friction in all the wrong places costs far more than a longer search.
Round two drills down on the friction points
Rather than a generic second interview, we use targeted questions built directly from the profiling, focused on the specific areas where we've identified risk. Has this person encountered these situations before in their career? How did they handle it? What did they learn?
We use the same questions in the reference check to validate the answers. What a candidate says about their own patterns and what a previous employer observed are two different data points, and both matter.
If the hire goes ahead, onboarding is built around the friction points
Most onboarding plans focus on systems, processes, and introductions. Ours includes a deliberate plan for the areas where the new person is most likely to struggle. We surface those friction points early, build awareness around them, and put structures in place to reduce the risk of them becoming problems six months in.
We also share the new person's profile with the team they're joining, not as a judgement, but as a heads up. Here's how this person is wired, here's where it's different from how you operate, and here are some practical strategies to bridge that gap from the start.
When the risk is too high, we say so
If the profiling reveals significant wiring mismatches and the friction points are substantial, we advise against the hire. Not every candidate who interviews well is the right fit for the specific team and leader they'd be joining. Knowing that before the offer goes out saves everyone, the founder, the team, and the candidate, from a situation that was unlikely to work.
What this process gives you
Hiring will never be risk-free. People are complex and no profiling process removes uncertainty entirely. What this does is replace gut feel and hope with real information, so that when you make the call, you're making it with a complete picture.
The result is fewer surprises, faster integration, and a much lower chance of discovering six months in that something was off from the start.
Most founders aren't consciously looking for a replica of themselves or a carbon copy of their existing team, particularly in leadership roles. They're often looking for someone who brings something different: a new capability, a different perspective, a strength the team doesn't currently have.
Profiling doesn't work against that. It helps you see whether the difference you're looking for is genuinely complementary to how your team operates or whether it creates friction that will quietly undermine the very thing you hired them for. The goal isn't sameness. It's fit.