“Who can tell me about someone you fired too early?”

I co-chair a national collaborative of accomplished entrepreneurs. At a recent meeting, the CEO of a mid-sized company asked the group “How do I get my employees to think I care about them so they’ll be motivated to go the extra mile?”

Ever left a meeting and thought, “That was a waste of time”? You’re not alone. Over 70% of employees rate meetings as a waste of time; only 11% find them productive. That’s a failure of leadership.

I had several occasions to hear former Secretary of State George Schultz speak. He discussed different issues each time but he always included the phrase, “Trust is the coin of the realm.”

As a young CEO I focused on customers, selling our products and gaining input for improving them. I hired good people and expected them to do their jobs well. But they weren’t getting much of my time during our brief and irregular meetings and that wasn’t working. So I turned to what most management experts consider a best practice: weekly 1:1 meetings with my Direct Reports. I’ve never turned back, though I have continually improved the process.

When it comes to hiring, the single most common mistake I see is a matter of attitude. Hiring managers tend to overestimate the importance of experience and underestimate the significance of talent.