I’m hiring a lawyer.

I want to hire someone great. But I psych myself into hiring someone who’s not.

I’m making a mistake when I let that happen.

I start interviewing with the best of intentions. I want someone with an excellent education, excellent experience, and excellent skills. I’d like someone who can do an amazing job for our clients.

Then I find someone. She went to a super school, worked on some big-time serious projects at an impressive mega-firm, and has an IQ that’s off the charts.

What’s Your Hiring Pattern?

Do I jump on her? Do I make her an offer immediately? Do I press cash into her hand and beg her to join us?

Nope. I hesitate. I get nervous. I get intimidated.

Here comes the negative self-talk:

She’s so much better than me. She’s so experienced and educated. She’s so smart. Why would she follow my lead? Why would she do what I told her to do? What will she be thinking when she figures out that her IQ is so much higher than mine?

I find myself listening to myself. Why? What’s wrong with me? And, worse, I start making decisions consistent with my self-talk. I rationalize. I explain to myself why I’m really better off without her. I tell myself why it wouldn’t work out anyway.

Before you know it, I’ve talked myself into looking for someone who went to a law school ranked below mine, with fewer career achievements and inferior experience. I quickly conclude that I need someone younger than me, with a lower class rank and grade point average and inferior people skills. I need someone who doesn’t have much of a future. Someone who thinks I know what I’m doing would be perfect.

In just a few minutes, I’ve gone from bad to worse. Somehow I’ve talked myself into hiring someone with mild brain damage (that’s probably an exaggeration). I’ve concluded that he’d be the perfect “fit.” Amazingly, all of this goes on in my head while I still have the chance to hire this incredible candidate.

“Perfect,” I think, now I’ve got an idea. I should probably hire my younger sister (if I had a younger sister). She’d be someone I could boss around who would do what she was told. I’d remember how when we were seven, I could flick her behind the ear to get her to comply with my wishes. Even with all the ear flicking, she still looked up to me. She’s the perfect candidate.

My self-talk on hiring is horrible. Am I alone here?

It’s natural for me to fall into this pattern. It’s unfortunate because it’s destructive, it’s self-defeating, and it leads to disappointing results.

Remember the Goal of Hiring

Oddly, my behavior with hiring lawyers is different from any other hiring situation.

Would I hire an inferior brain surgeon? How about an accountant? Do I want a dumb accountant? What about a technology consultant? Do I want a no-talent tech person? No, I’d always hire the best and the brightest in these other situations.

In every other arena, I want someone outstanding. Why do I talk myself out of hiring the best and brightest lawyer? Why don’t I aim for the best lawyer I can get?

Thankfully, sometimes I’m able to overcome my own psychology. I’m able to hire someone better, smarter, and more capable than me. But it’s tough. I don’t do it if I’m not careful to stay focused on the goal. I’ve got to talk myself out of my negativity.

The goal with hiring is to find the best. Find people better than you, smarter than you, more motivated than you, and able to deliver better results than you. That’s what you want. The law firm is the sum of the people. Better people means a better law firm. That’s the objective. That’s what I keep reminding myself.

My job is to bring the best people together, give them direction, and let them do their thing. My job is to contribute what I can and get out of their way. I’m the facilitator who needs to empower them to achieve everything they’re capable of achieving. If I were better than them, then I’d be better off doing it myself. I need to find those folks better than me and let them have at it.

I don’t need to be the smartest person in the law firm. I don’t need to be better at everything they do. I don’t need to be superior to them. I just need to find them, bring them in, and let them go. That’s how we get better. That’s how we deliver for clients. That’s how we get things done.

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