The Goldilocks Team is a candid, research-backed guide to building teams that thrive through personal alignment and human connection. Why was this an important book for you to write?

I find the sheer scale of employee disengagement around the world disturbing, understanding the devastating impact it has on the bottom line results of companies and the quality of life of individuals. So when I realized that much of this disengagement is avoidable – that in fact there is a better way to retain, hire, and engage employees – it just became my mission to help eliminate as much of the disengagement as I can.

What moment in your own career made you realize that most hiring strategies are missing the point?

The realization came when I saw the massive disparity between what employers focus on in the hiring process versus what is needed for hiring success. Specifically for hiring success, the following three are needed:

1) Solid capability to do the job. Most employers do a relatively good job trying to assess the ability to do the job from the candidate’s previous experience.

2) Values Alignment for long-term engagement – which means that what the candidate values is delivered by the employer. Yet most companies look for candidates that come in ready to regurgitate their company values and never even consider how well they as employers will be able to meet their future employee’s needs.

3) Interpersonal Alignment for smooth collaboration – which is the natural fit of two people (especially employee with manager). Most organizations focus on scrutinizing the candidates and totally miss the point that collaboration is a two-way street. In addition, they falsely believe that their best interview questions will suss out the character flaws and strengths of the applicant. Unwittingly, most employers hire based on guesswork and gut feelings versus data-driven decision-making.

What’s one popular HR practice you believe is harming team cohesion?

Forced ranking employees is one of the most harmful HR practices that destroys team cohesion.

You emphasize values alignment. How can a team leader practically assess that during the hiring process?

Build a method to capture what candidates actually value without judgment. During interviews, candidates are programmed to play “say the right thing” to get the job and therefore have a near-impossible time expressing what they value. Alternatively, try the OpenElevator platform my team and I have built to help understand values alignment with our bias-free approach.

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