Can you honestly say that you have an effective team? Are you confident that they are strong enough to support your growth plans and truly help the company achieve its objectives? Can they take you and your company to the next level? As Jim Collins asks in his book Good to Great, do you have the right people “on the bus”? If you can’t answer yes to these questions, then you should be asking yourself, why not? Why shouldn’t you be able to say that you have assembled the greatest team possible and that they are driving your company to new heights?
Whenever I talk to company owners and managers who cannot answer yes to these questions, and I ask them why not, I typically get a very standard excuse. I’m told: “It’s just tough to find good people,” or “What can I do, they’ve been with the company for so long,” or “I guess we just deal with it”. The rationalization that creates these excuses can be very costly. The ultimate cost being that these employees prevent the company from achieving its growth goals and jeopardize its future.
It is a fact, the ultimate long-term success of every company depends on an effective team. To reach the heights that the truly great companies reach, you can’t just settle for good people; you need great people. Great companies understand the importance of an effective team. They believe that it is worth the time, effort, and cost to find great people.
Are you thinking, “I just could never get the truly great employees to come to my company”? If you are, then you need to change your thinking. There are truly great employees out there, and you can get them. It doesn’t matter if your company is small or doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of some larger companies. What matters is that you have both the right attitude and a strong commitment. You must adopt an attitude that only the best will do in your company and that you will not put up with mediocrity. And then you need to commit resources and efforts to back up that attitude. Although it may be impossible to put together a team consisting only of “A” players, that should never stop you from having that as your objective. If you allow yourself to take the easier route and simply hire employees who are “perhaps not the best but should be able to do the job,” then you can expect your company performance to mirror that philosophy.
Companies often become self-fulfilling prophecies. They think that they cannot find and attract the best, and their prophecy comes true. Instead of aggressively seeking and recruiting those “best” candidates, they assume they can’t attract them, so they don’t even try. Your goal has to be to become a company that is a top choice of the best players. That means that you need to have an environment that makes the best people want to come to work at your company. Think positively. Think about what would make your company the place to be for those employees.
I can almost hear the excuses again. Some of you are already thinking to yourself that, “whatever my attitude, those “best” employees are expensive, and there is no way we could afford them”. Although it may sound trite, for the sake of your future, can you afford not to hire the best? And by being a little more creative, you can design compensation plans that not only attract the best but also make them much more affordable. And remember, although you need to be competitive, salary isn’t always the ultimate attraction.
Take mediocrity out of your vocabulary when you are forming your team. Be committed to an attitude of excellence. Be creative; think of ways to make your company the place where the best want to be and where the best possible team is busy taking your company to the next level.
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