"You can do everything right and still lose the candidate in the final week."

The period between "Making the Offer" and "Day 1" is the danger zone. This is when candidates get cold feet, receive counter-offers from their current bosses, or simply ghost you.

In Part 3 (The Finale) of our Hiring Masterclass, Michael Bailey and I wrap up with the critical final steps to lock in your A player and get them excited to start.

In this episode, we cover:

-Making the Offer: Why compensation alone isn't enough—personalize the offer based on what you learned matters to them during the interview.

-Don't Get Cheap: The costly mistake leaders make by negotiating down at the finish line. A players deliver massive ROI—pay them fairly.

-Trust Your Gut: Why you must listen to your intuition, even when a candidate looks perfect on paper. Michael shares cautionary tales of ignoring that inner voice.

-The Anti-Ghosting Protocol: Specific pre-boarding steps to keep candidates excited between offer and Day 1—welcome gifts, early laptop delivery, first-week agenda, and desk setup.

Plus, hear key takeaways from business leaders who realized their hiring process needed a complete overhaul.

Michael Bailey is a Growth Consultant with over 20 years of experience helping SMEs scale successfully by building strong people strategies. As former CFO and People Director at MOMs Organic Market, he helped scale the business from 3 to 7 stores while maintaining its purpose-driven culture. He's also worked with Urban Leisure Group (named one of the Guardian's Best Places to Work in London) and The Better Food Company, where he prioritized people alongside profits.

Contact Michael:

1. Website: www.elzeard.co.uk
2. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bailey3

People are watching you through a magnifying glass.

As a leader, everything you do is amplified. A casual comment about "opening an office in LA" can turn into a company-wide rumor within an hour. Being five minutes late to a meeting can undermine your entire speech about "integrity."

It takes months to earn respect, but only a few bad habits to lose it.

In this episode, we flip the script. Instead of telling you how to be a great leader, I am going to teach you the 5 Fastest Ways to Lose Respect. By identifying these traps, you can audit your own behavior and stop the leaks in your leadership.

In this episode, you will learn:

-The Hypocrisy Trap: Why asking your team to do things you don't model (like punctuality) makes them roll their eyes at your values .

-The "Secondary Priority" Signal: Why bumping a 1:1 meeting or delaying a salary conversation tells your employee "You don't matter to me" .

-The Authority Paradox: Why acting like you "know it all" (or conversely, knowing nothing) kills team confidence .

-The "Firefighter" Mistake: Why getting stuck in the weeds and failing to be strategic makes your team see you as just another peer with a fancy title.

-The Clarity Gap: How vague expectations force even your best employees to fail because they don't know the parameters of success .

💪 The Challenge for This Week: Audit yourself against the "Anti-Playbook."

-Reflect: Look at the 5 ways to lose respect. Which one are you currently guilty of?

-The Fix:

-Are you canceling meetings? Stop moving them.

-Are you inconsistent? Stick to one message.

-Are you unclear? Sit down and define the expectations.

Resources

-Join the Conversation: Join our Leadership Mindset 2.0 community on LinkedIn or Facebook

-Get Live Coaching: Move from listening to doing inside the Growth Leaders Collective. Start your $1 trial at RMichaelAnderson.com/GLC

"Past performance is the best predictor of future performance."

Most interviews are flawed because they rely on hypothetical questions ("What would you do if...?"). A skilled candidate can fake a hypothetical answer. They cannot fake a chronological track record.

In Part 2 of our Hiring Masterclass, Michael Bailey and I move from preparation to execution. We tackle the two hardest parts of the funnel: finding A-Players who aren't looking for jobs, and conducting an interview that acts as a "truth serum."

In this episode, you will learn:

-The Virtual Bench: Why you must constantly recruit at trade shows and dinners before you have an opening, so you never start from scratch .

-The "Entrepreneurial CPA" Strategy: How Michael wrote a job ad so unique it was featured in the business book Scaling Up, and how you can use "low hurdles" to filter out B-Players immediately .

-The Phone Screen: The 30-minute filter that saves you hours of wasted interview time.

-The "Threat of Reference Check" (TORC): A psychological tactic used early in the interview that compels candidates to tell you the unvarnished truth about their weaknesses .

-The Chronological Interview: The deep-dive format (1.5 to 3 hours) where you walk through their last 5 jobs in order. We explain why candidates let their guard down after minute 40 and give you full candour.

Resources:

-Get the Templates: Download the Job Scorecard and Interview Templates mentioned in this episode inside the Growth Leaders Collective at RMichaelAnderson.com/GLC

Michael Bailey is a Growth Consultant with over 20 years of experience helping SMEs scale successfully by building strong people strategies. As former CFO and People Director at MOMs Organic Market, he helped scale the business from 3 to 7 stores while maintaining its purpose-driven culture. He's also worked with Urban Leisure Group (named one of the Guardian's Best Places to Work in London) and The Better Food Company, where he prioritized people alongside profits.

Contact Michael:

1. Website: www.elzeard.co.uk
2. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bailey3