How To Recruit For Self-Managing Teams

Recruiting For Self-Managing Teams

One of the most common questions I tend to get asked when I speak on stages and in private conversations about self-management at GrantTree is: “how do you find the right people who are willing to do this and who do it well?”. It certainly takes dedication and the right processes to find and retain individuals who are good at self-management. Here is a quick guide to how we do it. 

Firstly, from our phone screenings onwards we make sure that candidates who progress through our recruitment process are those with a very clear idea of why they want to work at GrantTree. We don’t accept run-of-the-mill cover letters, we really want to see that those who apply for our jobs have researched our unusual culture, know what they are signing up for, and do so enthusiastically. Candidates who do well are those who really believe the culture we created is for them, typically having been burnt by unsatisfying experiences in the past and so understanding what they want and what they don’t want to see in a work environment. 

Secondly, since our workplace certainly isn’t for everyone, we make it abundantly clear what to expect from the get-go. We explain to our candidates they will be in charge of setting their own salaries and curating their own career if they join our company and more. We also check with them what experience they have managing their time and resources, plus setting their own goals and evaluating results at previous jobs. We verify they are able to take a perspective on themselves and withstand the pressures of being their own boss. 

Lastly, a key part of our interview process is a so-called open culture interview, which is our adaptation of a subject-object interview designed by Harvard scientist Robert Kegan and his colleagues. As part of it we ask the candidate open-ended questions to determine how they make meaning of the world around them. We get to know how they form and look at relationships in the workplace and how they deal with complexity. Thanks to this we are able to predict if they have access to the self-authoring form of mind meaning they have a view of themselves and reality which doesn’t change depending on what environment they are in. This signifies they are likely to be able to deal with the challenges of a self-managing workplace. 

We’ve been seeing great results following this process and have recruited some outstanding people who are ready to take the company to the next level. This has happened over a period of time with plenty of trial and error and lessons learned. I hope you’ll be able to develop your own way of finding and retaining people who are not just a “culture fit” but what I like to call a “future culture fit” - will be able to evolve your culture as it is now and refine it. Those people are worth every minute you spend on designing and improving your recruitment process.