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

Right under Your Nose: Leveraging People You Already Know 75
to coach others. We teamed him up with a senior project manager
who had strong client relationship skills. This change limited the
scope of his responsibilities. He was always going to play a behindthe-scenes
role rather than focus on managing clients. Yet he flourished
in this position with its more limited scope. He was not a
‘‘rainmaker,’’ but he set the pace within the firm on quality control
(a critical issue for such firms) and mentoring younger architects.
Within the parameters of his new job, he became an A-player.
A-Player Principle: If people have a good work ethic and
possess integrity, they can be an A-player somewhere.
Sometimes you can turn these B-players into A-players by
making their jobs smaller.
Tapping into the Contacts of New Hires
Every time you hire an A-player, you have the opportunity to tap
into a brand-new network of job candidates. Headhunters know
this. Every name that’s provided to recruiters as a current or past
supervisor, peer, subordinate, or reference is another contact to add
to their database. The same thing can be true for your company if
you handle it right. Take the time to talk to new hires about your
A-player mind-set and profile. In the midst of these conversations,
ask for their advice on finding great people to fill other roles in your
organization. Many times they will volunteer to reach out to people
they know who would be a good fit.
Taking Action to Tap into Your Network
In the end, you have to be committed to networking if you are
going to hire and create an A-player team. Some of us are natural
networkers. It is in our nature to develop relationships and stay in
touch with people. For others of us, spending time to develop a network
might seem like a waste of time that could be spent on ‘‘real