When you are starting a business, it is important to have the right people with you as your core team. These people would be your four horsemen to organizational success, so if you have happened to hire the wrong people at the start, it would impede your supposed great launch.
As a business leader, your job is to lead the growth of your company and not to work on every single area of your business operation. What does this mean? It means you are the one who needs to pick qualified people that you can trust with the different departments of the company. If there would be some mishaps around your six-month mark, it could only be because you missed some steps or because your teams are not performing and delivering to their promise.
It is a nightmare to see your startup go downhill and not even reach the point of self-sustainability. That means all your investments went down the drain as well. You would then find yourself asking where did you go wrong and what you missed. Chances are you simply hired the wrong person to do the job, and it cannot be helped.
If you relate to this unfortunate situation, we are sorry that you had to go through with that, but here’s an article that might give you proper insights about what to look for in a team.
Find Someone That Shares Your Goals
As a business leader, you would want your business to grow and thrive for a long time, and that means you need people that also see the bigger picture that you have in mind. There are times that business owners hire people to help them, but instead of a positive outcome, corporate visions and goals get lost in translation.
For example, you have met with your people for the discovery process, and months later you would be surprised to realize that they had different interpretations for what you wanted with your logo and website design and layout. You would then wish you outsourced the following.
It can happen when you and your team leaders do not see each other eye to eye, when they do not share the same ideals and passion as you, and when they are short-sighted to see the business’ potential.
These people are somehow just a little bit better than regular employees, they would only work to meet the quota and log out after your work hours. They may have the soft skills needed to lead, but they lack the dedication you need as a startup business owner.
Choose people that can converse with you, people whose corporate aspirations align with yours, and people who are not complacent. Those are the ones you can trust with your business processes, as they would be the ones to tell you when the things you want may seem far-fetched. These people are the ones you can count on to do the work.
Find Qualified Talents and Evaluate Their Skills
Now, when starting a business, it is easy to hire people through recommendations and casual conversations. After all, you are hiring your core team, so you would not really need to legal and formal way to onboard them, right? It is akin to Jobs sharing his ideas with Wozniak, and the two of them agreeing to work together and create a game-changing product.
However, in your case, you are hiring department heads, future managers, and your co-partners. You are not just onboarding a tech guy, you are hiring your chief technology officer, and it is only right to evaluate their skills. Especially when you do not know the person that long, you can start with asking them for their portfolios or work experiences, and finish up by asking for a concrete technical plan for the business. In a way, you are not being too restrictive with the hiring process, but you are gaining the information you need from the person you are eyeing to be part of your team.
Should you ever choose an IT guy simply because of his charms and the way he carries himself, you may find yourself in dire technical situations that would not be solved by mere words, and problems that would cost you more.
Find People That are Eager to Join You and Help
We have mentioned determination earlier, and you would not get this trait from people who are looking for a job and not an opportunity.
When you are starting a business, the right team would know the risks, but still would go through with their application because they want to help, and they know they could do more. These kinds of people are what you should look for. Regardless if they are consultants, managers, or even employees, people with a voracious appetite for learning and innovation will always deliver results.
When you are hiring people, you may be influenced by many things such as their resumes, personalities, and even personal ties. You should not let this happen. After all, you are investing money to start a business, what a waste would it be if you would have duds running your ground operations.
