"It's getting the right person that's the challenge"
About this Quote
Hiring is easy; hiring well is where careers go to die. Bob Schieffer’s line lands with the dry understatement of a newsroom veteran who’s watched institutions obsess over process while quietly being undone by people. “It’s getting the right person” sounds almost bland, which is the point: it strips away the romance of big strategies and shiny résumes and points to the unglamorous hinge everything swings on - judgment. The challenge isn’t filling the seat; it’s identifying who won’t break the mission once the cameras are off.
Schieffer’s subtext is a critique of modern credential worship. In journalism especially, “right” isn’t just technical competence. It’s temperament: curiosity without cruelty, skepticism without cynicism, speed without sloppiness. The phrase implies that most systems are built to find the wrong proxies - pedigree, polish, connections - because those are legible and defensible. The “right person” is harder because the relevant qualities are often inconvenient, unquantifiable, and revealed only under pressure.
Context matters: Schieffer came up in an era when trust was a newsroom’s currency and a broadcaster’s authority was inseparable from perceived steadiness. In that world, one misfit hire can distort an entire editorial culture; one strong hire can anchor it. The line also carries an implicit warning to leaders: if your organization keeps cycling through “good on paper” talent, the problem may not be the labor market. It may be your definition of “right,” or your willingness to recognize it when it doesn’t look like the last person you hired.
Schieffer’s subtext is a critique of modern credential worship. In journalism especially, “right” isn’t just technical competence. It’s temperament: curiosity without cruelty, skepticism without cynicism, speed without sloppiness. The phrase implies that most systems are built to find the wrong proxies - pedigree, polish, connections - because those are legible and defensible. The “right person” is harder because the relevant qualities are often inconvenient, unquantifiable, and revealed only under pressure.
Context matters: Schieffer came up in an era when trust was a newsroom’s currency and a broadcaster’s authority was inseparable from perceived steadiness. In that world, one misfit hire can distort an entire editorial culture; one strong hire can anchor it. The line also carries an implicit warning to leaders: if your organization keeps cycling through “good on paper” talent, the problem may not be the labor market. It may be your definition of “right,” or your willingness to recognize it when it doesn’t look like the last person you hired.
Quote Details
| Topic | Relationship |
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