{“If you engage only those people you understand, the company will never get people better than you are, so constantly remember that you often find superb people among those you don’t in particular like” – Soichiro Honda.} Perhaps the greatest thing you could do for your practice is to enrol some fantastic people who would enrich your T.E.A.M. as having dapper, energetic and diligent individuals working under you could make your job more fruitful, smoother and more rewarding. As time goes on, good individuals get better but great people become sensations and in a surprisingly short amount of time, two or three great players on your T.E.A.M. can upgrade your total practice, enabling you to become the brand of choice in your market. It is not a very smooth and simple job to enroll super individuals but it is worth the trouble nonetheless and here are 4 fundamental factors of it which I have learnt.
Make a committment: When a job is worth doing, it is best done well. It is unworkable to hunt out superb people when you are not inclined to spend any time on the effort. I don’t like interviewing, and I’m always impatient to engage the first decent person who comes along, now that’s a lethal combination!
Look for the right assets: Having outstanding intellect is a fantastic thing but I would consider it as the 3rd best thing I am looking for. The two most fundamental things to look for are mental attitude and aptitude. You cannot groom a person to develop a good disposition not an attractive persona so it is time to fire all the cheerleaders and spoilsports.
The negatives: When you meet a T.E.A.M. member during an interview, he or she is at their behavioral best. If you notice something that seems “wrong”, don’t ignore it, particularly if it concerns qualities that are fundamental for the position. At the interview stage, I have seen that many of the seemingly individual eccentricities are only a tiny window of the total character which opens up and more such are likely to abide by in future which would have to be undertaken.
Don’t worry too much about particular experience: Of all the qualities that are important to look for in finding a great Player for your T.E.A.M., particular previous knowledge is not very high on my list. Needless to mention that it is great to get someone who can handle all the technical matters from the first day, but with time, you might feel that it could have been better if you had hired somebody who was inexperienced and a novice.
Finally, you must be continuously employing for new “Team Players”, even when you do not have a position available. For each post in your team, you could make a separate ‘job bank’ folder in which you keep on gathering the resumes of all potential members. So in future when you wish to alter a member or you wish to raise your team further, open your ‘job bank’ folder and call all the potential prospects for a group interview. Naturally, along the way, you may just find somebody that is better for the Team than a current Player. Yes, never let a good talent go, hold on to him or her, whenever practicable even when you are trying to change things.