Quote from James A.Hart on July 16, 2025, 10:58 pm

When you’re building a team, it’s easy to focus on resumes, experience, and technical qualifications. But if that’s all you’re hiring for, you’re missing the most important part.

Skills can be trained. Values cannot.

A high-performer who doesn’t align with your core values will eventually become a liability. They might hit targets, they might produce results—but they’ll slowly erode your team’s culture. And once your culture starts slipping, everything else follows.

You’ll start making exceptions.
You’ll allow behavior you previously wouldn’t tolerate.
And worse—other team members will see it and start to adjust their standards too.

That’s how companies lose their edge.

So how do you avoid this?

Start by defining what values truly matter in your company—not the ones that sound nice on a poster, but the ones you genuinely live by. Things like:

• Accountability
• Respect for time
• Obsession with the customer
• Willingness to learn
• Ownership mentality

Then, during the hiring process, test for alignment, not just aptitude.

Ask questions that reveal how a candidate makes decisions.
Look for stories that show how they’ve acted under pressure.
And pay close attention to what they tolerate—because what someone tolerates says a lot about who they are.

In the long run, a slightly less skilled team member who shares your values will outperform a top talent who doesn’t. They’ll integrate better. They’ll stick around longer. And they’ll make your company stronger from the inside out.