Leaders on hiring for character

Chapter 4 of The Luxury of Attention is called First the Team, and the people collected here are its sources. Graham Ledger of Singita gave the hiring rule its clearest form: eighty percent enthusiasm and cultural fit, twenty percent technical skill, and the eighty is the key. Matthew Orlando of Amass hires on personality more than skill. Joan Roca calls human capital the most important capital in the restaurant. Patrizio Cipollini spoke of the people who grew up at Four Seasons Hotel Firenze with a pride that had nothing to do with his own standing. Aaron Kaupp opens the chapter with the manager who finished his shift for him forty years ago.

What they share is an order of operations. The team comes before the guest, because a team that is hired well, inducted carefully and protected by its leader is what produces the guest experience; the reverse does not work. Several of them are specific about induction, and Ledger is blunt about the cost of getting it wrong: a poorly inducted hire fails spectacularly, and it is unfair to them. Several describe culture as a thousand small daily choices by the leader rather than an initiative.

The profiles below give each person’s role, their hiring and team practice, and the lines from the books the chapter draws on.