The #1 Hiring Mistake Leaders Make #CoreValuesFirst #HireForCulture #RestaurantLeadership

18 Aug 2025 · 0 min

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0:18

A short conversational clip from a YouTube video by Donald Burns about hiring for core values. The speakers argue that technical skills (making drinks, bussing tables) are easy to teach but intrinsic traits—caring, personality, willingness to grow—are not. The central claim: hire for cultural fit and core values first because you cannot reliably change people's personalities or instill genuine care.

We just built with hiring really good people that really fit into our core values from the front end. Most of them didn't have any experience and you know, that's the easy part to teach. It's easy to teach somebody how to make a drink or table if they care. We can't teach. We can't teach.
You can't teach nobody to care. No. And you can't change personality. I know we all think we can. That's like the biggest misconception I think a lot of leaders have is that they think they can change people. Where I mean, you know how it is. It's like look at New Year's resolutions. How hard is it to change yourself? But you think I can go out and change other people?
Yeah. If somebody doesn't want to change, they're definitely not going to, you know, and to be better every day and to grow, you have to want to do that.