3 Nonnegotiable Qualities the Best Team Members Share
As leaders, we spend an enormous amount of time, energy, and money trying to recruit top talent. I know I do. That’s why it’s critical that each hire is the right one. But what’s the secret to guarantee success?
We’re in the midst of a season of intense hiring here at Michael Hyatt & Co. I always consider it a tremendous responsibility to add anyone to our team. The right hire can help us reach our goals. But the wrong hire can poison the team culture we’ve worked so hard to create.
As Michael shared on the podcast, the key ingredient involves using a reliable, battle-tested hiring process. This can prevent costly mistakes, especially if that process includes candidate criteria that help filter out people that don’t fit the company culture.
Just last week, I sat in a local restaurant during the final interview of a person we were considering for our Customer Experience team. He asked great questions at the end of our time together, including: “What do you look for in a candidate for this position?”
Our Director of Customer Experience and a member of her team gave thoughtful answers relative to the position.
When my turn to answer came around, I shared the three nonnegotiable qualities I look for in a new hire.
1. Extreme Ownership
As a fast-growing, entrepreneurial organization, we live or die based on the results we produce. We also give our team members enormous freedom to achieve those results in whatever way they’d like—as long as it’s in alignment with our values and accomplishes the end result.
In order for this to work, team members have to assume full responsibility for the results they are accountable for. Blame shifting, busywork, and excuses have no place in our culture.
Instead, I’m looking for someone who will commit to an outcome and then find a way to get there, regardless of the obstacles they face. This perspective comes largely out of Extreme Ownership, one of our favorite leadership books.
2. Infectious Enthusiasm
We believe our work at Michael Hyatt & Co. matters. Our audience matters. And our team matters. We want to hire people who are passionate and excited about the work we do—collectively and individually.
When we’re hiring, we look for candidates who are not only familiar with our brand, but who love our brand and are fired up about sharing it with the world. We also want to put people on our team into positions where they can use their unique gifts and abilities in their role to the highest degree.
As our Director of Customer Experience shared during our recent lunch, every person we consider for a position should be so passionate about the work that their involvement actually elevates the role we’ve hired them to fill.
When someone has the chance to work in their sweet spot, their job satisfaction should be off the charts. And their enthusiasm should show it.
3. Growth Mindset
Nothing defines the culture we work to cultivate more than our mindset—in particular, our growth mindset, as Carol Dweck calls it. People with a growth mindset believe that they can get better, learn more, and intentionally increase their capacity for achievement.
They don’t believe there is a ceiling to what they can become. As a result, they tend to be the most creative and talented folks out there.
A growth mindset is the opposite of a fixed mindset in which people believe everything about them has a predetermined limit. People with a fixed mindset often have a lot of limiting beliefs about themselves and others. They are fatalistic about outcomes and rarely assume responsibility for their own lives.
This perspective is the enemy of entrepreneurialism and innovation. Unless you believe you can grow, your life will likely look just like it did ten years ago—if not worse. In our company, we want people who believe their best days—and the best days of our company—are ahead of us, as Dan Sullivan says, not behind.
Thankfully, over the years, we’ve used this three-part criteria along with our hiring process to build an amazing team with only a few misses. As an entrepreneur and leader, there is nothing more rewarding then a happy, high-performance team.
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