Supernova Advisor Teams

CHAPTER 11Recruiting, Hiring, and Retaining Good People

“Take my assets, leave my people, and in five years I will have it all back.”

—Alfred P. Sloan, Former Chairman and CEO of General Motors

I (Rob) cannot stress enough how important the hiring process is to your business and for building a successful team. Finding immense talent isn't as simple as people think. All industries are competing for talent. Rarely does high‐quality talent come looking for you. Here, leadership is essential, and people who are effective team leaders have less turnover than poor leaders.

So how does a great leader hire?

A Commitment to Excellence Versus Accepting Mediocrity

The best way to begin this process – no matter how difficult it has been in the past – is to start fresh. Do not repeat the mistakes of the past. And one of the most common mistakes people make is to accept the best of what they've been offered rather than hiring the best person for the job. It's essential to take the time to find the very best candidates for the position rather than just accepting the candidates who might be available. If you don't do this, you will appear to your team as a person who doesn't care about them. Hiring “A‐team players” raises the bar of performance for everyone.

I learned this lesson from one of my associates. I had consistently preached our core value of commitment to excellence and was in the process of hiring a new administration manager for the district when I realized this truth. The ...