Never work a day in your life
Recently, I befriended a classmate whose ultimate goal is to never work a day in his life. His plan in accomplishing this is to be his own boss with “entrepreneur” written across his business card.
With this, he discussed the importance of building a cohesive team for his first start-up. In addition to having a solid work ethic, there should also be a similar mindset of how the team approaches their work.
Choose your players
In order to have a successful team, in any work setting, it is beneficial to have a variety of personality mixed with a like-minded work ethic. This is even more important when developing an entrepreneurial business. So, how does a first-team entrepreneur build a stellar team?
The 12 keys to a successful team
According to Shuba Swaminathan on Quora, there are 12 steps involved to creating a top-notch team.
1. Hire people smarter than yourself: This will open the door to ideas that you may not have.
2. Be aware of who you are searching for: Always interview someone with a role in mind so that you are able to see how they could best suit that role.
3. Be mindful of “lifestyle fit”: Depending on the type of company you are developing, it is best to have people that have the lifestyle mindset of what you are creating. For example, if you are a fitness junkie and include an outdoorsy team-building outing as a benefit, you will attract others interested in that lifestyle.
4. Have a zero-tolerance for jerks policy: Regardless of how smart someone may be, if they have a bad attitude – team morale and cohesiveness will go downhill fast.
5. Meet every new hire: Do this until your company is too big. Meet the person before extending an offer. Then after, vet every extended offer.
6. Interview effectively: Ensure that you and your interviewing committee are appropriately trained to conduct the best possible interviews.
7. Practice interview organization: If you are doing a team interview, brief each other beforehand on who will be covering what.
8. Unbiased interviewing: Try to not let a colleague’s opinion influence your interview. This is best achieved by talking about the candidate after the interview, not before.
9. Get back to the candidate as soon as possible: In most cases, you know right away whether or not an interviewee got the job. Don’t make them wait two weeks to find out the answer.
10. Kindness and fairness go a long way: If an interviewee asks for feedback, try and respond as best as possible.
11. Seek out a wide demographic: Don’t just hire friends of employees or the “brother of the guy you met that one time”. Try and create an eclectic of a group as possible in order to deter from groupthink.
12. Be flexible: There will never be a “perfect” candidate and therefore trade-offs will need to be made. Go into the interviewing process open minded, and try your best to outweigh the pros and cons.
Go with your gut
With all of this in mind, it is most important to use your best judgment. As an entrepreneur, your start-up is your baby; and only the most qualified people should be responsible for helping raise said baby.
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