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

xx Introduction
However, there were still a few architects in the firm who just
could not get up to speed and who didn’t seem to have the skills or
the drive to improve their performance. That’s where we made our
mistake. We spent a lot of time (months and months) trying to
get these people to improve their performance. They made very
limited progress.
In the midst of this, the firm hired a young architect named Tim,
a perfect storm of terrific communication skills, great project management
skills, good detail orientation, intelligence, and responsibility.
After just a couple of years, clients were asking to work with
him.
Not only was Tim naturally talented, he flourished in the leadership
coaching program that we had established. We set goals for
him, and he met them. We provided him with coaching on specific
skills, he quickly absorbed and used the new knowledge. We put a
career plan in place for him, and he aggressively put in the effort to
move to the next level in the firm.
This experience—and others like it—taught me that businesses
that want to thrive must always be on the lookout for their next
‘‘Tim.’’ An organization’s owners, managers, and employees must
commit to finding A-players whenever and wherever they can. If
recruiting remains a necessary evil for your company, you will never
build an A-player team. However, if you’re dedicated to building a
team of A-players, and you work at it every day—the results after
just one year will blow you away. You will have a group of people
who understand your business, have the intelligence to learn
quickly, and can take your business to the next level.
The messages of this book are simple, but powerful. You have to
recruit the team that you need rather than just settle for the team
that you have. You have to understand and follow the Three Steps
for Building an A-Player Team: develop an A-player mind-set, interview
all the time, and develop your company’s ‘‘farm team.’’ You
have to recognize that building your company’s brand attracts
A-player employees as much as it attracts customers. Your managers
and your employees have to work with you to find new A-players,
and you must then develop good leadership practices to make your
investment in these A-players pay off.