A Strong Resume Does Not Guarantee a Strong Hire

78% of resumes have outright lies on them and 100% have embellishments.

That was one of the first things Alec Broadfoot said during our conversation this week, and it explains a lot about why hiring becomes such a frustrating cycle for growing firms.

Not because there are no good candidates. Because a lot of firms are hiring under pressure.

So the process becomes less about finding the right long-term fit and more about solving immediate pressure:

And for a lot of firms, the resume becomes the deciding factor.

The problem is that resumes do not tell you much about how someone actually operates inside a business long term. They do not tell you how someone leads. They do not tell you how they communicate under pressure, fit within the culture, handle accountability, solve problems, or work alongside the rest of the leadership team.

That is the gap Alec’s company, VisionSpark, is built around. They specialize in helping businesses hire leadership positions, especially that number two integrator role that many growing firms eventually realize they need.

A lot of lawyers eventually become business operators because growth requires it. At some point, the founder can no longer be the person carrying every major responsibility inside the business.

But hiring, leadership development, accountability, and organizational structure are entirely different skill sets from practicing law itself.

Eventually, growing firms need more than talented attorneys. They need leadership teams. They need operational structure. They need people who can help carry responsibility alongside the founder.

That is when concepts like EOS, integrators, and leadership structure become much more important as firms grow.

Once firms start hiring leadership positions instead of support staff, the cost of getting it wrong becomes much bigger.

A bad leadership hire does not just affect one role. It affects communication, accountability, operations, culture, team trust, and ultimately the firm’s ability to scale.

Alec’s hiring process reflects that reality. Personality assessments. Mental aptitude testing. Leadership evaluations. Culture interviews. Resume interrogation. The goal is not simply finding someone capable of doing the work. It is finding someone who actually fits the business long term and can operate effectively inside the structure of the firm.

(If you’d rather listen on the go, listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts.)

The firms that scale well usually become much more intentional about leadership hiring as they grow. Not just who can do the work, but who can lead, operate within the culture, strengthen accountability, and help support the next stage of growth.

Because eventually, growth starts exposing leadership gaps and operational gaps that talent alone cannot solve.

If your firm is growing and leadership hiring still feels driven more by urgency than long-term structure, I think this conversation with Alec is worth listening to.

A few other places where we share ideas, conversations, and resources: