Hiring for Character and Performance
Building Teams that Last for the Long Run
When building a company for the long term, hiring the right talent can be a huge challenge. Skills and credentials might get someone through the door, but it is character and performance that determine whether they will build or break the business you’re creating.
In the world of Bitcoin businesses, we are not just building companies. We are pioneering a new technological and financial paradigm. That means we need talent for our companies who align with our values, who take ownership of outcomes, and who are strong individual contributors. The stakes are high, and the need for principled judgment is great.
Fortunately, there is a framework that can help us hire and evaluate with clarity. It comes from two sources you would not typically see in the same room: the Navy SEALs and CEO of Koch Industries, Charles Koch. Yet both are concerned with the same problem: how to identify people that we trust under pressure.
What the Navy SEALs Look for in their Teams
Simon Sinek once shared a story about the Navy SEALs approach to talent evaluation on their teams. When asked how they select team members for SEAL Team 6, the Navy’s elite unit, the SEALs pointed to a simple two-axis graph. One axis measures performance (i.e. competence and proficiency at executing their role under pressure). The other measures trust (or how much you can rely on that person’s character). As Sinek puts it, “Can I trust you with my life (performance), but can I also trust you with my money and my wife? (Trust).”
Watch the clip of Sinek’s presentation of the performance-trust matrix here.
According to Sinek, the SEALs made one thing clear: they would rather have someone with average performance and high trust than someone with top-tier performance and average or low trust. In fact, they described the high performer with low trust as a toxic leader. That person undermines cohesion, erodes morale, and ultimately puts the mission at risk despite being technically proficient.
Many companies make the opposite mistake. They recruit for skill, experience. title, certification, and degree while not thoroughly evaluating character. They keep toxic talent on the team because they deliver results in the short term. But over time, that person becomes a liability. They slow down decision-making, create churn, damage trust and cohesion on the team, and spread fear. In contrast, someone with deep character rooted in principles such as humility, integrity, accountability, are the kind of person who makes others better and strengthens the culture.
Koch’s Virtue and Talents Matrix
Completely separately, Koch Industries’ CEO, Charles Koch, came to a similar conclusion in the boardroom instead of the battlefield. In Good Profit, Koch introduces the “Virtue and Talents” matrix. The framework maps company employees across two dimensions on an x-y axis (just like the SEALs): virtue and talent. Virtue refers to the values and character traits a person holds and lives by. Talent refers to the knowledge, skills, and abilities they bring to the role.
Naturally, the highest-value contributors are those with both strong virtue and strong talent. These are the people who not only perform well but also make principled decisions and act like owners. At the opposite corner are people with low talent and low virtue. These are obviously poor fits. But the most dangerous and often the most overlooked quadrant is high talent paired with low virtue. These individuals often rise quickly and appear effective, but they cut corners, undermine peers, and make decisions that serve themselves over the long run interests of the company or customer. As Koch writes, “Having skills and intelligence is important, but we can hire all the brightest MBAs in the world, and if they don’t have the right values, we will fail. Therefore, we hire based on values first—then talent.” [Good Profit, p. 16]
In Koch Industries, they have found that to build a high-trust, high-performance culture, this matrix offers a clear guide: screen for virtue, develop for talent. Skills can be taught. Character cannot.
How to Evaluate for Character
Evaluating character does not happen through resume screens. It comes through conversation, a bit of healthy pressure, and observation.
Here are several practical questions you can use with prospective hires and current team members:
When was the last time you disagreed with a colleague? How did you handle it? [Are they open to new ideas? Do they speak poorly about former colleagues?]
Tell me about a time you failed or made a mistake in your work. What was the ultimate outcome? [Are they humble enough to admit a mistake and also confident enough to talk through what they learned? Are they coachable]
What are your personal values, how do you see a connection between those values and Bitcoin? [Are they just looking for a job or do they really value the future that our company is building toward?]
What would your former teammates say it was like to work with you? [Are they a team player? Are they trustworthy?]
Have you ever taken responsibility for a mistake or a poor outcome? What was that like? [Do they step up for the team?]
These questions reveal more than technical proficiency. They can help reveal temperament, worldview, personal values, and self-awareness. They show how a person thinks about responsibility, team dynamics, and their own growth.
How to Use the Matrix Inside Your Organization
The Virtue and Talents matrix is not just a hiring tool. It can also help leaders think clearly about the current team. Use it to assess individuals honestly. Who consistently demonstrates ownership, humility, and principled behavior? Who raises the standard of those around them? These are likely your high-virtue, high-talent contributors.
At the same time, use the matrix to identify risks. Do you have someone who delivers strong results but burns bridges or breaks trust? That is potentially a high-talent, low-virtue liability.
You can also use the matrix at the organizational level. Ask: What does our hiring process reward? Are we signaling that character matters as much as performance? Are our incentives aligned with long-term value creation, or do they encourage short-term wins? Is our leadership modeling the behavior we expect of others?
By embedding these questions into your culture, you begin to build something rare — a company where performance and principle grow together in a symbiotic relationship.
The Kind of Teams Bitcoin Needs
Managing a growing business team is not and never will be easy. There will always be ups and downs, but having the tools and mental models in place to consistently promote high performance and high character will improve our chances of building the businesses of tomorrow.
The good news is that we do have some tools to identify and develop the right people for our businesses. The combination of the Navy SEAL performance-trust model and the Virtue and Talents matrix gives Bitcoin business leaders a practical edge in laying the foundations for building a winning team in the long run.
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