I INTERVIEWED AN “A” PLAYER BUT THE TEAM PASSED ON HER. IN RETROSPECT I SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT HER IN. HOW DO I GET MY TEAM TO RECOGNIZE AND EMBRACE BRINGING ON HIGH-QUALITY TALENT?
THOUGHTS OF THE DAY: Make sure your team is confident in their roles. Define the goals that need to be met, and the talent that is required to get to those goals. Give the team a payoff for hitting the ball out of the park. Get everyone up to speed with how to search, qualify and hire great candidates.
Assess your team members. Are they comfortable in the roles they hold? Do they understand how they can continue to grow with the organization? Do they want to keep growing? Do they understand the payoffs that come with personal development?
If you can answer “yes” to all of these questions, you”™re half way home to getting your team focused on hiring great talent. If there are any “no” answers, put time and energy into figuring out what”™s wrong. Do you have the right people, just not all in the right jobs? Are any of the team members in over their heads and in need of rescuing? Any team members that spend time defining themselves by putting others down? These are all common management problems that need to be fixed before you move on to add more talent disruption to the mix.
Do a careful assessment of every key player in your organization. Make sure each team member has a growth path laid out, and a plan to work to achieve that growth path. For any team members who are struggling, pair them up with someone else who is strong in the areas they”™re weak at. Give them time to develop additional skills and carefully assess how well they”™re doing at tackling the opportunities you put in front of them. Make sure all team members understand that respect, integrity, striving to achieve more and helping others succeed are all values you expect to see every day.
Map out one-, two- and three-year goals at a minimum. Define where the business is going and how to get there. Involve your team members in mapping out the plan of attack. Talk about how much and what kind of additional talent will be needed in order to achieve those goals. Encourage team members to identify talent gaps that must be filled in order to achieve success.
Instead of rewarding individual performance, set up bottom-line rewards. If the company grows, and improves, the bottom line will improve. Offer to share a portion of that increased net income with everyone on the team. Help everyone understand that once basic salaries are handed out, the big rewards will come from hitting the ball out of the park in terms of growth of revenue and
increasing profit.
Define the future positions that need to be filled and build training plans for people to grow into those jobs. When there isn”™t enough time to train someone or there isn”™t anyone interested in growing into a particular job, that”™s where the team needs to focus its hiring efforts. Make hiring great talent a group goal with group rewards.
Make sure your team gets the training it needs so they have great search and hiring skills. Encourage everyone on the team to work on building a talent bank to draw upon in future years. Gather names, identify great resumes, regularly talk with potential candidates ”” that”™s everyone”™s job, if the company is going to ultimately build its “A” team.
BOOK RECOMMENDATION: “The Best Team Wins: Build Your Business Through Predictive Hiring” by Adam Robinson.
Andi Gray is president of Strategy Leaders Inc., StrategyLeaders.com, a business-consulting firm that teaches companies how to double revenue and triple profits in repetitive growth cycles. Have a question for AskAndi? Wondering how Strategy Leaders can help your business thrive? Call or email for a free consultation and diagnostics: 877-238-3535, AskAndi@StrategyLeaders.com. Check out our library of business advice articles: AskAndi.com.
