3 Bad Ass Ways to Recruit and Retain Talent like Breaking Bad’s Walter White

Breaking Bad, the TV show, completed its fifth and final season in September 2013 but it’s legacy continues as die-hard fans are lingering on for a spin off series and character trivia. The series’ massive popularity is perhaps partially explained by Walter White’s flawed, yet predominantly alpha-male character. In Walt’s world, hiring top talent for his crystal meth operation is not just a major leadership decision; it is a matter of life and death.

Here then, are Walt’s most sagacious hiring and management rules to ensure your top talent can be trusted and remains loyal.

1.    Recruit Key Talent Using Word of Mouth Referrals Only

Walt first hires Jesse Pinkman as his formerly trusted student. Then Jesse further recruits his loyal and reliable meth partners as part of the operation. Not all their recruiting decisions are so fortunate though as the last season proves how hiring the unreliable Aryans becomes a colossal mistake, and Walt’s ultimate downfall.

Your key talent should always be recruited using a word of mouth network that is trusted and has withstood the test of time. Obviously this means that you need to first build up a trusted network, which takes time. According to Porter Gale, author of the popular book Your Network is your Net Worth: “your social capital, or your ability to build a network of authentic personal and professional relationships … is the most important asset in your portfolio”. It turns out that relationships – not education or degrees – hold the penultimate key to recruiting success.

2.    Thoroughly Check References & Backgrounds

Walter White learned the hard way that he could not trust Gustavo Fring or Tuco Salamanca because of their thirst for blood. He ultimately decided to end his relationships with them before they ended his life.

While your top talent may not be criminals or mass murderers, someone’s ill repute can still cause irreparable damage to your corporate culture, company goodwill and team morale. So you’ll want to carefully pick people who have strong references and can be vouched for – both by their previous employers and by their industry and peers in general. Also, people who leave on good terms – whether willingly or as the result of a termination – are in general team players who value their reputations and those of their employers. Those are the people who are less likely to bad mouth others, even when they switch companies.

3.    Hire People Who Align With Your Workplace Values

It’s ironic that no matter how bad Walter’s fictional crimes got, Team Walt remained loyal to him till the end. His fans’ loyalty – perhaps misplaced – was a result of Walter’s alternative moral code, proving that even when a person is on shaky moral ground, the culture and convictions he builds around himself help people justify his actions and hail him as a hero.

Many organizations first look for a culture fit for prospective candidates, even beyond academic qualifications and professional experience. Jim Rohn said it best when he said that “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. Top leaders know that synergy within a team is crucial to keeping the wheels greased and the company on track and so they hire people who work well together and are a good cultural fit.

Walter White was so powerful and had such a lasting impact with viewers that Time magazine named him as the most influential fictional character of 2013. Your top leadership team needs to build the same kind of fierce loyalty and dedication by making the right crucial hiring decisions. When you attract, recruit and retain talent like Walter White, you build a close knit loyal team that works powerfully well together.

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