Unlocking Potential: Recognizing Transformative Talent in Recruitment
One of the benefits of parenting children through grade school is that you learn all the history that you might have forgotten along the way.
Take Thomas Edison, for example. You may already know that he had little formal schooling—his teacher famously told him he was “too stupid to learn anything”—but you may not know that he was also at least partially deaf. Edison’s deafness ended up being a primary motivator for many of his inventions, including the telegraph.
But obviously, we would all hire a Thomas Edison if we could. The tricky part is figuring out exactly who is a Thomas Edison in the making, and who is . . . not.
Through lots of trial and error, we’ve nailed down some best practices for identifying the intangibles throughout the interview process. We like to use the guidelines of “Hungry, Humble, and Smart (EQ),” originally posited by Pat Lencioni in The Ideal Team Player, with a few tweaks of our own.
Focused Hunger
“Hunger” is arguably the hardest skillset to teach. While Humility and EQ can often come along through some “hard knocks” of life, the innate drive to do, learn, be more is rarely teachable. Like Edison, people with hunger possess a self-motivation and resilience that makes them unstoppable in the face of challenges.
I like to describe it as an internal motor that just won’t turn off, no matter how hard — or how good — things are. When facing numerous setbacks in his quest to invent the light bulb, Edison said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." This encapsulates hunger.
But hunger must be focused and harnessed to be effective for the business. We have all worked with the person who is chaotically busy, but not self-managed. Knowing how and when to put blinders on is crucial for success.
Confident Humility
Confident humility is the foundation for effective teamwork and learning. Coachability is key. Humble employees typically:
Share credit and recognize team contributions
Listen actively and value diverse perspectives
View mistakes as learning opportunities rather than failures
The right type of humility does not grovel. Instead, it is grounded in a centered, realistic view of oneself and others. Because it is paired with hunger, mistakes or failures will not devastate the confidently humble team member. Instead, they will learn, grow, and move on.
Smart: Emotional Intelligence in Action
The ability to "read the room” is partially innate and partially learned. Emotionally intelligent candidates demonstrate:
Strong self-awareness and self-regulation
Empathy and the ability to build rapport with diverse colleagues
Adaptability in the face of change and uncertainty
High EQ is often the differentiator between good employees and great ones, particularly in roles that require collaboration, leadership, or client interaction. EQ can be the difference between unharnessed hunger and focused drive.
Identifying the Intangibles
Identifying these attributes is often the trickiest part of selecting a person for your team. Here are a few best practices that we’ve seen play out well.
Listen More than You Speak.
Forge Recruiter Noemi Prinoth shares what she looks for in a recruiting conversation. “I can tell a lot by the way a candidate speaks about their past experiences. Are they passionate about their work? How they have advanced? Are they a job hopper? Another red flag is if they are too focused on remote work or strictly leaving at 5 each day. It should not be a big deal to stay late every once in a while.”
2. Look for Patterns in Past Roles
Candidates who are hungry often seek out new challenges or learning opportunities, while those who are humble might show patterns of collaboration and team-oriented success. Do they use “I” or “we” when talking about past accomplishments? Usually, candidates who are selected to lead team projects are those who demonstrate strong emotional intelligence.
When reviewing resumes, look for signs that candidates took on new responsibilities or helped others without seeking personal reward (hungry).
3. Assess Emotional Intelligence with Role-Specific Scenarios
To better assess EQ, give candidates a real-world scenario they might face in your organization, such as resolving a disagreement between colleagues or delivering tough feedback to a teammate. Pay attention not only to the solution they provide but also to their thought process and whether they consider the emotions and perspectives of others.
4. Reference Checks Focused on the Intangibles
Don’t just ask about skills when conducting reference checks—dig into character. Ask references about how the candidate handles feedback, whether they’ve seen them go above and beyond, and how they manage relationships with peers and superiors.
Without question, it takes more time, effort and even potentially finances to hire candidates who check these boxes. These candidates aren’t typically applying! They have to be hunted and “tapped on the shoulder.”
But however you get there, the companies who prioritize hiring for the intangibles are the ones that excel. Herb Brooks, the head coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, famously selected players for the "Miracle on Ice" team not just for their skills but for their character, grit, and ability to play together as a cohesive unit. He sought out players who were coachable, mentally tough, and team-oriented, despite what their resume said. His focus on these intangibles helped the U.S. team pull off one of the greatest upsets in sports history by defeating the heavily favored Soviet team and winning the gold medal.
In the movie Miracle (2004), Brooks (portrayed by Kurt Russell) emphasizes this point with a famous line during tryouts: "I'm not looking for the best players, I'm looking for the right ones."
He believed, and we do too, that attitude, resilience, and teamwork were just as important—if not more so—than raw talent.