By the time you reach the in-person interview stage, you should be speaking with people who have already cleared the make-or-break hurdles. Your final candidates have the baseline skills needed to get the job done. Now it’s a question of culture fit and personality—theirs, and just as important, yours. What do you need to consider in face-to-face meetings and in on-boarding?

• Past interactions with employees, reports, and colleagues. What are the common characteristics of those you’ve worked well (and not so well) with? Based on that history, which candidates demonstrate the characteristics most likely to help the two of you forge a productive relationship?
• How a candidate might handle actual work. Lay out a three-month schedule for the prospective hire. How would they handle the tasks? What kind of feedback do they offer? How do they respond to real/perceived challenges?
• Remember, it’s about learning. Bearing in mind that the right candidate still needs to learn reduces the chance that you’ll be hypervigilant about beginner mistakes and less likely to pull the activity back onto your own plate at the first sign of trouble. Take the time to ease into your own new role as teacher, coach, and mentor.

Hiring right and guiding new employees can help your company grow. Just as important, it will help you evolve in your own role from managing tasks to leading your team so your company achieves greater levels of performance.

Read the first in our series of Connections to Growth: Team guides, Putting the Right Team in Place, to learn how hiring the right people can spur your business’s growth.