“To understand the heart and mind of a person look not at what he has already achieved, but what he aspires to.”

Imagine what your working days would be like to have a team around you that collaborated at a high level and each person would come to work to express their talents and positive attributes while making a contribution to the business, the business goals and its clients/customers.

There are a couple of key principles to apply as you look to both build and improve your team. Keep in mind that clarity equals power and energy gravitates towards clear goals.

When looking to attract high performers and high achievers to your team make sure you can confidently answer yes to these two questions. Is this person coachable? Are his or her values congruent with yours? If you can confidently answer yes to both questions there is a high probability that this potential team member will be with you for the long run. If you answer yes to one of the questions or neither of these questions; then this person may not be with your team very long.

“Success Leaves Clues”

Someone you’re looking to hire who grew up with parents that owned, worked in, and ran their own business (and they worked in that business as a kid perhaps) has a better chance of knowing what it means to work hard, be self reliant, be responsible and resilient. These are character traits that can stay with someone for a life time.

In most cases, there is a direct correlation between a candidate that grew up working and exhibiting loyalty, focus and staying committed to a project in front of them. It can make for a strong foundation as an adult looking to work for something and with a team with focus and diligence.

During the final interview, listen for key phrases that will generally be expressed in different ways by the candidate. If she uses the word we a lot in the final interview you know with confidence that the individual is not only a high performer, but they are interested in a team approach. If the candidate uses the word they this may be a sign of alienation or disassociation with an organization/ business and other team members and shows glimpses of a low performer.

Hire Passion over Experience.

Be keen to that fact that some people are great at interviewing but are poor performers. If you don’t have a lot of experience interviewing and seem to stumble and may find it difficult to see this as two separate skill sets. Sometimes the candidate, who is not bouncing off the wall with exuberance during the interview meeting, could be your best candidate.

High performers are usually easy to spot and identify right away. They are the ones who are asking you a lot of questions and end up interviewing you with intelligent crisp questions.

“It is better to hire people to get you to where you want to be than people who profess to have been there before.” -Guy Kawasaki

The last step in getting to a great outcome is to have asked each of the final candidates to respond to this question in writing: “Why are you the best choice for this position in my business?” There are two reasons for this. One: you can see their ability to communicate through the written word as well as how much attention they give to spelling and grammar. Secondly, you will be able to observe there focus, diligence and potential work ethic based on the amount of energy, focus, and effort they put into the assignment.

Remember, anytime you add new team member you have a brand new team!