Klaas Kersting, CEO of flaregames, discusses how to keep a company asshole-free. He explains that assholes can lower productivity and cause harm in startups where everything is interdependent. To avoid assholes, flaregames focuses on personality over skills in hiring, looks for red flags early on, and works to build an open and inclusive culture.
4. And flaregames is…
… a focused team of industry veterans and fresh talent.
… creative, chaotic, sometimes loud, but always communicative, very
transparent und approachable.
… 35 dedicated people with a common goal.
5.
6. We create mobile games:
… 2 games out, 4 in production, more to come.
… free to play, high production value, made with passion
WORK IN PROGRES
16. Who‘s an asshole?
Sutton defined the dirty dozen of unpleasant behaviours:
The list was compiled mostly with mobbing in mind.
17. Who else?
But there‘s more, far more types of asshole:
The Exploiter (“can you do it for me?”)
The Ego (“I made this! Look! Look! Me! Me!”)
The Suit (“let’s have meeting first”)
The gossiper (“did you hear, X said…”)
The Black Hole (“Huh? Did I not tell you that?”)
Et cetera.
18. How to avoid them?
1. Don‘t hire them in the first place
2. Create an atmosphere that‘s asshole-toxic
3. Don‘t be one yourself (it‘ll rub off)
19. Scare them off:
flaregames‘ recruiting formula:
personality is worth more than skill
20. Recognize them early:
1. they badmouth
2. they drain energy
3. they say I a lot
4. they get angry easily
5. they don‘t take critizism well
21. Hire carefully
This is how we hire somebody:
1. Meet her informally, for a beer
2. Meet her formally in the office
3. Give her a very hard task to perform
4. Have her present the results before the task
5. Have the team vote on her
22. Think about the atmosphere
1. Be open, always
2. Don‘t reward bootlicking
3. Give people a chance to speak up
4. Don‘t incentize with money
5. Don‘t build circles („us“ vs. „them“)