In hiring, we often default to checking off a list: education, experience, certifications, hard skills. These are easy to measure and look great on a resume. But over time, one principle keeps rising to the top in successful organizations: hire for attitude, train for skill.
At first, it sounds counterintuitive. Why hire someone who isn’t already technically proficient? Because time and again, companies find that the right attitude is harder to teach, but more valuable in the long run. Skills can be trained. Mindset, not so much.
What Does “Hire for Attitude” Actually Mean?
Hiring for attitude doesn’t mean ignoring qualifications or throwing job requirements out the window. It means prioritizing mindset, adaptability, and cultural fit over raw technical ability. It means looking for people who are coachable, resilient, collaborative, and genuinely interested in learning.
The ideal candidate may not tick every technical box, but they show signs of emotional intelligence, curiosity, work ethic, and alignment with the company’s mission or values. These qualities are predictors of success that often outlast initial technical competency.
The Cost of the Wrong Attitude
Hiring someone with all the right skills but the wrong attitude can backfire—fast. Toxic behavior, poor communication, resistance to feedback, or a “not my job” mindset can drag teams down and stall progress.
A Harvard study found that 80% of employee turnover stems from bad hiring decisions,
often tied to attitude or cultural misalignment rather than lack of skill. These hires can create tension, damage morale, and drive out high performers. In contrast, someone with the right mindset will grow, contribute, and often surpass the more “qualified” hire over time.
Skills Are Easier to Teach Than Character
Let’s face it: almost any technical skill can be taught, especially in today’s world of on-demand learning. Coding, project management, data tools, CRM platforms—there’s a course, mentor, or internal training program for all of it.
What’s harder to teach? A sense of ownership. A collaborative spirit. Humility. Grit. These are the traits that define high-impact employees, and they don’t come from textbooks or online modules. If someone comes in with these core traits, training them in the technical parts becomes a smart investment.
Real-World Examples That Prove the Point
Plenty of high-performing companies have built hiring strategies around this principle. Here are just a few:
1. Southwest Airlines
Southwest is famous for its quirky, people-first culture. They prioritize hiring people with a positive attitude and a customer-first mindset—even over aviation experience. Their logic: you can teach someone how to handle a boarding process or work a gate computer. You can’t teach them to smile under pressure or treat passengers with empathy.
The result? Southwest consistently ranks at the top of customer service and employee satisfaction charts.
2. Zappos
Zappos takes culture fit so seriously that they offer new hires $2,000 to quit after the first week if they don’t feel aligned with the company’s values. They’d rather lose that money early than retain someone who isn’t the right fit.
They look for personality traits like positivity, humility, and adaptability—and they’re willing to invest heavily in training the rest.
3. Google
Even tech giants like Google have recognized that technical expertise isn’t the only predictor of performance. In fact, some of their internal studies revealed that soft skills like communication, empathy, and critical thinking were stronger indicators of success in leadership roles than deep technical knowledge.
Google now evaluates attitude, leadership potential, and learning agility just as seriously as coding ability.
The ROI of Hiring for Attitude
Investing in someone with the right mindset pays off in multiple ways:
1. Faster Cultural Integration
Employees who align with your values and approach are more likely to hit the ground running. They adapt faster, build relationships quickly, and contribute to team dynamics instead of clashing with them.
2. Lower Turnover
People with a growth mindset are more likely to stick around, evolve with the company, and find ways to contribute as roles and needs shift. That kind of agility is gold in fast-moving industries.
3. Higher Engagement
Attitude-driven employees often show more ownership, more initiative, and more willingness to go the extra mile—not because they’re told to, but because they care.
4. Better Team Performance
A technically strong but toxic employee can poison a team. A less experienced but positive and motivated one can lift a team. Over time, team chemistry matters more than individual brilliance.
How to Screen for Attitude in Hiring
So how do you actually identify the right attitude in a hiring process? Here are a few strategies that work:
1. Behavioral Interviewing
Ask candidates how they’ve handled challenges, conflict, and failure in the past. Look for signs of accountability, reflection, adaptability, and initiative.
Example questions:
Tell me about a time you received tough feedback. What did you do with it?
Describe a time you worked with someone difficult. How did you handle it?
What’s a skill you’ve taught yourself recently? Why?
2. Culture-Focused Interviews
Involve team members in the process. Assess how candidates interact, how curious they are, and whether they ask thoughtful questions about how the team works.
3. Soft Skills Assessments
Tools like emotional intelligence tests or problem-solving exercises can help reveal how someone thinks, communicates, and responds under pressure.
4. Trial Projects or Work Samples
A short real-world task can show more than a resume ever could. It reveals work ethic, communication style, and openness to feedback.
What About Highly Technical Roles?
Some roles absolutely require a certain level of baseline technical competence—no one’s hiring a surgeon or senior developer with zero training. But even in these roles, attitude still plays a defining role.
You might not hire a software engineer who doesn’t know the language you use. But if they show hunger to learn, a collaborative nature, and problem-solving ability, you might hire someone who’s slightly less experienced but more growth-oriented.
The point isn’t to ignore skill. It’s to recognize that skill without the right mindset often hits a ceiling, while mindset with developing skill continues to climb.
Final Thoughts
In a fast-changing world, technical skills evolve and tools go out of date. But the right attitude? That’s a long-term asset.
Hiring for attitude isn’t a soft or vague approach. It’s a smart, evidence-based strategy to build resilient, high-performing teams. Skills can be taught. Values, curiosity, grit, and emotional intelligence are harder to instill.
So next time you're hiring, resist the urge to just check boxes. Look deeper. Find the person who will grow with your team, not just the one who looks good on paper.
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