If any blame or fault attaches...
On go-getters, good hiring practices, and why we should read Eisenhower's brief unused message from an alternate timeline of D-Day
Good hiring practices are a challenge for almost every institution. It's hard to know whether someone is a good fit without a real battery of tests and a dry run of some sort. But it isn't all that hard to see what ought to be important everywhere.
■ Warren Buffett has long advocated for the trinity of intelligence, energy, and integrity -- with integrity being the keystone: "If you hire somebody without it, you really want them to be dumb and lazy."
■ The thing about energy and intelligence is that they tend to be self-rewarding. Go-getters will almost always find a way to make their spunk pay off. Smart people typically start with a leg up in school and can navigate life and its adversity with the advantage of cleverness. Integrity is the only one of those three characteristics that is guaranteed to cost the person who has it.
■ Energy alone isn't a virtue (or else certain forms of drug addiction would be praised). Intelligence alone isn't either (or else we wouldn't have the phrase "evil genius"). But integrity is always a virtue, and it is fully independent of the other two. It is learned by the individual, but its importance is only realized and sustained when institutions celebrate it.
■ On D-Day in 1944, Dwight Eisenhower had a message ready to go in case the assault failed. It read: "Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that Bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."
■ "Any blame or fault…is mine alone". The successful invasion was result of sacrifices by thousands. But Eisenhower was prepared to accept sole responsibility, had things turned out wrong. There may not be a better singular example of integrity from a modern leader.
■ And there is every reason for us to call attention to it even now, 81 years later, because energy and intelligence will almost always find a way to thrive -- but integrity is the necessary virtue that needs our aid and promotion in every generation. Anyone without it should be kept miles away from even the shadow of power.
