The Wonky Carrot Mindset Makeover: What We Learned at IHR Live London

At IHR Live London, we took to the Headline Stage with one question:

What if your best hire doesn’t look the "part"?

James Fellowes and Chance Bleu-Montgomery invited recruiters, talent leaders, hiring managers and people professionals to look again at the candidates traditional processes can too quickly filter out. Under the banner Free the Wonky Carrots, we explored why potential, perseverance and lived experience can matter just as much as polish.

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The response was powerful: 100% of the audience told us their mindset had shifted. That is encouraging—but a changed mindset only counts when it changes what happens next: the wording in a job advert, the questions in an interview, the scorecard in a debrief and the support offered after day one.

A Wonky Carrot is still a carrot

A wonky carrot’s shape tells you nothing about its taste, value or potential. Yet in hiring, surface signals are still often used as shortcuts for capability: a polished CV, a familiar career path, uninterrupted employment, confidence in the room or an easy version of "cultural fit".

Those signals may offer context. They are not proof of competence.

Confidence is not competence. A conventional CV is not grit.

The better question is not, "Do they look like the kind of person who succeeds here?" It is, "What job-relevant evidence do they give us of skill, learning, perseverance and contribution?"

The three shifts behind the Mindset Makeover

1. Nurture different thinking

Difference should not be allowed to dominate the conversation. A career gap, a conviction, a disability, neurodivergent communication, a non-linear journey or a background unlike our own is not a shortcut to judging potential.

Instead, get specific about the evidence the role needs. Ask where someone has learned, adapted, followed through and contributed—not whether their story looks familiar.

2. Expand the patch

Exceptional talent grows everywhere. Hiring teams widen their pool when job adverts use plain language, essential criteria are separated from nice-to-haves, and the process gives people more than one way to show what they can do.

This is not about lowering the bar. It is about removing avoidable barriers that stop capable people from reaching it.

3. Dig deeper

Interview performance is not the same as job performance. Fast small talk measures fast small talk. Eye contact measures eye contact. A spelling test measures spelling. Use those measures only when they are genuinely essential to the role.

Keep the standard high, but adjust access to it. Share the interview format and question areas in advance where appropriate; use plain language; ask one idea at a time; offer thinking time, notes, breaks, a quiet accessible environment or a practical task where that better reflects the work. Score the evidence before discussing "fit".

What to listen for

When we hire for grit, we are not asking people to tolerate poor conditions or struggle without support. We are looking for evidence of:

• Perseverance — continuing after setbacks.

• Learning — reflecting, adapting and improving.

• Purpose — connecting effort to meaningful goals.

• Consistency — following through over time.

• Self-management — recognising and using the support needed to succeed.

Try questions such as:

1. Tell me about a significant challenge. What did you do and what happened?

2. Give an example of a goal you worked hard to achieve. What kept you going?

3. Tell me about a time you had to adapt to a major change.

4. When something went wrong, how did you learn and recover?

Turn the mindset shift into action

Here is a practical 30-day challenge for your hiring team:

1. Week one: Audit one role and remove avoidable barriers from the job description.

2. Week two: Rewrite interview questions around role-relevant evidence.

3. Week three: Brief hiring managers on reasonable adjustments and a shared scorecard.

4. Week four: Run the process, gather candidate feedback and improve it.

The talent is there. The access is not always there. If we want stronger teams, better retention and genuine social value, we need to stop screening for the most familiar story and start creating the conditions for potential to be seen.

Take the next step

Download the Wonky Carrot Hiring Manager Toolkit 2026 (PDF) for practical prompts, behavioural interview questions and a simple way to bring this thinking into your next recruitment process.

You can also read our Hiring for Grit report or get in touch with Bridge of Hope to bring a Mindset Makeover session to your organisation.

Free the Wonky Carrots.

Different roots. Unlimited potential.

Find out more

Discover the Wonky Carrot Story and the thinking behind seeing potential differently.

Explore Dine with Conviction: an immersive executive dining experience that opens conversations and shifts mindsets.

Learn about the Local Employment Network and how local connections can turn social value into practical employment opportunities.