We took part in a really interesting training session last week.

There were about 20 people in the room, and the question was 

What makes a great hire?

You’d expect a mix of answers, technical skills, experience, qualifications.

But that’s not what came up.

Almost every answer focused on traits, not skills:

• Resilience
• Work ethic
• Integrity
• Curiosity
• Accountability
• Coachability
• Ownership
• Adaptability
• Emotional intelligence
• Consistency

No one said “years of experience” or “specific systems knowledge”.

And it’s not because those things don’t matter.

It’s because, in reality, they’re not what separates average from high performers.

Skills Get You In. Traits Determine How Far You Go.

Technical recruitment skills are important; they’re your entry point.

But they’re also the easiest thing to teach.

What’s much harder to build is how someone shows up day to day:

• How they handle pressure
• How they respond when things go wrong
• Whether they take ownership or look for excuses
• Whether they keep going when it gets tough

That’s what drives performance over time.

Where Hiring Often Goes Wrong

In practice, hiring decisions are still heavily weighted towards:

• What consultants say they billed
• Years of experience
• Previous company logos

But it often leads to:

• Hiring people who look good on paper but don’t deliver
• Overlooking high-potential individuals who haven’t had the same exposure or haven’t worked in the right environment
• Hiring people that may work in one environment but not yours
• Building teams that lack resilience or adaptability

Especially in markets like this, where things aren’t straightforward, those gaps become very obvious.

The Shift: Hiring for Traits (With Enough Skill)

The strongest hiring decisions tend to flip the weighting.

Not ignoring skills but prioritising traits.

Looking for:

• People who will figure things out
• People who take ownership without being asked
• People who can handle setbacks and keep momentum

Because skills can be built.

Mindset and behaviour are much harder to change.

It doesn’t mean hiring blindly on “potential”.

It means being more intentional in how you assess:

• Ask for real examples of how someone handled challenges
• Look for patterns in behaviour, not just outcomes
• Test for ownership, not just competence

And importantly – being clear internally on what traits actually matter for success in your business.

Most people know this instinctively.

But when it comes to hiring decisions, it’s easy to revert back to what feels tangible  CVs, experience, track record.

The reality is, the best hires are rarely defined by what’s written on paper.

They’re defined by how they show up when it counts.