Today let’s talk about 4 Ways to Find Good People.
How do you typically find employees – Internet ads, job sites like indeed.com, carerrbuilder.com or monster.com. Does anybody use the newspaper anymore? And then you get a flood of applications and resumes. Since you are so busy you could not possibly see all 100 people that applied, you decide who to interview based on their “experience”, a keyword search or some other arbitrary method, captured on a piece of paper.
So, how often do you find “Good People”?
I bet it’s not a lot, maybe 1 in 5; for some of you I bet its 1 in 10.
What do I mean by “Good People”? I’m not talking about your workaday employees, the grunts that show up because they have to. I am talking about people that take action, that care about what they do, that have pride of ownership in their responsibilities, that ask how to or what’s next, rather than complain or take no action. These are “Good People” not just employees. And both “Good People” and “grunts” exist at all levels in companies, from the floor sweeper all the way up to the executives. The distinction between “Good People” and “grunts” is in attitude, in their demeanor, how they approach a problem and how they work with customers or colleagues.
Good people are tough to find, so what can you do?
You can start by being the person you want your people to be. This goes back to some of the concepts we discussed in the Law of Association. Take a good look at yourself, would you hire you? The person you are will attract others like you. When you personify and own the attitude, personality and demeanor that you desire in your team, you will lift those around you up and you attract others like you. They will gravitate toward you, they will want to be around you and you can develop new associations by focusing on yourself.
Taking this one-step further, you can train, develop and grow your people, to be ready for future responsibility. Training is how the job works, the tasks and responsibilities, and development is how they work, their attitude, their approach, and their determination. When you need to bring in help and add to the team, it’s often too late to prepare a current employee for that position, because you need to fill that position now. But if you create an internal training and development methodology, you can prepare your best people at each level for the next position. One cautionary note, top talents at one level, do not necessarily mean they are a good fit at the next level, for example, the best sales rep. may not be the best fit for sales manager.
Next, you can ask others. Networking and referrals is the number one way to find good people for immediate needs. Once again, this is directly associated with the Law of Association. If someone you know, like and trust refers someone to you, that candidate is likely to have some of the same qualities as the person you know. And when you look at the power of networking, especially in today’s technological age, you can connect to a lot of people very quickly. If you know 100 people and they all know 100 people, that’s 10,000 connections.
Finally, saving the best for last, always be open and looking. You never know who you are going to come across. The best talent is typically not looking for a job, but they might be open to conversation. What qualities and capabilities are you looking for? You can teach specific job skills, but attitude, determination, empathy, customer service orientation, are hard to fake. If you get exceptional service from a waiter, a manager or a salesman in some other industry, it might be good to at least have a meeting. Consider transferable skills and think about how they do what they do and not just the lack of experience; at one point in time, you didn’t have experience either.
Here is a rundown of 4 Ways to Find Good People:
- Be the person you want your people to be
- Train, develop and grow your people
- Networking and referrals
- Always be open and looking
Thanks for checking this out and catch us on the next video.
