Why the founder of the $1 billion fitness marketplace ClassPass looked for ‘positive’ and ‘optimistic’ employees to build her team

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This morning, we’re bringing you a guest essay from ClassPass founder Payal Kadakia. In the excerpt from her new book, “LifePass: Drop Your Limits, Rise to Your Potential,” Kadakia describes her approach to hiring—and the critical traits she looked for in every employee. (Editor’s Note: ClassPass was acquired by Mindbody last year.)

Kadakia’s philosophy is essentially a form of hiring for culture fit. We’d love to hear from you, Broadsheet readers. Do you seek out certain personality types when hiring, or do other factors influence your decision? Send me your thoughts at [email protected]. Your note may be featured in a future edition of the Broadsheet. 

Now, from ClassPass founder Payal Kadakia:

– Team Life. Throughout life, but especially when pursuing your calling, you want a team that can help you keep pushing forward through obstacles and setbacks. When I had the opportunity to put together the team at ClassPass, I thought long and hard about what types of people I worked best with, and I was intentional about recruiting based on these characteristics. Some personality types simply work better together than others and allow both people in the relationship to support and give to each other.

With ClassPass, I assessed what sort of team we needed for the company to succeed and who would be the best employees for me to lead. By then, I knew that I worked best with generally positive people who had an optimistic outlook, and who were humble and wanted to grow and learn. I also valued those who made good use of their most precious asset: time.

The company pillars I created when making hiring decisions were positivity, growth, and efficiency. Establishing these pillars helped the company—and me—in many ways. As a leader, I knew I had to exude these values, and they gave employees a clear sense of what was expected of them and what they were meant to strive for. Before performance reviews, employees evaluated themselves based on these pillars, and we gave awards every year to the employees who most strongly exhibited these traits. I was able to thrive when surrounded by people at work and in my personal life who shared my foundational values and fit together seamlessly as a team. I also learned from experience that whenever we hired someone who didn’t display these values, that hire tended to not work out.

This philosophy relates to what I call Team Life, or the phenomenon of having a few people close to us who support us and are invested in our success. Team Life is about building our own circle of support from family, friends, teachers, mentors, colleagues, and bosses who can help support us as we follow our calling. People who are part of your personal team can enhance your strengths, fill in for your weaknesses, and help you succeed.

So how can you develop your own Team Life? Are there certain types of people missing from your inner circle or energies that are absent from your life? Are there particular people you work well with? Pay attention to how people make you feel—and let this guide you when making decisions about who to bring into your life to help you reach your goals.

Read the full excerpt here.

Excerpted from LIFEPASS: Drop Your Limits, Rise to Your Potential by Payal Kadakia. Published by Chronicle Prism, an imprint of Chronicle Books. Copyright © 2022 by Payal Kadakia.

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