No Crystal Ball Required

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” – Peter Drucker

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a crystal ball when making big decisions—especially when it comes to hiring new team members?

You sit across from a candidate with a perfect resume, great references, and a polished interview. They seem perfect. The education lines up. The experience checks out. On paper, they’re everything you hoped for. But a few months in, something just isn’t working. You’re left wondering, "What did I miss?"

The truth is, it’s not about what you missed—it’s about what the current hiring processes often overlook.

The resume is just a beginning point

Everyone is wired differently. We each bring our own personality, values, strengths, and stress responses to the workplace. Understand the role you are trying to fill and consider how the person in the interview would handle the expectations and job requirements.  

If you are hiring a customer service person or someone dealing with people, you may want to reconsider the incredible, analytically minded, or very quiet, reserved person sitting in front of you.  You want a people person.  If the job requires someone to sit in an office with a computer all day by themselves, this person might just be perfect!

Sometimes the problem isn’t the person—it’s the mismatch between personality, passion, and the role’s requirements. 

Where’s that darn crystal ball when you need it?

You don’t need magic. 

You need clarity. Specifically, clarity around your company’s culture and values.

“You can have the best vision in the world, but if your culture is toxic, your team won’t follow you there.”

I love the phrase, “Culture eats vision for lunch.” It might not be pretty, but it’s true.

Your culture, how your team operates, communicates, supports one another, and makes decisions, will either fuel your success or slowly sabotage it. A solid vision is important, but without the right people aligned with your values and each other, you’ll struggle to gain traction.  Hire the people that fit your culture and can live with your company values.  

I like the story I once read about the way Marriott hires people serving people.  The interviewer asked, “How do you teach employees the art of hospitality that is so obvious at your hotels?”  The HR Director responded, “We don’t hire people unless they are already hospitable.”  Hospitality is the value.  Hire the people that fit the values.

Build a Team That Complements, Not Competes

Start with what’s already working. Look at the team members who are consistently moving the ball forward. What are their shared values? What are their natural strengths? How do they approach challenges?

Now ask yourself:

• What strengths are missing?

• What personalities could complement the team’s dynamics?

• Where are the current pain points, and are they caused by misaligned roles or mismatched expectations?

When you understand your culture and your people, you can hire (and promote) with intention—not just based on a resume, a degree, or experience.

“A person may outgrow a position, but no one ever outgrows their core wiring. The key is to put them in roles where they can flourish, not flounder.”

Know Yourself, Know Your Team

You don’t need a psychic to build a healthy, high-performing team. But you do need self-awareness and team-awareness. Know how you communicate. Know how your team communicates. Know what drives each person—and what drains them.

If that feels overwhelming, or if you’ve had a revolving door of employees lately, it might be time for a different approach. That’s where we come in.

At Leadership Harbor, we specialize in helping leaders build stronger teams by understanding personality, communication, values, and culture. Whether you’re hiring, reorganizing, or just trying to keep your people engaged and performing, we can help you do it on purpose.

No crystal ball required.

Ready to Stop Guessing?

A Discovery Session with one of our coaches costs nothing but 30–45 minutes of your time—and it could save you hours of stress, thousands of dollars in turnover, and more than a few headaches.

Let’s talk about how to build the kind of team you don’t want to lose. You’ve got the vision—now let’s strengthen the culture.

Kris