Think of the last ten separations, voluntary or involuntary, between your company and an employee. What was the cause of the failed relationship? Was it the lack of hard skills, i.e., competence? Was it not showing up? Was it a poor attitude? Or, was it failed company leadership, coaching and nurturing? Perhaps it was more than what's seen on the surface.
Most separations between an employer and an employee have little to do with the hard skills and competence. More often, just like a failed personal relationship, the root cause of these break-ups runs deeper, into the values and beliefs of both parties.
When someone regularly doesn't show up with their best self, it's rooted in the lack of care and commitment to growth. They don't care about the same things as much as we do. And, they don't value personal growth as much as we would like them to. They're not committed to forward motion, first on a personal level, which in turn fuels the organization they're plugged into.
The time to understand someone's values and cultural alignment is at the beginning of the journey together, or even better before the ship sets sail. The primary purpose of any interview then is for both sides to understand what makes the other tick, and how much alignment or misalignment there may be on a cultural level. More specifically, it should help us determine where we're going and why, who we will become, what we can contribute and what change we seek to make? The rest, the technical parts, experience and eduction are subordinate to the culture. They're important for sure. But, not the most critical. It's more important to understand dreams, passions, goals and why we're at the table...because that's what we get excited about. And what we get excited about is what gets us to show up fully everyday, even when we don't feel like it.
Alignment matters...a lot.