Through Tanveer Bhangooauthor of “
Suppose you are not a business owner, but a budding entrepreneur opening a small deli in New York. You’ve signed the lease, stocked the kitchen and now you need your first hire, a store manager or someone to manage the counter. What would your default move be? Would you post the job posting online and wait for the applications to come in, wait two weeks, finally schedule an interview, and ultimately hire? Probably not.
I think the most likely scenario is that you put up a simple sign that says “Help Wanted,” and then walk into ten local restaurants within a two-mile radius and ask for referrals. By the end of the evening you will have met six candidates and you will probably have made your decision by morning. That’s execution. That is being close to the ground.
What happens in business, especially on a large scale and when external financing is involved, is that people lose sight of such simple solutions. They think too much and rely too much on existing processes. When it’s your money, your risk, your time on the line, you move differently. You move smarter.
Disadvantages of delegating the most crucial piece
Hiring is a privilege. The ability to bring new people on board is one of the most rewarding parts of growth. And great leaders understand that the best teams are built in unconventional ways. It’s not something you hand over to your HR team.
Yet many leaders don’t prioritize hiring. They view it as a task to be delegated, rather than as the fundamental building block of their team. I have repeatedly witnessed this pattern, where experienced executives, armed with impressive resumes and years of experience, meticulously craft a job description, then hand it over to talent acquisition, completely disconnecting themselves from the crucial task of selecting the right people.
HR can be a great partner, and some of my best experiences have been working side-by-side with HR to build high-performing teams. But in all cases I led the process. I shared the vision, set the bar and stayed close to every important step. I have never seen a great leader, the kind of people he would run through walls for, to outsource this responsibility.
You should never outsource your most important task and find the people who will determine the success of your company.
This is why:
1. You’re missing out on unconventional talent.
Traditional hiring filters passed to HR or recruiters, such as specific degrees or years of experience, often screen out high-potential candidates who don’t fit the profile. People with non-linear paths, unconventional backgrounds, or raw passion rarely make it past the first cut.
But they are often the ones that drive real growth and innovation. As a leader, it’s your job to look beyond the resume and discover these hidden gems.
2. You hire substandard talent and have a lack of diversity.
Building a diverse team is not just a matter of social responsibility; it is a strategic necessity. Diverse teams bring a broader range of ideas, experiences and problem-solving approaches, leading to more innovation and better decision-making.
However, we all harbor unconscious biases. We tend to gravitate toward people who are similar to us, who share our backgrounds and perspectives. This tendency can lead to hiring substandard talent and a lack of diversity within your team.
But if HR incorporates specific DEI measures into hiring processes, it can be seen as DEI just to check off the boxes. A company will continue to hire in this manner and then introduce various DEI programs and training to help address these biases.
Post-employment diversity initiatives are insufficient.
This only addresses the symptoms, not the cause. From the very beginning of the recruitment process, you should actively seek diversity. When you lead with a Bet on People mentality, you naturally want to build a very diverse team, with people from all walks of life, without even thinking about it.
3. It’s slow and expensive.
Traditional recruitment is notoriously slow and inefficient.
From posting job openings to reviewing resumes and coordinating job interviews, the process can take months, sometimes almost a year.
Those kinds of delays delay crucial projects, slow growth and drive up costs.
Worse, since this process is outsourced to the HR team with minimal upfront leadership involvement, it often results in new hires who are not the right fit. In today’s rapidly changing world, this approach is simply not sustainable.
4. Leave results to chance.
If your first step in creating a hiring need is to delegate it, you’re giving up control over the thing that drives results: the people.
It indicates that you don’t understand or care enough about the weight of hiring decisions to make them. That lack of ownership sends the wrong message to your team and promotes a culture where talent feels like an afterthought.
Go all-in: take ownership and find unconventional talent
Building a truly exceptional team requires total commitment. It is not something you pursue half-heartedly. This commitment boils down to two core principles:
- Absolute ownership of the hiring process by you, the leader.
- A ruthless search for talent in the most unexpected corners.
Make this one of your “non-negotiables.” As captain of your ship, you bear the ultimate responsibility for assembling the best crew. This requires a crystal clear vision of your team’s goals, and just as importantly, making sure people are aware of and clearly understand that direction. Remember that the success of your team, and by extension your organization, depends on the quality of the people you bring on board. Only you have a deep understanding of your team’s needs to discern the ideal blend of personality, strength of character and unwavering determination required for success.
Now you may be thinking that hiring great people isn’t your full-time job. You also have to do your actual work: take charge of the day-to-day, think long-term and put out fires along the way. So it is impossible to address everything that comes with owning this process. I get it.
It may seem like a lot at first, but once you make it part of your DNA, your habits and your routines, it will save you a lot of time later. I’ve seen too many leaders who say they’re too busy to take this part of leadership into their own hands, only to end up drowning in “people” problems every week. Your choice then is to do the hard, meaningful work up front or pay for it in the long run.
Tanveer Bhangoo is a Tech and SaaS growth manager with experience leading global transformation and scaling enterprise businesses at Toast, Freshii and Restaurant Brands International. He is a two-time bestselling author who writes about leadership, execution and growth at the intersection of technology and people. His insights have been featured in Forbes, SaaSMag, Recruiting Daily and his newsletter, Enterprise Blueprint.
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