“Flawed” was the best word for my approach to hiring.

I picked people I thought would be fun at lunch. In fact, I’d take to them to lunch as part of the interview to see whether I was on the right track.

Some of the lunches were a blast. Others were awkward and boring. I hired the fun lunch people.

Do Lunch Skills Translate to Lawyering?

That system worked perfectly—for hiring someone good at lunch.

I managed to have some great lunches with the people I hired. I was rarely bored or lonely. Lunch was usually the highlight of my day.

Unfortunately, the work being done by these great lunch people was often inadequate. They gave great lunch but they weren’t so good at drafting, client handholding, or arguing in court.

What was I thinking?

In retrospect, I suppose I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to have a good time at lunch.

Now I hire with an eye toward the requirements of the job. If the job requires lunch, then I’d be willing to consider that as a factor. In truth, some of our jobs do require the candidate being good at lunch.

For the most part, however, lunch isn’t that important. Other skills are vastly more important than lunch for the majority of our positions. How much I like the candidate often has little to do with the requirements of the job.

Consider Your Business—Not Mealtime—Objectives

I wouldn’t reveal my flawed hiring process to you except that I recently discovered that I’m not alone. Many of us hire like we’re interviewing for “best friend” rather than for the position detailed in the job description.

Most of us are in small offices with a limited number of people. We want to enjoy our time with our co-workers, and we’re highly motivated to hire good lunch dates. Unfortunately, that won’t always advance the business objectives.

Be cognizant of your motivations. Be conscious of what’s driving you. Make a decision about what’s important to your business. Is it lunch? Or is it something else? You get to decide.