What do NASA, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett look for when hiring?

I have studied them and found their thinking very enlightening. I hope you do too.

 NASA selecting astronauts for Mars training. 

Imagine being in a small space capsule with 6 other astronauts, traveling for 7 months just to get there. Imagine living quarters the size of a small RV!

3 of the criteria NASA looks for:

  1. Slow fuse
  2. Thick-skinned
  3. Optimistic

Elon Musk runs multiple high-tech billion-dollar companies.

What are some attributes Elon looks for?

  1. Excellence
  2. Loyalty
  3. Drive

Warren Buffett talks about these 3 attributes:

  1. Smart
  2. Ambitious
  3. High integrity

Mr. Buffett will tell you that if the executive does not have #3, then # 1 and 2 will kill you!

What do I look for in managers and executives? Attributes I look for include:

  1. Initiative / Drive
  2. Ability to motivate others to consistently achieve higher results
  3. Judgment / Decision making;  Are they asking the right questions, focused on “root causes?”
  4. Resolve – Will they stay with a very difficult challenge? Albert Einstein was once asked if he felt he was the most intelligent scientist in the world. His answer was: “I may not be much smarter than my colleagues, but I do stick with a problem longer.”

What attributes do you look for?

Donald Jasensky

Automotive Personnel, LLC

[email protected]

216-226-8190