"Hiring the best is your most important task."-Steve Jobs
This week I learned about the importance of finding the
right people to work for you. Both Guy Kawasaki and Mark Zuckerberg emphasized
the importance of finding people who were “infected” with love for the product
or service, and were aligned with the objective. They both stated that they
would be more willing to hire raw talent, newbies from college, or someone with
no degree rather than someone with education and work experience, if it meant
that this person would be a lot more willing and passionate about developing
new ideas than the other. Another great thing I learned was to seek to hire
individuals who are better than you. This didn’t make sense at first, but Guy
Kawasaki, explains that by hiring “A” players or “stars” we can maintain that
level of high leadership. For a person to hire someone better than them, they
must be humble, and have the confidence to recruit these kinds of people that
will be able to teach them. Hiring the right people can make a huge difference
in the companies success.
Besides learning the importance of finding the right people,
I also learned a few steps to follow in order to get the right people at an
organization. First, a clear job description must be identified and written.
This helps to know what skills and qualities to look for in an individual.
Second, take your time searching for the right candidate, and don’t settle for
less. Giving the hiring process the necessary time and effort to find the right
candidate at first will result less costly for the company down the road. Lastly,
make sure to check potential applicant’s references, and take the time to train
them and get to know them. If for any reason, you did hire a bad apple, it is
crucial to get them “off the bus” or fire them immediately. This prevents from
having that employee become a bigger cost. Of course, there is a process that
must be followed in order to properly fire someone in order to avoid lawsuits. The hiring process should start right after
dismissing an employee.
This was all great information to learn for my future
business endeavors. Hiring and firing are key factors in a company’s success.
Making sure that the right people are on the bus, and in the right seats helps
to launch a business more successfully. I hope to remember these things and
apply them when it comes the time to finding people to hire for my business.
