9 competencies of highly successful startup employees

No doubt you have heard the axiom, people are a company’s most important asset. If this is indeed true, why is it the case that often those doing the hiring in startups are new to the interviewing process and are not given training or guidance in what to look for when screening candidates?

This article is written for startups to use as a tool to get them thinking about how they screen candidates. Here are 9 traits I feel are most critical to the success of a startup, rank ordered from least to most important.

• Comfortability with ambiguity
• Composure
• Managing and measuring work
• Self-knowledge
• Perseverance
• Learning on the fly
• Work-life balance
• Integrity and trust
• Customer focus

This article discusses each of these competencies in detail, providing sample interview questions you can use and explaining what to look for in a candidate’s answers.

#9 Comfortability with ambiguity

Put simply, startups are full of change, uncertainty, questioning decisions, changing priorities and other (hopefully organized) chaos. Startup employees must be able to cope with these changes and shift gears quickly. The end goal may be clear from the beginning, but no doubt the path from start to end will experience many unexpected twists and turns.

Here are a couple example interview questions to ask in screening for how a candidate handles uncertainty:

• Describe a time when you changed a job or situation suddenly.
• Tell me about a time you were asked to try something completely new to you.

Responses showing a candidate’s inflexibility in the face of changing circumstances, or an unreasonably high need for analysis and information gathering before making a decision should be taken with caution. Look for responses which show an ability to make well rationed decisions in the face of limited information. Even if the decisions turn out to be wrong or sub-optimal, the key is that there was an intelligent thought process that took place in reaching the decision.

#8 Composure in the face of challenges

Closely related to dealing with ambiguity, startup employees must be able to maintain their composure under pressure. Deadlines, demos, pitches to investors, board meetings, sales calls, midnight Website crashes are just a few examples of common stressors which startups face routinely. If your staff can’t handle these situations and the many others they will face without blowing up, you are in trouble.

Instead, look for people who have demonstrated a maturity to keep things together during tough times, someone not easily distracted by the unexpected. These are your go to people in time of crisis. You need to know you can count on them when the sh*t hits the fan.

Questions such as these can help determine a candidate’s ability to keep their composure: