- Kevin Sanders
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
November 29, 2025
Read Time - 4 minutes
”We hire people for what they know, but we often fire them for who they are.”
~ Unknown
When I stepped into my first leadership role, I'd served on plenty of faculty hiring committees, so hiring was the least of my concerns.
...Then I opened the first stack of applications for a staff vacancy.
Faculty searches tend to look similar across institutions—national pools, standardized materials, clear expectations around teaching and research.
Staff hiring flips that upside down.
Most applicants are local. Many have never worked in higher ed. Resumes vary wildly. Direct experience is often the exception. And onboarding plays a major role in whether someone succeeds.
Which brings me to a hiring lesson I learned the hard way.
Years ago, I hired someone we'll call James for an academic advisor role. We were excited. His interview was strong, his background aligned with the major, and he'd already been an academic advisor at another institution. He even knew our advising platform.
I felt genuinely confident.
But a few months in, small signals started surfacing:
Faculty shared they weren't being consulted on important decisions.
Students said James told them to "look it up in the handbook" when they emailed questions.
Our other advisor noted James complained often and brought negative energy to work.
None of these were dramatic on their own. But together, they formed a pattern I realized I should have caught during the interview process.
The issue wasn’t James's competence.
Looking back, I realized I had inadvertently prioritized experience and familiarity with our software platforms. What I hadn't prioritized were the qualities that actually determine success: communication, collaboration, empathy, etc.
We could have taught a new advisor our processes and systems. Teaching someone to be helpful, collaborative, and constructive under pressure? Much harder.
James eventually moved into a different position on campus where he excelled. But that experience taught me a lesson about hiring staff I did not want to learn twice.
A Better Way to Think About Hiring
Hard skills are comforting. They’re tangible and you can check them off a list. Hiring someone who already knows the systems feels like a guarantee.
But the data tells a different story. A major study by Leadership IQ, which followed more than 20,000 new hires, found that 89% of failed hires struggled because of soft skills—communication, attitude, adaptability—not technical ability (e.g. see the quote at the top of the page).
And here's the trade-off you should know up front:
Hiring for soft skills often means accepting a steeper learning curve in the first few months.
The candidate with the right mindset might ask more questions, move slower at first, need more support during onboarding.
But if they're curious, adaptable, empathetic, and collaborative? That early learning curve is a small price to pay for what your unit gains by month six or seven.
Technical skill can get the job done, but the right person will elevate your culture.
Once you've experienced the difference, you'll never approach staff hiring the same way again.
What Changes in Practice
So how do you actually shift toward hiring for who someone is and not just what they know?
Three practices have made the biggest difference for me.
1. Start with the qualities you want — not just the duties you need
Before you write a job ad, pause and ask:
What qualities or soft skills would make our new hire wildly successful in this position?
What behaviors will make our team stronger?
The three qualities I often return to:
Curiosity — Do they ask thoughtful questions? Show genuine interest in learning?
Adaptability — How do they manage new things or change? Can they bring fresh thinking?
Collaboration — Do they lift the team? Does the room work better when they're in it?
These traits are worth more than familiarity with your systems.
You can teach someone Navigate, Banner, or Canvas.
You can't teach someone to care.
2. Clarify the type of experience the role actually requires
Most staff positions fall into two categories:
A. Do we need a candidate to learn quickly and fit within an established system? (Administrative Assistant, Office Coordinator) For these, mindset, communication, and organization matter far more than prior higher-ed experience.
B. Do we need specialized expertise to teach us what to do?
(Academic Advisor, Business Officer, Marketing/Communications) These hires bring best practices with them—they're helping you improve systems, not just learning them.
Knowing which category you're hiring for clarifies how you write the posting, what you listen for in interviews, and how you structure onboarding.
3. Design interviews that reveal behavior — not charm
A pleasant conversation doesn't predict performance. Behavior does.
Here are examples of stronger questions for three common roles:
Administrative Assistant
"Tell me about the last time you noticed something slipping through the cracks and took action before others saw it."
“Walk me through the system you use to stay organized when five people need five different things at the same time.”
"What's your approach when someone shows up frustrated and you're their first point of contact?"
Why these work: They reveal initiative, emotional steadiness, and how they handle the heartbeat of an academic office.
Academic Advisor
"Describe a moment when you had to give a student an answer they didn't want. How did you handle it."
“Tell me about a time you had to interpret policy in a gray area. What guided your decision?”
"What's your process when a student is struggling but can't articulate what's wrong?"
Why these work: They reveal how they balance compassion with boundaries — and whether they can think beyond scripts.
Business Officer
"Tell me about a financial decision you made that prevented a bigger problem down the line."
“Describe a time someone asked you to approve something you weren’t comfortable with. How did you navigate it?”
"How do you explain the why behind a financial process to someone who doesn't speak 'budget'?"
Why these work: They uncover ethical grounding, foresight, and the rare skill of translating complexity without condescension.
Bottom Line
I've hired or appointed more than a hundred people over the years, and hiring staff remains one of the most consequential parts of your leadership role—and also one of the easiest places to slip into lazy habits. It's tempting to skim resumes for familiar titles, choose the person who has done this exact role before, or treat staff positions as plug-and-play jobs.
But here's what I know from building staff teams over the years:
When you get the hire right, they become a tide that lifts all boats.
Work flows faster. Bottlenecks disappear. Students and faculty feel genuinely supported. New ideas surface. The entire program can get better in every way.
A resume tells you what someone has done. It can't tell you who they'll become for your team.
The right staff hire is one of the best gifts you can give your future self. They make the work lighter, the culture calmer, and the people around them better.
That's why it's worth slowing down, looking beyond familiar titles, and paying attention to the human being behind the resume. Because when you choose well, you're not just filling a position—you're shaping the future of your unit.
Try This Before Friday
If you have a staff hire coming up, try this:
First, write a short "human profile" for the role. Not the duties—the qualities.
Curiosity? Steadiness? Collaboration? Judgment? What does your unit actually need in a human being?
Then get specific: How will you know if a candidate has these qualities? What interview questions would reveal them? What would you listen for in their answers?
Finally, compare your profile to the last job posting you used. If they don't match, you know what to fix.
That’s it for today.
See you next Saturday.
p.s. What's your biggest staff hiring challenge right now? Just hit reply. I read every email and often your questions become future newsletter topics.
Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:
1.) Get the free guide: Your First 14 Days. A clear, practical playbook for new leaders navigating their first two weeks in higher ed leadership. 2.) Coaching for New Academic Leaders: A focused 1:1 coaching experience for higher ed professionals who want to lead with clarity, build smarter systems, and stay centered on what matters most. I work with a limited number of clients each quarter to provide highly personalized, strategic support. Send me a message. 3.) Professional Development Workshops: Interactive sessions for faculty, staff, and leadership teams that help reduce conflict, streamline decision-making, and shift culture with smart systems. Virtual and in-person options available. Sessions tailored to your campus needs. |