Building Great Teams

Building great teams is not accidental. The best leaders understand that the first requirement is to hire the best talent. But how do you find and retain the best talent?

Many organizations hire only for technical skills (such as visual design or front-end Java development). These skills though, are simply foundational. It's crucial when hiring to understand that there are several dimensions of ability to consider, including:

• competencies (professionalism, business acumen, accountability, teamwork, open and effective communication)
• values (candor, recognition of dignity, diversity)
• talents (enduring capabilities, like finding a path to success in difficult circumstances)
• and of course, technical skills

Evaluating candidates against these dimensions requires first defining specific characteristics of each in your environment. Jim has worked with his teams to define competencies in each dimension.

When all members of an interviewing team can evaluate candidates against these characteristics, hiring becomes less subjective. In addition, employees then also understand how they will be evaluated.

Once Jim has the right talent on board, he establishes a clear, compelling vision, gets everybody's heart and mind in the game, and motivates his teams to excel.