“Committed leaders spend time looking for new, better team members.”
Nathan Jamail – Keynote Speaker, Best Selling Author
Part 4 of 4
Welcome to part 4 of ‘Committed Leaders Create Committed Employees’- our final part in this 4 part series. In part 1 we talked about not allowing bad performance employees to remain on the team and in part 2 we talked about the priorities of the leader in spending time to develop and practice with employees. In part 3 we talked about how we don’t make the really good employees even better.
In this part, we are going to look at another mistake we commonly make as leaders: We don’t spend the time looking for new, better team members. What an appropriate time to discuss given the recent NFL draft. Unlike in the NFL where coaches are always scouting potential players from junior high to college, in order to find the most talented and committed players; in business leaders often don’t look for talent until there is an urgent need. As leaders we tend to hire the best available applicant at the time versus recruiting the most talented and committed person. This is a common but critical mistake.
Commitment mistake 4: Leaders hire versus recruit
Need proof of this mistake? Have you ever said, or felt that talented and great new employees are hard to find? I know I have and most of the leaders I work with feel the same way. The reason for this issue is as leaders we tend to hire versus recruit. What’s the difference? The difference is hiring is based on filling a current need- and to fill that need we use human resources and post job openings in hopes a great person applies for the job. As a result we tend to hire the best applicant that is available at that time and most of us can agree- so often it is not the best person or the ideal person we were looking for, but because we have an urgent need we tend to settle on a less than ideal decision.
Recruiting:
Is looking for talent before there is a need. Recruiting is looking for those employees that are not looking for a job because they are happy at their current job and are usually achieving great success. Those are the people we need to go find and recruit.
The reason good people are hard to find is because they are not looking for a job, and truth be told, we are not looking for them. We are merely hoping they find us. However, like in life, if you want something you must go search for it and find it- the same is true for top employees.
How to do it: Schedule the time and do the hard, uncomfortable work.
Schedule the time:
No matter how busy we are as a leader, we must make time for one of the most import aspects of being a committed leader. Schedule 1-2 hours a week to proactively go out and look for talent, this is not just being aware while you are out- but going out with the intention to find talented happy employed people. Before you say you don’t have time, ask yourself this one question: ‘If you replaced your weakest employee with a person equal or better than your best employee, what would happen to your team’s productivity, team’s morale, your job satisfaction and the overall success?’ Most leaders say it would improve by more than 50%. If something has that great of an impact on a team’s success, don’t you think we should make it a priority?
Do the hard work:
Get out of the office and make calls to those in your network (not just your industry). Go to places that have the kind of talented 
people you are looking to hire. Where you go will depend on the position you are looking to fill. For example- you would not go to the same places to find a sales person as you would to find a person in the accounting department or HR. This work is hard, uncomfortable and in most cases, not done by most leaders for these reasons. The hard work that most are not willing to do is what the top leaders do to make them the top leaders.
Last thought:
As leaders we want committed employees and the best we way can show our commitment to our team is by doing the hard work to help them be surrounded by the best team members possible. By recruiting, we show our commitment to future employees before we ever ask them to be committed to us and we show our current team members that we are committed to the overall success of the team.
Bringing it all together:
As committed leaders all four parts are key to creating a winning and committed culture. As committed leaders we must execute and achieve the 4 key responsibilities (thus overcoming 4 critical common mistakes made) :
- Create a thriving and positive culture
- Developing and coaching employees to become better, not just more tenured
- Holding employees accountable to be their best by moving them up or out
- Always recruiting top talent to make sure we have the best team on the field
How committed do you want your employees to be? The answer gives you the pathway to what commitment you must also be signed up for.
