How is it that some comp
anies in the same industry do extremely well in tough economic times and others are barely able to make payroll? Companies who do well have a secret ingredient (well, it’s not really a secret) that the other guys don’t have. It’s called A-players.
Here are five ways you too can attract A-players to your team.
- A-players aren’t interested in working with people who aren’t at their level. Be prepared to remove your C players and consider doing the same with your B players or get them the help they need (or you do the coaching) to bring them up to A-player status.
- Remove the barriers that are preventing you from quickly acquiring talent when you see it. Take a close look at your hiring processes. Do they accelerate or dramatically slow down your ability to make a star hire? Remove barriers or those people who are taking what should be a six week process and making it a six month process.
- Toot your own horn. You may be the greatest company to work for, but it won’t really matter if you are the one of the best kept secrets. Devote space on your website to a careers section and be sure to regularly add content that lets others know why they can’t afford not to work for your company.
- Invest in recruiting. Free postings, may be good for you, but will they yield the results you seek? What’s your time worth? And would it be better spent on growing your business? Partner with a firm or someone who has the expertise and can devote the necessary time to find those rare A-players you seek.
- Learn how to assess talent. I often hear CEO’s say they’ll know talent when they see it. They then call me several months later asking me to guide them on how to best transition this “talented” person out of the organization. Of course they don’t usually say it this nicely. It’s more like, help me fire this guy and make sure I don’t get sued.
Putting together a high performance team should be the number one priority of all business owners and CEO’s. Do this well, and profits will soar.
