679 | Hiring For Humility: Building a Culture That Actually Grows

Here's something most leaders don't figure out until it's already cost them: The most talented person on your team is not always the healthiest person for your culture, because business doesn't get stronger just by adding talent.

It gets stronger when the people inside them are willing to grow. That is coming up next.

Welcome to The Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.

I want to paint a picture for you that probably most of you will recognize. You hire someone, they look fantastic on paper. They're a strong communicator.

They're confident, they're experienced. And the moment they walk in, you feel relief.

We've all been there. We all know what it's like to finally put somebody in a seat that we've needed to fill, get somebody who can help carry the load.

And then slowly, over time, something kind of shifts. Feedback starts to get heavy. Conversations get tense. Ownership becomes inconsistent at best.

Maybe the team gets a little quieter around that specific person. You could tell that people are not doing well. There's a struggle. And here's what's almost always true. Almost always.

It's probably not a skill problem. It's probably not a talent issue. It's most likely a humility problem.

Now, I've watched leaders stay stuck in unhealthy team dynamics for way too long because they kept believing talent would solve eventually, would probably solve everything.

And I can tell you it does not. I have got, in my decades of hiring, I have got two, count them, two, two people. I call them islands. The things that we're going into today, I call them islands.

The kind of people that could be decently talented, but they are the worst team members.

They don't focus well with the team. They don't solve with the team. They don't work with the team. They focus on themselves.

And so while they may do a great job at what they're doing, it also has a tendency to affect team members. Team members working together, culture, projects, everything.

And they also tend to be people who pull people in to get things done for them. So healthy leadership cultures aren't built on talent alone.

I hope you already know that. The truth is that they are built on humility. They're built on coachability. The best ones are built on team members taking ownership, and they're built on people who genuinely will grow together.

So today, we're going to walk through the four things every leader needs to pay attention to when they're building a culture that actually grows.

Are people becoming easier—or harder—to coach? (00:03:07)

So first thing I want to hit are your people becoming easier or harder to coach.

So here's a scenario a lot of you have probably lived in or probably experienced. You bring feedback to someone on your team, and the conversation stays professional.

Nothing blows up. But underneath, it kind of feels like there's some level of resistance. You've experienced that everything seems fine, but you have this feeling there's some sort of tension, even though it didn't come out in the words. Right?

And over time, it's very possible that with this conversation, the person you're talking with explains things away.

Or maybe they go quiet, or maybe they agree in a moment that you are pretty sure it wouldn't be something that they would normally agree in.

And over time, you start dreading those conversations. Every coaching moment with that person tends to cost you emotionally, right?

You feel your energy being taxed, especially energy that you probably don't have to spare. Most leaders stay in the cycle too long because they genuinely want that person to succeed.

I understand that. I get it. But here's what you need to shift in your focus. You need to shift your focus to stop watching just for results and start watching for responsiveness.

But, man, they're doing such a great job. I get it. I understand. But start watching the responsiveness. We're looking for health here, right? A healthy team member doesn't have to be perfect.

They have to be willing, willing to learn, adjust, grow, without treating feedback like it's a personal attack.

And here's how to start seeing it clearly. Ask yourself, do they naturally take ownership? Right. That's a very important question for you. Do I see this person taking ownership naturally?

Can they stay emotionally open during hard conversations? Or do I get defensiveness or pushback or the silent treatment? Right?

Are they actually applying what you've coached them on? You've taught them what to do, you've coached them on how to do it, Are they doing anything about it?

And do they bring curiosity when something isn't working? One of the most important things you can do is stay curious. By doing so, you want to gain perspective.

You want to find out what's going on and what's not working. This is super important. So you need to ask yourself these questions. And leaders listen. Don't miss this.

Your tone matters here. So if you're coming in with frustration or pressure, then people are going to protect themselves.

If you come in with calmness and safety, then growth actually has room to happen if you come in defensive or pressured and you don't realize, especially with the different personality styles.

You got to know which personality style you're speaking to, then what you might find is that could also be the reason that they're shutting down.

This is why we're looking for responsiveness. Is it happening because you're putting them, you know, in a position where they don't want to respond or are they not liking the content of your coaching?

So if that is what's happening, if they feel like coaching is a threat, then you're going to see them shut down.

But when coaching feels like help instead of a threat, then communication improves, ownership increases, and absolutely, you'll see trust compounding across your entire team.

What attitudes are quietly shaping the room? (00:06:31)

Number two, what attitudes are quietly shaping your culture? Well, the biggest culture problems are rarely loud. Rarely. I mean, it's, it. Yes, the loud ones are the easy ones to, to point out and see.

But usually some of the bigger issues is the person who pushes back on accountability in subtle ways. Trust me, this is going to be a painful one, Right?

The one who creates low grade tension whenever someone challenges them. The one whose attitude is like slowly, quietly changing. You know, how everybody else shows up in the room, this is a problem. And before long you notice that people are more careful now.

Their meetings have become, you know, less energy, honest conversations are disappearing. Nobody put up a sign that said, hey, stop being real here. Right?

It just happened. And here's what I want you to do. Stop evaluating people only on their productivity. Start paying attention to how they affect the emotional environment around them.

I know that may seem like a crazy suggestion, but I promise you, it is the right direction to go.

Because attitudes spread way faster than most leaders realize. So after your next interaction with somebody you're concerned about, ask yourself some questions.

Does this person create steadiness or tension? Do people communicate openly around them or do they get careful? That's a huge, huge red flag. When you see people not communicating well with this person.

Once again, talking about those islands, people that do not trust them, people that feel like they're being taken advantage of, you are not going to see them communicating openly around that person.

Also ask, is this person helping the team grow healthier or are they helping the team become more guarded?

So those are culture questions. Those are not personality questions. Those are things you need to see. Somebody is responding because it's affecting the culture of your team.

And here's the hard truth. Teams emotionally adapt to what leadership allows to continue. Let me say that again, so it impacts you. Well, teams emotionally adapt to what leadership allows to continue.

One of the things that I had to do when I had those two islands working for me is actually adjust my culture by showing my culture that those people were going to get consequences.

And if they weren't team members, talent wasn't enough. I had to do something different to fix my culture.

And the thing is, healthy cultures don't happen by accident. They're built intentionally through what leaders reinforce, through what they protect, and definitely from what they address early.

So if a humility problem is sitting in your culture unchallenged, then the whole team is quietly paying for it.

Am I hiring people who want to grow—or just impress? (00:09:30)

Number three, are you hiring for humility or just capability? Now, this is a pattern I've seen for 30 plus years and I know you have as well. Right?

This is something that happens consistently because we get pressured, we get overwhelmed, and we feel like we have to put a warm body in a seat.

So if a leader is overwhelmed, the business is growing, pressure is up, and someone walks in with confidence and a strong track record, it feels like a solution. It is super easy to go: That's exactly what I need.

But a few months in, you realize they brought unhealthy habits with them. And now instead of strengthening your culture, they're creating friction inside of your culture. This almost always happens because the hiring process got rushed.

And when you're overwhelmed, you hire for relief. You don't hire for a phenomenal fit. So you have to slow down enough to evaluate humility and teachability, not just capability.

Because some people know how to perform, but they don't know how to grow. So when you're in the interview, ask questions that reveal self awareness.

Say, you know, ask questions like, hey, tell me about a piece of feedback that actually changed you.

What are you looking for? Legitimate, honest response. What you may find, well, you know, I've been told that I work too hard or I've been told that I, I'm too much of a perfectionist.

You know, you'll find things that actually aren't negative feedbacks that really change them. Or you'll find that they will start throwing other leaders under the bus from somewhere else that they came from. And those are huge red flags.

Ask a question like, what's something you've had to grow through recently? Look for some depth here. You are not looking for, well, I communicate too much and so I've had to work through not communicating too much.

That's not what we're looking for. We're looking for a negative that's a legitimate negative that they've had to work through. Right?

We don't have to get their total personal information. We just need something that tells us that they've actually worked through something.

I also ask something like, how do you respond when someone challenges your work? That's always been something I've used for years, is to see how are they going to respond if I tell them that their work stinks.

I want to watch their face, I want to watch their eyes. I want to see how they respond when I say that. It's meant to either shock them or for a healthy person, they're going to be like, well, you're the one paying me.

So if you say it's no good, I guess it's no good. That's what I'm looking for. Right? Listen carefully. Humble people have real answers to those specific questions that you ask.

People who struggle with humility, they will deflect, they will minimize, or they will make it about someone else. A lot of times they will make it about someone else.

So you're not just filling a role, you're inviting someone into the culture your team experiences every single day, which is important for you to realize.

So when you build a team full of teachable people, something powerful happens. Ownership grows naturally, communication gets healthier, and leadership starts multiplying throughout your business.

That's what a culture that actually grows looks like.

Have I created a culture where growth feels safe? (00:12:51)

Number four, have you built an environment where growth feels safe?

Now, here's one more thing that we have to look at honestly. Sometimes teams become very careful over time. People stop speaking openly, problems stay hidden longer, ownership shrinks.

And it's not just because they don't care. It's usually because people don't feel safe struggling or, or learning or getting things wrong. That is a culture problem, and ultimately that's a leadership problem.

So your job isn't to create an environment where people feel like they have to protect themselves. Your job is to create an environment where coaching is normal and growth is absolutely expected. So here's what you do.

Practically slow the conversations down instead of reacting. You know, instead of being that type of a coach who reacts, try things like asking questions or making comments like, hey, walk me through what happened here.

Walk me through the situation. What do you think needs to improve and how can we grow through this situation?

Start bringing in questions and comments that helps the other person to think and to solve and to respond well with actually using their head instead of just reacting to stuff.

That tone shapes your culture more than most leaders realize. And here's the payoff. Healthy accountability creates freedom. So when people feel safe enough to be honest. They grow faster.

They communicate better, they even take greater ownership because they know growth is the goal, not a punishment. That's the culture you're building toward, and it starts with the humility you model and obviously the humility you hire for.

A Challenge For You (00:14:44)

So here's something I want you to work on this week.

I want you to pay attention to one person on your team who may be harder to coach than you've admitted to yourself. A name probably just popped up in your head.

Now, don't do this with frustration. Do it with curiosity. Ask yourself whether the environment around them feels tense or does it feel defensive, or does it feel safe enough for real growth to happen?

Then is the humility problem theirs, or has the environment made growth feel way too risky to try?

Whatever you discover, lead accordingly.

Now, if you want to see how this plays out in real leadership situations, follow us on Instagram @chrislocurto. We break down the real scenarios leaders face every day and show you exactly how to handle them in a way that builds ownership and develops your team.

Folks, great leadership teams aren't built from perfect people. They're built from humble people and people who are willing to grow together.

And when you hire for humility and lead with safety, you stop managing dysfunction and start building something that actually grows. So go lead well.

Well folks, that's all the time that we have for today. I hope this has been impactful and helping you as you are focusing heavily on your teams and making the right decisions.

As always, take this information. Change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.