5 Questions We Should All Be Asking

WARNING: Don’t read this post if you are at all involved in recruiting or hiring and want to sleep soundly tonight

Ok, with that disclaimer out of the way, I can proceed.  If you believe that the performance of your team plays a huge role in the outcome of your mission, here are 5 questions for which you’ve got to have answers (Mavericks at Work, pp. 255-261):

1. Why should great people join your organization?  Hello!  Let’s just say the best thing for most of us will be to stop here and just work on this question.
2. Do you know a great person when you see one?  This may need a little explanation.  What are they driving at?  Here it is.  Do you have a clear idea of how a great team member acts?  What they do when under pressure?  How they respond to a challenge?  Can you describe it?
3. Can you find great people who aren’t looking for you?  This might be a deal-breaker for lots of us.  Based on the assumption that you probably won’t find great team members at a job fair or responding to a classified.  So you’ve got to be able to go find them.
4. Are you great at teaching great people how your organization works and wins?  Based on the assumption that the whole team operates better when they understand how things really work.
5. Does your organization work as distinctively as it competes.  I love this line from the section: "Leaders who are determined to elevate the people factor in business understand that the real work begins once talented people walk through the door."  That’s a big statement.  It says a lot about how important it is to truly go after the best team.

Now, can you read that and just take a nap?  Or do you need to pause and think through these questions?  How will you answer them?

Years ago I was at a conference where the speaker made a point 30 minutes into a two day seminar and then said, "What we should really do right here is just stop.  All of you should take a notebook and get off by yourselves and work through the implications of just that one point.  Working through that one point would serve all of you in a big way."

That’s how it is with these 5 questions.  Any one of them could be a half day away for key leaders.  What do you think?