I am ready to bring in our first outside corporate executive to join the leadership team, but I am terrified they will ruin our tight-knit, entrepreneurial culture. How do I vet them for cultural fit without losing sight of their capability?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Bringing in your first outside corporate executive is a critical step, and it's wise to be protective of your established culture while still ensuring you hire for capability. A common pitfall is hiring solely based on a resume and hoping the cultural fit resolves itself. To safeguard your culture and make an objective decision, leverage structured evaluation processes, such as those within the EOS framework.

Evaluating for Capability and Cultural Fit

The process should rigorously assess both the candidate's professional capabilities and their alignment with your company's unique environment.

1. Start with the GWC Tool

First, apply the GWC tool. This framework assesses if a candidate:

• Gets the role, understands its responsibilities, and aligns with your company's direction.
• Wants the role, demonstrating genuine enthusiasm and commitment.
• Has the Capacity to do the job, which encompasses:
• Their cognitive ability to handle the intellectual demands of the position.
• Their emotional intelligence to navigate complex team dynamics and leadership challenges.
• Their conative style, which describes their natural way of taking action. This is often overlooked but is crucial for team harmony and productivity.

2. Understand Conative Style with Kolbe A Index

To delve deeper into a candidate's conative style, administer the Kolbe A Index during the interview process. This assessment reveals their innate problem-solving and action-taking instincts.

For example:

• If your current leadership team predominantly consists of high Quick Start profiles who thrive on chaos and rapid change, introducing a highly structured Follow Thru who prefers strict systems could initially create friction.
• This friction isn't necessarily negative; it can be incredibly healthy if anticipated and managed. However, if you don't understand these fundamental differences in working styles, you might misinterpret them as a cultural mismatch. Understanding these profiles can also be useful for diagnosing existing team conflicts, as explored in [how do we use the Kolbe A Index to diagnose why our Sales and Operations heads are constantly in conflict over project handoffs?](/qa/kolbe-sales-operations-conflict-handoffs). And if you're curious about leveraging AI to analyze these profiles, see [how can we analyze our team conative profiles or Kolbe Indexes using AI to build a more effective project team for a major operational shift?](/qa/analyze-kolbe-indexes-with-ai-project-teams).

3. Evaluate Against Core Values with the People Analyzer

Next, evaluate every candidate against your company's core values using the People Analyzer tool.

• Every leader you consider must be a clear "plus" on all your core values.
• Do not compromise on this aspect, regardless of how impressive their corporate pedigree or resume may be. Maintaining the integrity of your core values is paramount for a strong culture, even when dealing with top performers who violate them. For guidance on this, refer to [one of our top-performing salespeople has been with us for eight years, but they consistently violate our Core Values. Do we keep them for the revenue or fire them to protect the culture?](/qa/handling-top-performers-who-violate-core-values).

4. Ask for Specific Examples

During interviews, move beyond generic answers by asking for specific examples of how they have demonstrated your core values in previous roles.

• If a candidate cannot provide concrete instances, they may simply be telling you what they think you want to hear.
• A truly fitting leader will integrate seamlessly into your culture while simultaneously bringing the professional systems and capabilities you need for scale and growth.