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1
Define the roles and skills
2
Assess the fit and potential
3
Consider the diversity and balance
4
Involve your team and stakeholders
5
Communicate your expectations and vision
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6
Here’s what else to consider
Choosing the best team members for your project is a critical skill for any leader. You want to build a diverse, competent, and motivated team that can deliver results and collaborate well. But how do you select the right people from a pool of candidates? Here are some tips to help you make smart decisions.
Key takeaways from this article
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Diverse search committee:
Assembling a cross-functional team to interview candidates ensures varied perspectives and thorough vetting. You'll likely catch any red flags and better assess cultural fit, which leads to more informed hiring decisions.
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Recognize working geniuses:
Identify each candidate's innate talents, like innovation or tenacity. This helps in creating a balanced team where everyone's strengths are utilized, fostering mutual respect and smoother collaboration on projects.
This summary is powered by AI and these experts
- Joshua Broder CEO at Tilson Infrastructure
- Amanda Reill Future Wise Old Woman | Author-Harvard…
1 Define the roles and skills
Before you start looking for team members, you need to have a clear idea of what roles and skills you need for your project. Think about the scope, objectives, and deliverables of your project, and what tasks and responsibilities each role entails. Then, list the skills, qualifications, and experience that are essential and desirable for each role. This will help you narrow down your options and create a job description for each position.
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- Chris O'Leary Principal Innovation Engineer at Rolls-Royce | PhD CPhys FInstP
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This assumes that you're recruiting against one defined project; in my experience, I want to recruit people for a team who can work across multiple projects now and in the future. Hence a degree of agility is as important as a specific skillset or qualification list.
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2 Assess the fit and potential
Once you have a shortlist of candidates, you need to assess how well they fit your team and project, and how much potential they have to grow and contribute. You can use various methods to evaluate their fit and potential, such as interviews, tests, portfolios, references, or trial tasks. You should look for indicators of their personality, work style, communication skills, problem-solving abilities, creativity, and adaptability. You should also consider how they align with your team's culture, values, and goals.
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- Amanda Reill Future Wise Old Woman | Author-Harvard Business Review | ICF-Certified Coach | Ghostwriter | Corporate Retreats |
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The 6 Types of Working Genius is such an important tool for me because it recognizes that each team needs innovators (idea people), discerners (people to ask the right questions), and tenacious folks (to bring the job over the finish line). The galvanizers and enablers give the rest of the team the energy to do what they do best. When these talents are identified and people have mutual respect for them, they can more easily get to work!
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One thing I never forget is to trust my gut when it comes to 'what great looks like'. I definitely make sure I have a good profile of skills and capabilities needed, and questions that help me work out how the individual ticks, but ultimately if my gut is hesitating, I always ask myself why that is and it uncovers either a question I need to be answered, or indeed, that this isn't the right person for the team.
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When hiring for technical roles, I have found the use of tests and trial tasks especially effective in helping create a shortlist from a large pool of candidates. This has so far served to be a reasonably accurate strategy for assessing a candidate's ability to perform the day-to-day tasks linked to a given role. Using these two primary modes of assessment, other attributes such as problem-solving ability and adaptability can also be tested. Once an individual's ability to successfully perform a given role has been determined, a review of their personal trails via interview have often succeeded the initial process. This system has so far proved effective.
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3 Consider the diversity and balance
Another factor to consider when choosing your team members is the diversity and balance of your team. You want to have a team that reflects the diversity of your customers, stakeholders, and society, and that can bring different perspectives, experiences, and ideas to the table. You also want to have a balance of skills, strengths, and personalities, so that your team can complement each other and work harmoniously. You should avoid having too many similar or conflicting team members, or creating gaps or overlaps in your team's capabilities.
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- Kelly Sharpe Senior IT Business Systems Analyst at Hitachi Vantara | Women in Tech Advocate
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One thing I have found helpful when doing business abroad is to have on your team employees that are from that specific business location. Beyond streamlining the possibilities of a language barrier, you will also gain lots of knowledge on resolution for issues and problems specific to that region. Different countries and customers face different challenges and counting with people from there with their lifetime expertise in leading those issues is for sure a plus!
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4 Involve your team and stakeholders
A good way to ensure that you choose the best team members is to involve your existing team and stakeholders in the selection process. You can ask them for their input, feedback, or recommendations on the candidates, or invite them to participate in the interviews or tests. This will help you gain more insights and perspectives on the candidates, as well as build trust and rapport with your team and stakeholders. It will also help you avoid any surprises or conflicts later on.
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- Joshua Broder CEO at Tilson Infrastructure
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When we hire for leadership roles at Tilson, we like to put together a small, fast moving search committee. It's hard to miss something important when several colleagues from different background interview a candidate.
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5 Communicate your expectations and vision
Finally, once you have chosen your team members, you need to communicate your expectations and vision to them clearly and effectively. You need to let them know what their role and responsibilities are, what the project's scope and objectives are, and how they will be evaluated and rewarded. You also need to share your vision and strategy for the project, and how their contributions will make a difference. This will help you set the tone and direction for your team, and motivate and inspire them to perform well.
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6 Here’s what else to consider
This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?
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For me it’s always been Attitude over skill set. Yes, some projects require a certain level of skill, but if one individual has a high skill set and a bad attitude, I will find someone with suitable skills and a better attitude to fill that specific role. My go to tool is Kolbe, it assesses an individual based on the “conative” of the mind. Their “Mode of Operation” or, how they take action, this will I turn allow me the ability to place each team member in the role that they are aligned with and will thrive within that role.
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