Warren Buffett
Chairman of the Board
Berkshire Hathaway
Years ago, a Vistage speaker on recruiting told my CEO Groups that “we hire people for what they know, and fire them for who they are.”
To be fair, it’s easier to find out what an applicant knows than the content of their character. The “Sage of Omaha”, Warren Buffett, who has made more than a few good hires during his long career that once remarked that “in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it, it’s true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.”
How can we test an applicant for integrity? “Integrity Is the No. 1 Trait to Hire For. Ask These 4 Questions to Screen Out the Impostors.”
