One trick to catch opportunists: start with those looking to increase their headcount faster than baseline (as any good opportunist will attempt), and then see

One trick to catch opportunists: start with those looking to increase their headcount faster than baseline (as any good opportunist will attempt), and then see if they will adopt an opposing logical argument as long as it leads to the conclusion that their headcount should grow. This is a flavor of looking for those who make different arguments depending on the audience, which in general is a helpful warning signal. Although it's impossible to entirely route out opportunists at a high quality, quickly growing company, as the author notes, I still find it is worthwhile to maximize the number of leaders in your company whom you trust to make arguments in the service of making the business work.