Hiring and recruiting is going to be one of the most exciting areas in human resources in the upcoming years, particularly in response to the utilization of AI for decision-making. When I first started working in the leadership space, a number of organizations were interested in improving their hiring practices particularly with respect to interviewing and being able to accurately capture “top talent” skills, as they were called at the time. The demand for this ability has not ceased, as I learned in March 2025 when I was interviewed about the topic for an article in Fortune magazine and how to hire CEO’s with stellar soft skills and how to know know for sure they possess those abilities. This ongoing inquiry was part of my own motivation to write this book and lay it all out in a clear, simple, and practical way.

 

The challenge for organizations is being able to accurately capture them. This is because the psychological instruments and tests historically used (Big 5 personality traits, etc.) were not developed for modern organizations and tapping the psychological features of high performers. Similarly, even newer, flashier HR apps that I have reviewed simply do not seem to authentically capture an accurate representation of emotional intelligences. Why not? The tests were likely not standardized and properly normed with today’s work force. Additionally, the statistical precision for emotional intelligence is difficult to capture based on self-report data without validity scales to compensate for the likelihood of people’s positive impression management response style bias.

 

Using such instruments is like using a big fishing net and keeping the best of what you catch. One of the newer approaches that has shifted away from psychological tests is a methodology called structured professional judgement (SPJ). SPJ questionnaires were developed in the forensic psychology arena to make determinations about risk likelihood in various domains of danger based on collective research findings vs. subjective judgement which has long been proven to be no better than chance. Thus, I utilized the psychological research to develop hiring and interviewing instruments that were anchored in proven leadership attributes and behaviors, that could be cross-validated with real-world experiences and result in more precise hires.

 

I do not believe AI will ever fully replace humans in this task for the simple reason that humans are dynamic and constantly change, and that introduces a degree of unpredictability that warrants a professional read of the AI interpretation of new hires based on video interviews, psychological tests, and reviews of letters of recommendation. In essence, this is the way to reduce error, close to zero, for making a bad hire.

 

Whether you are key decision-maker or not in the hiring space, at some point in your career you will likely contribute your ideas and recommendations for a new hire to be accepted or rejected as a new employee. These points can help you critically think about the hiring methodology that was utilized, its accuracy, and how error and biases could lead to an inaccurate conclusion. Likewise, thinking critically and scientifically about this hiring methodology will guide you to a more objective and less subjective approach that fairly appraises the candidate.

 

The Exercise:

To think this point through in a personal way, imagine your are responsible for hiring someone for your team or department. Technical skills aside, what are the top 10 people skills the candidate would need? Write them down. Now ask yourself how those would ideally be measured or represented in a robust hiring methodology