"I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person. It's a pretty good test"

A simple hiring heuristic becomes a profound leadership standard: choose people you would gladly follow. It reframes evaluation from résumé checklists to a lived question of trust, respect, and learning. If you’d work for someone, you’re signaling they’ve earned your confidence in their judgment, integrity, and ability to create an environment where you can do your best work. That automatically raises the bar from “competent contributor” to “credible leader.”

This lens centers empathy. It asks a manager to step out of hierarchy and imagine the lived experience of being led by the candidate: Would you feel psychologically safe? Would you be challenged and supported? Would their decisions be transparent and fair? Would you grow faster under their guidance than under your own? It also screens for multipliers, people who elevate others, propagate healthy norms, and reduce the need for micromanagement. In fast-moving teams, that’s the difference between adding capacity and compounding capability.

Practically, it shifts interviews toward evidence of leadership behaviors: clarity of thinking under ambiguity, willingness to own outcomes, appetite for feedback, taste for simplicity, ability to make and explain trade-offs, and the humility to change course. References become less about skills and more about followership: Did people choose to work with them again? Did teams ship better outcomes because of their presence?

There are pitfalls. Left unchecked, this heuristic can morph into a mirror test that favors clones of the leader’s style or background. Counter that with structured criteria, diverse interview panels, and a deliberate separation between “I like them” and “I would be proud to be led by them because they deliver results while upholding these specific values.”

Ultimately, it’s a reciprocity check. Great hiring is mutual; the best candidates are also deciding whether they would work for you. Holding to a standard you’d submit yourself to strengthens culture, accelerates execution, and keeps authority anchored to earned respect rather than title.