The Importance of Alignment in Hiring

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝗺𝗟𝗮𝘄 𝟭𝟬 𝗹𝗮𝘄𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘀 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝘂𝘁𝘆 𝗚𝗖. Harvard law grad. Technically sharp. Fifteen months later, that lawyer was gone. Not because they weren’t smart. Not because they lacked legal skill. They just didn’t fit. I watched it happen. Slow sidelining. Lost influence. Quiet exit. The issue wasn’t competence. It was cultural misalignment. I’ve seen it play out dozens of times—silent breakdowns no résumé could have predicted. It shows up in small but telling ways: • A lawyer who overanalyzes inside a business that makes decisions fast • A cautious advisor in a company that’s comfortable in legal gray zones • A blunt communicator in an environment where nuanced messaging matters Even great in-house lawyers miss the mark when their instincts don’t match how the business really works. After two decades recruiting GCs and senior legal leaders, I’ve noticed what separates strong hiring teams from struggling ones. The best dig deeper than legal skills. They look for alignment. Here are four areas they focus on: 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 Do you reward speed or depth? 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝘁𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 Do you want edge-pushers or play-it-safe advisors? 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝘆𝗹𝗲 Do your execs value directness or diplomacy? 𝗨𝗻𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘀 What behaviors actually earn trust, influence, and advancement? You won’t find those answers on a résumé. Try asking: "𝘠𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘹 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰?" The answer shows how a candidate thinks, communicates, and operates under pressure. Also, get your business leaders involved early. When there’s a shared understanding of what success looks like, hiring becomes a lot less risky. 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗖𝘀: What’s one cultural cue you wish you had picked up before making or accepting a key legal hire for your organization? — 𝘔𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘻𝘦𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘵. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴, 𝘭𝘦𝘵’𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵.

Don’t mistake headcount for alignment. It’s one of the easiest traps leaders fall into. (Especially during rapid growth). You hire fast. You expand departments. You stack your org chart. And suddenly, you’ve got more people than ever… …but somehow, you’re moving slower. Here’s the hard truth: Adding people doesn’t mean you’re scaling. Alignment is what drives execution. Not more bodies. Not more meetings.  Not more dashboards. You can have 100 people in the company— But if they don’t understand the mission, the priorities, or each other, you’ll stall. So how do you create alignment while you grow? Here are a few places to start: 1. Repeat the mission until it’s second nature. Not just in onboarding. Weekly. Out loud. In writing. Until people can finish your sentence. 2. Define what success looks like—clearly. If people don’t know what “winning” means in their role, they’ll guess. And guesses rarely align. 3. Connect the dots between departments. Sales needs to know what ops is building. Customer success needs to know what marketing is promising. Transparency isn’t a luxury—it’s a requirement. 4. Prioritize clarity over speed. Slowing down to align your team will save you 10x the time later on when you’d be cleaning up confusion. 5. Don’t just communicate—check for understanding. Ask people to reflect the strategy back to you. Make sure they’re not just hearing you, but getting it. Scaling doesn’t mean adding more. It means getting everyone rowing in the same direction, at the same pace, for the same reason. Because growth without alignment? Is just noise.

If your recruiter raises their hand, listen. We’re not here to slow you down. We’re here to save you from making the wrong hire. We were working with a Midwest agency looking to build out their creative + marketing team. We had great conversations with the founders, the creative directors, the chiefs. But the cross-functional folks were “too busy” for a quick Zoom. We moved forward anyway. First candidate hits second-round interviews, but the feedback was all over the place. The CEO said one thing. The PM said another. The brand lead had a third angle. The candidate walked away confused, and we knew if we kept going, the whole search would implode. So we hit pause. We booked time with every cross-functional partner and collected real intel. Then we went back to the CEO and founders and said: Here’s where your team isn’t aligned. Here’s what the market’s actually saying. And here’s what we recommend: ❗ Change the title ❗ Expand the scope ❗ Add $8–12K to the salary ❗ This is a Senior Director, not a Director They trusted us. We recalibrated, relaunched, and delivered five qualified candidates. They hired one. She’s been crushing it for 3 months now. Total win. Momentum without alignment is how you waste time, lose talent, and make the wrong hire. We don’t let that happen. Not on our watch.

Stop treating your Employee Value Prop like a tagline. Start using it to galvanize your entire workforce. Most companies say they have an EVP. Few know what to do with it. It’s not about career site copy or rebranded onboarding kits. A real Employee Value Proposition unlocks momentum, the kind that aligns 5,000 (or 80,000+) people around a shared purpose. I learned this firsthand leading culture transformation at one of the largest healthcare employers in the U.S. Here’s the truth: If your EVP lives in HR, you’ve already lost. It’s not a talent tool. It’s a business accelerator. The organization had scaled through acquisition. That meant fragmented cultures, legacy systems, and a “one company” message that didn’t match reality. Corporate strategy called for innovation and next-level care. But the culture wasn’t built for it - yet. So we started with the people. Thousands of conversations, not just surveys. We asked: What connects you to your work? What keeps you proud? We found a unifying force: the collective drive to deliver incredible care. That became our EVP. But the transformation came when we operationalized it. We built outcome-based pillars, not just values, but decision lenses. Not words on posters. Tools for action. They became: Hiring guides (we trained recruiters to assess for alignment, not just skills) Onboarding narratives Manager scorecards Performance criteria Bonus frameworks (yes, compensation tied to culture outcomes) Every function, not just HR used the EVP to guide decisions. It became the organization’s GPS. And we didn’t do it alone. We partnered with outsiders - not consultants, but provocateurs. People who pushed us beyond industry norms. Who asked the uncomfortable questions. Who helped us stop designing for now and start designing for what’s next. One of those partners now runs a venture called Fauna, a testament to what bold collaboration can spark. Here’s what I’ve learned: If your EVP isn’t designed to: 🔹 Align culture and strategy 🔹 Focus every team around shared outcomes 🔹 Make performance part of your values …then you’re missing the point. This isn’t about launching an internal brand. It’s about building a culture system that accelerates your business and turns people into believers. So ask yourself: → Does your EVP live in a slide deck… or in daily decisions? → Are your values just wall art… or linked to pay and performance? → Did HR build your EVP… or did the whole business? An EVP buried in HR is a missed opportunity. An EVP wired into your operating model? That’s how real transformation sticks.

Whenever I audit workplace culture, I'm primarily looking for one thing: Alignment. Think of alignment like a building: The foundation is what leaders say. The structure is what managers do. The reality is what employees live. Here's what I typically find: 1) Leadership Words vs. Manager Actions Unaligned: "We value innovation" but managers punish failed experiments "People first" but quarterly numbers override burnout "Open door policy" but disagreement ends careers Aligned: "We value innovation" and managers celebrate learning from mistakes "People first" and deadlines shift when teams are stretched "Open door policy" and criticism shapes company direction 2) HR Promises vs. Employee Experience Unaligned: "Clear growth paths" but promotions go to external hires "Regular feedback" but reviews happen once a year "Competitive pay" but market data is ignored Aligned: "Clear growth paths" and 70% of leaders grew from within "Regular feedback" and quarterly development plans drive action "Competitive pay" and market adjustments happen without asking 3) Recruitment Pitch vs. New Hire Reality Unaligned: "Fast-paced environment" but decisions take months "Flexible work" but every meeting is mandatory "Make an impact" but new ideas need five approvals Aligned: "Fast-paced environment" and teams ship daily "Flexible work" and results matter more than hours "Make an impact" and an intern's idea became our top feature Your Workplace X-Factor isn't what you say. It's what you prove. Every day. In every gap. #WorkplaceCulture #Leadership #WorkplaceXFactor

At startups, HR and Finance teams can’t afford to work in silos. Why? Because every people decision is a financial decision, and every financial decision impacts people. When HR and Finance are aligned, they’re a power duo that will help you hire smarter, scale more efficiently, and avoid costly missteps. But too often, these teams operate separately—leaving money (and talent) on the table. Not collaborating today? Here’s how to jumpstart the partnership: 💰 Headcount Planning – Tie hiring plans to realistic revenue forecasts and runway, not aspirational growth targets. Model new hire start dates based on time-to-fill, ramp time, and productivity to ensure ROI. (And yes, someone in HR needs budget access to do this well.) 📊 Comp & Total Rewards – Don’t blindly pay the 50th percentile of the market. Establish a compensation philosophy and set pay bands that attract talent intentionally (sometimes this is the 25th percentile, other times it’s the 75th, depending on what you’re trying to achieve). Model raises, market adjustments, and bonuses against burn. 📅 Scenario Planning – Co-build best-, base-, and worst-case hiring models to adjust proactively to growth or downturns. Start with benchmarks, like spending (e.g., G&A as a percentage of revenue) and staffing ratios (e.g., 1 product designer to 6-8 software engineers), and work collaboratively to adapt these to your company’s context. 📈 Performance & Productivity – Don’t just track headcount—track revenue per employee. And monitor productivity. For example, for sales, monitor quota:OTE ratio and quota attainment. These metrics matter more than raw hiring numbers. 🚀 Talent Retention – Instead of throwing money and “perks” at retention issues, invest in manager training, career paths, and internal mobility. (Spoiler alert: No one stays for that foosball table.) ✨Bonus Tip: If you subscribe to my newsletter — The Business of People at fledgehq.kit.com — it will automatically recommend 1-3 finance newsletters to you. I set this up to nudge more founders and HR leaders to dip their toes into the finance pool.  Bottom line: HR and Finance aren’t just back-office functions. They’re co-owners of business success. The startups that get this right make better trade-offs between growth and sustainability. ⬇️ Questions on how to apply these ideas? Drop them in the chat below and I’ll answer as many as I can within 24 hours.

Relying solely on HR for your sales recruitment might be hurting your bottom line. 🚨 Here’s why: Sales teams are the driving force behind your revenue growth, but if the hiring process is slow or lacks collaboration with other departments, you could be missing out on top talent and losing sales momentum. 📉 Missed Opportunities – Relying only on HR without sales team input may result in candidates who lack the specific skills needed for success in your sales strategy. 🕒 Delays in Hiring – HR often doesn’t have the insight into urgent sales needs, leading to drawn-out hiring processes that delay key initiatives. 🔄 Disconnected Hiring Criteria – Sales leaders know exactly what traits and skills are required, but if they’re not involved in the hiring process, the best-fit candidates might be overlooked. But there’s a better way. 🔑 Here’s how you can boost sales hiring success: 1️⃣ Involve Sales Leadership Early → Make sure sales leaders are actively involved in defining hiring criteria and screening candidates. 2️⃣ Align HR with Sales Priorities → Collaborate between HR and sales to ensure the hiring process reflects the urgency and needs of your sales targets. 3️⃣ Leverage Data and Metrics → Use performance data from current sales reps to identify the skills and traits needed in new hires. 4️⃣ Streamline the Decision-Making Process → Empower HR and sales leaders to make fast, aligned decisions on top candidates to avoid missing out. Don’t let your sales team suffer from a slow or disconnected hiring process. Bring sales leaders into the mix to secure the right talent quickly. 👉 Is your sales hiring strategy aligned with your revenue goals? Let’s discuss how to fix it!

Dear CEOs: The Most Expensive Mistake You’ll Make This Year Won’t Show Up on a P&L It’ll show up in lost trust. Fractured relationships. Eroded credibility. A bad executive hire — especially in your revenue organization — is rarely just a performance issue. It’s a relationship failure. Within as well as external to the organization! When a revenue leader lacks cultural alignment, operational discipline, or the ability to drive coherent GTM execution, the damage compounds quickly: 🚫 Your top talent starts updating their résumés and taking calls from recruiters. 🚫 Cross-functional collaboration breaks down. 🚫 Customers feel the tension and disengage. 🚫 Your board starts asking if you’ve “got the right team.” But the real risk? Relationship Currency is devalued, while Reputation Capital (Trust) erodes! You can’t buy it back. You can’t rebuild it overnight. And as the CEO, the fallout lands on your desk because you sponsored the hire. Too often, we optimize for the wrong things: pedigree over philosophy, charisma over character, metrics over mindset. We underestimate the cultural dissonance. We ignore subtle yellow, if not red, flags in the interview process in favor of a flashy logo on a resume. We rationalize a lack of relational awareness as “style.” But relationships go bad when expectations go unmet — or worse, misaligned from the start. When a CRO promises clarity but delivers chaos. When customers hear one thing but experience another. When your internal teams stop believing that leadership hears or understands them. As CEO, your job is not just to identify the right talent — it’s to curate alignment. Every executive you add is a force multiplier or a cultural contaminant. So, hire with extreme intentionality. Proactively ask: ✅ Does this leader amplify our culture — or quietly corrode it? ✅ Can they build bridges across silos — or do they widen them? ✅ Do they have the operational maturity to execute, or just the charm to interview well? Revenue is important. But reputation is enduring. Credibility takes years to build — and seconds to lose. Choose wisely. Lead deliberately. Protect the trust. #CEOLeadership #ExecutiveHiring #RelationshipEconomics #CRO #GTMExecution #TrustCapital #CultureByDesign

You don’t need more resumes, what you need is alignment. The kind of alignment that goes beyond keywords and job titles. You need people who believe in your mission, elevate your culture, and are excited to build with you long-term. When you hire for resonance instead of resumes, you stop churning through short-term hires and start cultivating a team that actually moves the needle. It’s not about filling a seat. It’s about finding someone who belongs in that seat. Someone who fuels your growth, not slows it down. Resumes tell you where someone’s been. The right fit tells you where you’re going together. ✅ Mission-driven hires who believe in your vision ✅ Culture adds, not just culture fits ✅ People who stay — because they’re meant to be there #HiringStrategy #RightFit #RetentionMatters #FutureOfWork

Are your new hires lacking engagement at work or disappearing without a trace? This concerning trend is not only frustrating but also costly for companies. Losing time, resources, and dealing with the aftermath can be overwhelming for any Hiring Manager. But fear not, there are solutions to reduce these occurrences. First, understanding candidates' priorities is key. By identifying what matters most to them in their next career move, you can ensure alignment and foster engagement from the start. Without this insight, candidates may accept a job but continue seeking a better fit elsewhere. Secondly, be aware of potential counter-offers post-hiring. Maintaining ongoing onboarding and mentoring for the first year can prevent employees from being lured back to their previous positions. Regular check-ins and addressing concerns are vital. Additionally, frequent feedback is crucial. Instead of waiting for traditional performance reviews, opt for regular meetings or stay interviews. This approach resonates well with Millennials and Gen Z, who value continuous feedback and recognition. Lastly, clarity on performance objectives is essential. Ensuring that both Hiring Managers and new hires are aligned on goals for success can significantly boost engagement and retention rates. Remember, when faced with disengaged or departing employees, reflect on your hiring process first. Solutions often lie in proactive and insightful approaches during recruitment and onboarding. #EmployeeEngagement #HiringTips #RetentionStrategies