I’ve previously discussed the importance of having the right players vs. the best players when building a team.
But how do managers find the “right” players? Most of the time, particularly for entry to mid level gigs, they post a job description and countless people come calling, all trying to differentiate themselves with a few bullet points.
Just one reason why you should never read another resume. Going through endless resumes and vetting out the best for interviews is a process that only works if you have the time and resources to really do your due diligence. But who does any more? (Union Square Ventures is the exception, not the norm).
So how then do you assemble the perfect team? It’s a lot like networking, actually. They say build your network before you need it. Hiring managers should be determining who they want and planting that seed before they need them.
Stanley “The Coach” Woodward, of the New York Herald Tribune assembled one of the best sports staff’s ever for a newspaper. How?
By using what he described as a scouting system, the Coach studied out-of-town news papers, and when he spotted a good story, he began a file of the writer’s work. If it was consistently excellent, Woodward waited for an opening, then brought the man to New York with talk of “the big time” and possibly a pay raise.
This is essentially the strategy Amber Naslund has used to build her Radian6 team. I suspect it happens often for VP, CMO, President positions, but I’m not yet privy to that culture.
Update: Here’s a post from Seth Godin about having a list of people you want to work with before you need them.
If you’re a manager, how do you assemble your team? Do you look for hungry unemployed workers, fresh-faced college graduates, or do you try to recruit talent from other organizations?
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Good post Ryan. Yes – build your network before you need it! I can speak to this as a search consultant/recruiter and say that this is a place where having relationships with recruiters really comes in handy. A hiring manager can rely on their recruiter contacts to always have people in mind for their future hiring and team building needs. Both my law firm and corporate client hiring managers who were forward-thinking would call me and say things like, “we don’t have a need for an XYZ right now but we might within the few months to a year – do you have anyone in mind that would be a great fit for a role like that?” This long term heads up was a great opportunity for me to always be on the lookout for someone who would fit that role. It would give me plenty of time to round up a nice group of talented candidates from other organizations. In my world, fresh grads and hungry unemployed people were not of interest to my clients. When they wanted to pay a recruiter for the right candidate, they wanted the unemployed and those with less than 1 year of experience to be weeded out. So I would essentially be their scout…and they could keep their hands clean of poaching the talent of their competitors.
.-= Marc Luber´s last blog ..How A Summer Job Can Shape Your Life =-.
Love this post Ryan. It’s a concept I first heard about in “Good to Great” – which is the focus great companies place on getting the right people on the bus FIRST. I’ve noticed the same thing in life and work – who you surround yourself by and who you recruit for your team is so much more important than any of the strategic plans that follow. Because strategy breaks and shifts – but the quality of the people you set out to achieve things with generally stays the same. Surround yourself with the best and anything is possible.
On that note, thanks for being part of the Life After College “A-Team” 😀
.-= Jenny Blake´s last blog ..Success Demons…and a Signed Contract =-.
Of all the business books I’ve tackled over the last few years I’ve never read Collins’ work, but I suspect it’s something I should mix in one of these days.
I love that you’ve taken a scenario that’s applied to work and made it apply to life as well. The people you surround yourself are instrumental to your success. There’s no debating that notion. [Which is precisely why I’ve surrounded myself with a bunch of up and comers. I hope they drag me along for the ride. Ha]
I think MOST “smart” people are capable of being versatile and adjusting to most situations, which is exactly why I agree that the caliber of person you hire is significantly more important than hiring people to fit a specific niche (provided that niche isn’t an uber specialty like doctors, engineers, etc.)
Hey Ryan –
Definitely put Good to Great on your list. Lots of timeless business concepts in there, particularly the bit about getting the right people on the bus. It’s also important in business that if the *wrong* people are there, you have the courage to make changes. I can’t tell you how many times I see businesses that have dead weight on their teams simply because they aren’t willing to make the hard decision to let someone go who isn’t a right fit, or move them elsewhere in the organization.
It’s not unlike a bad personal relationship; it’s unfair to both parties to keep it going if it isn’t working out.
Getting the “right” people is part art, part science, and as a result, an imperfect process. But people ARE the fabric of an organization, and having the right ones (and evolving your notion of what that means over time) is often instrumental to success.
Thanks for the shoutout.
Best,
Amber
.-= Amber Naslund´s last blog ..5 Ways Engagement is More Than Talking =-.