Strong teams are built with the best people

Let’s talk football for a moment. We’ve all heard stories of superstar players who cost their clubs a relative fortune, bringing with them infinite promise and talk of great success, but then turn out as underperformers and influence the rest of the squad disruptively.

It’s the same in business. It’s one thing setting your sights on an executive renowned for being charismatic, shrewdly focussed and highly rewarded, but another thing ensuring that they would fit well into your organisation. It would be catastrophic for a business owner or board to appoint an executive without considering their existing team and culture, as the appointment may lead to the sudden departure of other executives.

Success often comes from teamwork – and strong teams are built with people who share an organisation’s values and objectives, contributing to the cultural sense of unity and shared aspirations. Granted, organisations need to employ the highest calibre candidates possible, who possess the skills needed to bring success – but hiring people you like and feel you will be able to gel with is also important.

Appointing executives is a business critical process and requires that organisations take time to know their own culture and vision before forming a picture of the kind of people they need to help them succeed. Meet your preferred candidate(s) as frequently as possible and get a sense of their softer skills, before making that all-important decision.

Business leaders often benefit from being open to constructive criticism, allowing executives around them to share their experience so that everyone in the organisation can develop for its overall success. Henry Ford championed this ethos, saying “I am not the smartest, but I surround myself with competent people.” Employing executives who show strong leadership potential is something to be embraced, not threatened by. As a leading executive recruitment firm, we’ve come into contact with many leaders over the years who put their companies’ needs ahead of their own feelings, valuing the different perspectives others can bring, unafraid to branch away from hiring ‘yes men and women’, and working with those who challenge them constructively for the common good.

When it comes to the search and selection process, our experience as experts in the executive recruitment industry has highlighted the benefits of organisations taking their time to find the right executives for them. With our help, they have been able to assemble and develop strong, united teams, which have gone on to achieve tremendous success. Viewing people as individuals with unique strengths and harnessing their various abilities in an open, nurturing environment really does work.