'How to kill a company': Shark Tank's Anupam Mittal shares hack for hiring senior people

Shaadi.com founder and Shark Tank judge Anupam Mittal has shared a three-point guide to hiring senior people, adding that picking wrong leaders can bring down a company despite a passionate team or revolutionary product. 

"How do you kill a company? By hiring the wrong leadership!" he wrote on LinkedIn. "You can have a revolutionary product, a passionate team, and a booming market – all brought to their knees by a few bad decisions at the leadership level."

While acknowledging that hiring the right seniors was not an easy task, Mittal said fancy recruitment tools, psychometric evaluations, and interview techniques promising the perfect hire were "marginally effective".

Here's what he thinks helped him in finding that perfect senior fit. 

Meet more than once
"Everyone has their guard up during office hours and official interviews. The key is to be in a more relaxed environment and the best setting is over a meal -- saves time too," Mittal says. "Basically, I am trying to understand their personality and values. Also, one such meeting won’t do. You specifically need three and here is the brilliant hack: if every meeting gives you more confidence, you got your hire. If you get more doubtful, move on."

Use your networks
"‘Named’ ref checks don’t work," he adds. "I use my own networks to find common connections and request them for confidential 15-20 minute reference checks."
Mittal stressed on the 'PEARL' reference check theory that he follows, which is promising reciprocity, ensuring confidentiality, asking targeted questions, retrieving critical insights, and learning rehiring potential.

Choose builders, not preachers
Businesses grow and change at lightning speed, he wrote. What you want in a leader is a combination of high learning agility, strong ownership, outcome orientation, and a high degree of candor. "‘Builders’ are usually like that – they like to roll up their sleeves and get shit done," Mittal said. "Preachers and politicians can create toxicity in an org, what you are looking for are scientists who love questioning the status quo and finding the right answers. Building a winning leadership team takes time, but hire correctly and you will cut down half your day-to-day workload."