Ep. 36: Leadership Ownership vs Victim Mentality: How Top Teams Hire

Episode Highlights

• Previewing the Scott Brady Episode: Hosts Ivan Konermann and Cathy Maday discuss an upcoming episode featuring business leader Scott Brady, highlighting his entrepreneurial mindset and his expectation for his team to demonstrate high levels of personal ownership.
• Identifying “Victim Language”: The hosts address common non-ownership behaviors in workplace culture, particularly when managers use phrases like “corporate told us to” or “they’re making us”. They note that this passive language reflects a victim mindset, abdicates responsibility, and erodes trust among team members.
• Language over Assessment Tools: Ivan explains why Wingspan generally avoids traditional assessment tools, noting that listening to a person’s language quickly reveals their mindset, view on responsibility, and observable behaviors.
• Focusing on Specific Behaviors in Hiring: The discussion emphasizes identifying five to six critical, thinly sliced behaviors needed for a role—rather than relying on basic skill sets—when conducting key hiring and succession planning.
• Behavior-Focused Interview Tactics:
  • Challenging Leadership: Ivan shares an instance from an executive interview where he pressure-tested candidates by asking how they would handle a situation where they disagreed with the owner’s direction. Candidates who were willing to productively push back and engage were favored over those who passively complied.
  • Asking for Direct Feedback: Cathy details an interview strategy where candidates are asked to give feedback to the hiring manager on the spot to test their willingness to have open, candid exchanges.