Hiring the right people is one of the most difficult aspect of building a successful company. It is essential to surround yourself with smart and driven people, in order to develop an organizational culture in which people are thriving, instead of holding them back. But how to build a team that enables co-workers to maximize their potential? 

Recruitment is a daunting process anyway, even if you sit on the stable side of the table. How do you know which questions to ask at an interview when you only have 30 minutes to figure out if a person is a good fit for your Team? How can you tell an enthusiastic candidate from an inciter, a talented person from a fraud? It’s a tougher game than Tinder.

Mindset is everything

As a Hiring Manager regardless of the industry you’re operating in, you obviously need to consider a candidate’s education and prior experience, but also what they can bring to your team as far as IQ and emotional intelligence. And the latter are more important.

An extremely successful CEO once told me that his hiring policy is that he never hires somebody who does not have at least one shitty job or failure in his resume. Why? Nothing reveals and refines our character better than the way we cope with adversity.

In other words, the applicant with a pixel-perfect CV may not be the best hire for your Team. After all, people can always learn new skills on the go, if they have the right attitude and personality. On the contrary, if they possess all the shiny diplomas, but lack the appropriate mindset for the business, that will screw the team up.

Choose people who dare to challenge the status quo

There are employees who tell their managers what they like to hear and simply carry out orders given from above. This can be comforting because it lets any Manager linger in the secure feeling of his authority. (“I’m the boss, and that is how things work around here.”)

But there are also those types of co-workers who question the current processes and ask the awkward questions. Aren’t these people are generally annoying and hard to get along with? No, they’re not, as long as they have empathy and intelligence, and therefore they are asking the right questions. Being curious and seeking answers is proven to be one of the most important trait of innovative thinkers.

Let me quote Steve Jobs here: 

When working for a Copenhagen-based Design Studio, I could easily see a hiring pattern within our Team. This pattern was that our CEO aimed to surround himself with “innovator” types, those who possess the confidence to speak up, ask questions and think strategically in order to put the success of the organization at the focus of every decision.

After 2 years on that job, I realized that whenever we were hiring, we were looking for people who are self-starters, who are driven by their passions and willing to try new things. Because this attitude is crucial to perform well at the job: when it comes to day-to-day work, my boss (and most likely, your boss) wants to hear solutions, not problems. Managers are interested in possibilities, not limitations.

 
A healthy amount of ego and motivation

When an employee has a negative attitude and is the first to give reasons why something cannot be done, that creates a destructive atmosphere that can easily spread to other team members in the office. On the contrary, motivated and creative people are capable to look at a challenge in front of them, grasp the necessary information, and come up with new ways of reach the target of any given organization.

How can you spot this type of applicants right at the job interview? One way is to pay attention to their concerns. Instead of asking about holiday benefits and retirement schemes, these people tend to ask you about the amount of responsibility or possibilities for self-education on the job. And that’s a good sign. A healthy amount of ego drives us to perform better.

As John Couris (CEO of Tampa General Hospital) puts it, 

Keep your talent engaged

If you can get hold of good candidates to join your Team today, then you’ve completed half of the equation. Once you collect all the smart and innovative people around you, you need to keep them engaged and motivated. Continuously. If you don't invest in your employees, they will begin to feel that they don't matter.

Being receptive to the emotional needs of your employees and really get to know them as people requires a lot of effort and dedication. But there is no other way to go about it if you want to build a solid foundation for your business.

Lasting and meaningful human relationships provide the basis for every successful Team, and they entail a different kind of management style than what we were probably used just a few years ago.

So forget micromanagement. Talented people love to take on responsibility, and thus you need to give them space. But hey, this is a topic for another post.