Building a great team & business success go hand in hand. It is incredibly difficult to achieve success in business without hiring a great team to work with you.
Notice I said “great team”, not great people. You don’t necessarily need to hire great people to build a great team, although it does help.
Using a football analogy, the best football team isn’t necessarily the one with the best players in the world. It is the one where the team works collectively well to implement an agreed game plan.
Yes, it helps if some of the team are superstar employees, but it is more likely that a team will not be made up exclusively of them.
The objective when building a great team is not to find a complete team of superstar employees but to hire people who collectively will produce an extra ordinary performance.
Here are 6 tips to help you do that.
#1 Identify your most important attribute
You need to identify the single most important attribute or characteristic be it work ethic, attitude, entrepreneurial ability, social skills etc; & build your interview questions around that attribute to help you highlight it in a candidate during the recruitment process.
#2 Don’t recruit clones
Successful teams are like jigsaw pieces which fit together to create the whole & are made up of a blend of different personalities & characteristics. Look for a balance of personal attributes & professional skills which are complimentary to yours & other team members.
#3 Recruit people who you will get on with
A recent study by MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory found that the best predictors of productivity were a team’s energy and engagement outside formal meetings
That means it is important to recruit people who you think you will get on with socially & who can get on with each other too, who can socialise together, & generally interact away from their desks or workstations. They don’t each need to be the life & soul of the party but social interaction with each other will be vital to their chances of success.
#4 Recruit for cultural fit
Thinking about how someone is likely to perform at their job is vital but equally important is considering how a new hire might affect your culture. Remember the old proverb “one bad apple spoils the barrel“.
So if you have worked hard to create an environment of happy, motivated, highly productive people who show up at work every morning full of excitement & anticipation why spoil it with a bad hire?
#5 Give the team a veto
Include the other team members in the recruitment process & give a veto if any member of your team has strong & reasonable objections to you hiring someone. Make sure you listen & don’t hire them. That way a crucial part of your team isn’t going to be upset by the new hire you have made.
#6 Don’t Compromise
If you have an urgent need it is tempting to recruit that talented person who doesn’t quite fit. Don’t do it. If someone doesn’t feel right keep looking until you find the perfect fit. A short-term solution at the expense of long-term objectives can do more harm than good.
You will know if you’ve managed to build a great team as their success will be evident, & you’ll enjoy working with them, & they with you.
If you have any comments or questions about the points raised in this article please leave a comment below or make contact, we’d enjoy hearing from you.
Photo credit: cartoon by Nick Maher. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.