How to Hire A-Players: Finding the Top People for ... - GIT home page

82 How to Hire A-Players
right at me and immediately gave me this answer: ‘‘That’s simple. I
am recruiter in chief for my company.’’
As recruiter in chief for your company, you own the responsibility
for identifying A-players and bringing them to your team.
Robert made himself available to the members of this engineering
group as a leader and mentor in order to build his farm
team. He did not actively recruit everyone he met or hand out
business cards after my program. But he understood the power
and importance of building relationships with A-players before
they were looking for a new place to work. He made connections
with the seasoned youth in this group and tapped into a
pool of potential A-players. Taking a leadership role in the
group and showing up at the meetings gave him an opportunity
to get to know these younger engineers over time. He was constantly
interviewing people—whether they knew it or not. Over
time, these contacts grew into strong relationships, which in
turn generated some great new hires.
Running with the Big Dogs
A-players have big aspirations. They look for role models, people I
call ‘‘Big Dogs,’’ whom they can emulate and follow. Robert was a
Big Dog in this engineering group. He owned his company and had
50 employees working for him. Everyone else in the room was collecting
a W-2. The younger engineers wanted to get to know him in
part because they wanted to be like him one day.
If you are a successful business owner or executive, you are
already a Big Dog in the professional groups in which you participate.
Whether you know it or not, you serve as a role model
for ambitious people. A-players want to work for strong leaders,
but unfortunately there are not that many strong leaders out
there for these people to follow. When you invest your time in
a trade association or professional group, you give the A-players
in the group the opportunity to sample your leadership style
and to get a picture of what it would be like to work for you.
That experience is the first step in hiring the best of them for
your company.