5 Keys to Hiring Awesome Employees

Enticing accomplished superstars from other companies/industries to jump ship and join your company is thought to be a quick recipe for success. Unfortunately, studies by Harvard Business Review show the fallacy in this thinking. What often happens is these newly hired superstars crash and burn and achieve nothing near to what they became famous for. https://hbr.org/2004/05/the-risky-business-of-hiring-stars/ar/1

What is now becoming evident is you are better off grooming your own key people within your organization and giving them increased responsibilities and training. A successful leader has the vision, management support, and a great team to make it all happen. A more predictable strategy for success is to help these rare people grow their power, stature, and fully realize their capabilities. Give them the mission and latitude to create something awesome. When this happens everyone wins. This may mean handling them differently because they don’t fit the normal protocols that works so well with most employees.

Avoid the Toxic Worker – https://hbr.org/2015/12/its-better-to-avoid-a-toxic-employee-than-hire-a-superstar

To begin seeding your organization with these unique and multi-talented individuals be more demanding when hiring. Ask different questions and do your best to filter out those that don’t meet your desired criteria. This requires the hiring manager to have a vision of what they want to accomplish. It’s easier to do your filtering before the offer vs. later when they’ve already become an employee.

Look for:

Experience – not just in their specialty, but experience with failure. Have they failed in a grand way? What did they learn? How are they now a better person and employee? What would they do differently? Those that failed and learned everything that can be gleaned from this “failure” are incredibly more resilient and confident than those who haven’t experienced this failure. These people have new perspectives and know what to look for in moving forward. They are smart. Resilient. They can be the difference between a product’s success or failure.
Ability to Inspire Others – They add value by helping others realize their power and ability to not panic when something seems overwhelming. Because these people have walked the path and know many survival skills first-hand, they help instill confidence in others because they survived. Their new and unique point-of-view is inspirational. They are a natural magnet for those looking for new ways to solve their own problems. They share real-life experience and not some new fad solution. People respect their survival and ability to overcome adversity.
Maintaining Their Center – Find people who take everything in stride and focus on solutions instead of the problem. People who have overcome severe adversity keep their balance and maintain their confidence. They know there’s a solution. They have long ago left the “sky is falling” panic mode and calmly focus on the knowns and begin to assemble a list of possibilities. Their confidence and ability to remain unaffected is contagious. They have the ability to look for maximum leverage points and calmly begin to break a problem down into bite-sized chunks.
A Strong Sense of Priority – These people have an incredible gift of being able to maintain focus on their vision and exclude daily distractions. They are committed to achieving their desired outcome. Nothing will stand in their way. They view “issues” as nothing more than speed bumps on the road to success. Their vision remains intact along with their commitment to achieving it.
Sense of Wonderment – The ability to find beauty and joy while in an uncomfortable situation is both a gift and a strength. These are learned traits that come from successfully navigating life’s variety of experiences. They choose to be happy at all times regardless of what is occurring around them. They have a solid sense of contentment in being who they are and relish in the diversity of experiences that life provides. They choose to use their storehouse of experiences to accomplish their vision and consider Life a big jigsaw puzzle – their job is to assemble the pieces in the correct order.

When your business has clarity around its vision and goals it’s much easier to find and cultivate great employees that can take your company to new levels. The risk level is lower because you’ve already worked with these contenders for years, they are on-board with the company vision, and they’ve got the necessary support network to bring their assignment to fruition.