Jamie Dimon runs one of the world’s largest banks and his hiring filter includes a key question: “Would you want your kid to work for that person?” Simple. Uncomfortable. Exactly right. He said it plainly on Coffee with The Greats (July 15, 2020): “I’ve promoted people and the answer would’ve been ‘no.’ I’ve made this mistake.” The question decodes into three things worth testing in any GM review. Does this person absorb blame or redirect it? Do they treat people the same way regardless of the quarter? Would you want someone you care about inside their orbit every day? In a buy-and-build platform, a GM’s behavior is not a personal trait. It is the cultural operating system for every person beneath them. No model, no process, and no incentive structure fixes a bad standard set at the top of a subsidiary. We think about this before we back a GM, and we think about it again every year after. Run your current GMs through the filter. Would you pass them? Source: Jamie Dimon, Coffee with The Greats podcast, hosted by Miles Fisher (episode published July 15, 2020); as reported by CNBC (Sept. 2, 2020) Follow us at redacted