Fortune Magazines’s most recent issue takes an in depth look at teamwork. One of the interesting articles looks at successful teams to see what makes them great. The 1980 Olympic gold medal winning US Hockey team is cited as one of the great teams. In the movie, Herb Brooks, the coach of the team, makes a very significant comment to his assistant coach. He says “I’m not lookin’ for the best players, Craig. I’m lookin’ for the right players.”. Contrast this with the superstar laden basketball teams that fail miserably at the Olympics.
Who are the right players? There are many factors but a critical one is the commitment and engagement the person has in the activity in question. Unfortunately most hiring practices focus on a set of task based criteria and companies pick the ones who are best on the criteria. Identifying commitment and engagement is more challenging and time consuming but can pay big dividends. The Container Store has a statement on its website: “three good people equal one great person in terms of business productivity. So, why not hire only great people?” Most companies will settle for good or even adequate employees because they don’t view the hiring process strategically. Engaged employees can increase productivity and profits dramatically so why not take the effort to find them? Unfortunately, this is not the most efficient process and companies are caught up in cost cutting and efficiency strategies. As a result they lose one of their most significant competitive advantages - engaged employees.
