This is a question I get asked fairly frequently, and for me it comes down to a few things:

First and foremost, you need to be 100% clear on your company’s core values. Understanding who you are as a company and being able to clearly communicate that to anyone is key here.

Every employee should be able to speak with the same “voice” on this, and when you ask them what it means to be an employee of “X”, they should have the same answer.

If you don’t suss this out early on, you’re going to end up with a whole bunch of people veering off into different directions and doing whatever they want, and that’s how companies unravel.

Second, it is important to create a real, defined role for whomever you are going to hire. It’s ok to expect people to do more, but if you don’t have something for someone to *do* then you don’t have a metric for them to measure themselves against as a baseline and you’re doing everyone a disservice.

I get it, it’s a startup, everyone wears multiple hats – but if you don’t know WHY you need a person, then you shouldn’t be hiring them in the first place.

And third, if you have anyone on your existing team that doesn’t like the person you intend to hire (thus making a “right” hire turn into a wrong one), find out what their objections are and see if they can be overcome before giving that person an offer.

No matter how much you think you want them (or actually really do need them), bringing in someone new that will cause strife among your currently loyal employees can cause the downfall of your company. Sometimes just acknowledging someone’s objections is enough to save yourself the agita of a mutiny months down the line, and it will make transitions smoother.