Bad References = Good Idea?

I was interviewing a lady for a position in one of the portfolio companies. She is very smart, lots of good experience and most of the gang thought she'd be pretty good for the role we were trying to fill.

I have this thing about references. When was the last time you had somebody give you a list of references where the references didn't say nice things about the person? Right. And when it did happen or when a person had no clue they were being a reference for so and so, you usually took off points for not being smart about lining up the references.

Julie did something a bit different.

When I asked her for some references, she gave me three and then said something in the email that I thought was pretty interesting.

"I've also included these 3 people who will give you the other side. They were not, and i suspect, are not my biggest fans so they might give you better information vs. the others who have already cashed the checks and I know are in the bag.

I've found that knowing what people are like when they are in major asshole mode, is far better data."

Hmm, different approach. Either a brilliant head fake (wish I'd thought of it!) or a very smart approach toward giving us a  good/bad view so we could make up our minds with rounded data.

I managed to get a hold of two of the folks. Both of them used to work for Julie and both said she was not a great boss.  It turns out that they had complaints about emphasis on process, concerns that she never really acted like one of the gang, and a host of other minor items.

The fascinating part was that as I dove deeper into the various issues, both of these folks mellowed out a bit and started to see it from what Julie's position must have been.

In the end, both individuals were surprisingly upbeat about actually working for her again. They were great calls for references even tho you wouldn't call them 'great references'.

The other great references were great, as expected.  The CEO is having a follow up conversation with her as the full pictures still presents to us a good candidate and he is inclined to make an offer. 

Lesson for you?  After you asked the "What are your weak points" question and the "Where can you improve" question, follow up with the really good question:

"Who can we talk to that will give us the bad/ugly?" 

Watch the body language and get the names. "Bad" references don't have to always result in a no-hire, rather data points that give you an edge in managing the development opportunities that we all have. 

Comments

[Percy]

What a fantastic idea! Takes guts to do something like that and it shows that she's creative as well. Glad that it's worked out for her too.