by Tanvir Bhangoo, author of “
Let’s say you’re not a corporate leader, but a budding entrepreneur opening a small deli in New York. You’ve signed the lease, stocked the kitchen, and now you need your first hire, a store manager or someone to run the counter. What would be your default move? Would you post the job online and wait for applications to roll in, wait for two weeks to go by, finally start interviews, and eventually make a hire? Likely not.
I believe the more likely scenario is that you would put up a simple sign that says “Help Wanted,” then walk into 10 local restaurants within a two-mile radius and ask for referrals. By the end of the night, you’ll have met half a dozen candidates and likely made your decision by morning. That’s execution. That’s being close to the ground.
What happens in business, especially at scale and when there’s outside funding involved, is that people lose track of such simple solutions. They overthink and rely too much on existing processes. When it’s your money, your risk, your time on the line, you move differently. You move smarter.
Downfalls of Delegating the Most Critical Piece
Hiring is a privilege. The opportunity to bring new people on board is one of the most rewarding parts of growth. And great leaders understand that the best teams are built through unconventional means. It is not something to be handed off to your HR team.
Yet many leaders don’t prioritize hiring. They treat it as a task to be delegated, not as the fundamental building block of their team. I’ve witnessed this pattern repeatedly, where experienced executives, armed with impressive resumes and years of experience, meticulously craft a job description, only to then hand it off to talent acquisition, completely disconnecting themselves from the crucial task of selecting the right people.
HR can be an incredible partner, and some of my best experiences have come from working side by side with HR to build high-performing teams. But in every case, I led the process. I shared the vision, set the bar, and stayed close to every key step. I’ve never seen a great leader, the kind people would run through walls for, outsource this responsibility.
You should never outsource your most important job, finding the individuals who will drive your company’s success.
Here’s why:
1. You Miss Out on Unconventional Talent.
Traditional hiring filters handed down to HR or recruiters, like specific degrees or rigid years of experience, often screen out high-potential candidates who don’t fit the mold. People with non-linear paths, unconventional backgrounds, or raw passion rarely make it past the first cut.
But those are often the ones who drive real growth and innovation. As a leader, it’s your job to look beyond the resume and uncover these hidden gems.
2. You Hire Sub-Par Talent and Lack Diversity.
Building a diverse team is not just a matter of social responsibility; it’s a strategic imperative. Diverse teams bring a wider range of ideas, experiences, and problem-solving approaches, leading to greater innovation and better decision-making.
However, we all harbor unconscious biases. We tend to gravitate towards people who are similar to us, who share our backgrounds and perspectives. This tendency can lead to the hiring of subpar talent and a lack of diversity within your team.
Yet when HR includes specific DEI measures in hiring processes, it can be seen as name-sake DEI just to check off the boxes. A business will continue hiring in this manner and then introduce various DEI programs and training to help address these biases.
“Post-hire diversity” initiatives are insufficient.
This merely addresses the symptoms, not the root cause. You must actively seek diversity from the very beginning of the hiring process. If you lead with a Bet on People mindset, you will naturally want to build a really diverse team, with people from all walks of life, without ever even having to think about it.
3. It’s Slow and Expensive.
Traditional hiring is notoriously sluggish and inefficient.
From posting jobs to sifting through resumes and coordinating interviews, the process can drag on for months, sometimes close to a year.
That kind of delay stalls critical projects, slows down growth, and drives up costs.
Worse, given that this process is outsourced to the HR team with minimal leadership involvement upfront, it often results in hires who aren’t the right fit. In today’s fast-moving world, this approach just isn’t sustainable.
4. You Leave Results to Chance.
If your first move when a hiring need arises is to delegate it, you’re giving up control over the one thing that drives results, the people.
It signals that you either don’t understand the weight of hiring decisions or don’t care enough to own them. That lack of ownership sends the wrong message to your team and fosters a culture where talent feels like an afterthought.
Go All In: Taking Ownership and Finding Unconventional Talent
Building a truly exceptional team demands complete commitment. It’s not something you half-heartedly pursue. This commitment boils down to two core principles:
- Absolute ownership of the hiring process by you, the leader.
- A relentless pursuit of talent in the most unexpected corners.
Make this one of your ‘non-negotiables.’ As the captain of your ship, you bear the ultimate responsibility for assembling the finest crew. This requires a crystal-clear vision for your team’s goals, and equally as important, to make sure people are aware and clearly understand that direction.Remember, the success of your team, and by extension, your organization, hinges on the quality of the people you bring on board. Only you possess the intimate understanding of your team’s needs to discern the ideal blend of personality, strength of character, and unwavering determination required for success.
Now, you might be thinking that hiring great people isn’t your full-time job. You’ve also got your actual work to do, managing the day-to-day, thinking long-term, and putting out fires along the way. So there’s no way you can take on everything that comes with owning this process. I get it.
It might feel like a lot upfront, but once you make it part of your DNA, your habits, your routines, it actually saves you a ton of time down the road. I’ve seen too many leaders who say they’re too busy to own this part of leadership, only to end up drowning in ‘people’ problems every other week. Your choice is then to either do the hard, meaningful work up front or pay for it over the long run.
Tanvir Bhangoo is a Tech and SaaS growth executive with experience leading global transformation and scaling enterprise businesses at Toast, Freshii, and Restaurant Brands International. A two-time bestselling author, he writes about leadership, execution, and growth at the intersection of technology and people. His insights have been featured in Forbes, SaaSMag, Recruiting Daily, and his newsletter, Enterprise Blueprint.
