Mark Zuckerberg, quoted in Entrepreneurial Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg:
What’s the right heuristic for determining if someone is really good? Over time, what I figured out was that the only actual way to let someone analyze whether someone was really good was if they would work for that person. I don’t think that needs to recurse too many levels down in the organization but I basically think that’s a really good heuristic. I believe that. If you look at my management team today if we were in an alternate universe and I hadn’t started the company it would be an honor to work for any of these people. I think if you build a company that has those kind of values, rather than just saying ‘oh I want to hire the best person I can find’ or whatever, if you hold yourself to that standard then I think you’ll build a pretty strong company.
Imagining yourself as being a subordinate can lend an entirely different paradigm of testing your candidates. You would then try to visualize their future, judge their skills and attitude with what you have or like to have. And most importantly, you would try to judge their ‘cultural make’ and their potential to become what you want them to – the future leaders in the organization.