Holly Rose Faith, who works with Graylock startups to find, recruit, and place executive team members, outlines smart strategies to deploy when checking references. From having a plan of what you're looking for at the outset to asking specific questions depending on the role or stage company, all hiring managers should go into it with reliable, repeatable, formal system in place. You want to zero in on the most important areas, behavioral competencies, the personal characteristics, the leadership ability, new management advice, strengths and areas of improvement. As you ask these open-ended questions on these important areas, you're going to be experiencing some real life scenarios that if you hire an executive onto your team