Teambuilding is one of your most critical entrepreneurial activities. In business, every day is a game day and to win you must be able to field a winning team. Winning teams are made up of great employees yet many employers fail to put enough effort into their hiring activities to obtain them.



In some ways, building a great team of employees is a bit like building a house. When building, there is a step-by-step process that must be followed or the result will be unsightly, uncomfortable, and unsafe. Each step is important and the steps must be performed in the correct order.

So it is with teambuilding. There is a powerful, step-by-step process that will lead to successfully building a great team. Unfortunately, many employers set themselves up for failure by skipping one of the early steps in a great teambuilding process. That step is profiling. Profiling involves making 3 lists.

The first list identifies the key results you want an employee in a particular position to achieve. There will usually be 5 to 15 key results on this list.

Don't list, ?Greet customers.? That is a task, not a result. Instead write, ?Greet customers in a way that lets them know we are glad to see them?makes them feel special.?

See the difference? Now instead of just looking for someone to say hello (almost anyone can do that), you realize that you are looking for someone special?someone who enjoys interacting with people, has a certain type of personality, and a desire to use that in their life at work.

If you fail to get clear about the results you expect a new employee to deliver, don't be surprised if you end up hiring someone who doesn't quite measure up. When you get very clear about the results your new employee must achieve to contribute strongly to your bottom line, you then have the knowledge you need to make your second list.

Your second list identifies the skills, experience, education, personality traits, character traits, and career goals that you would expect a person to have, if they are to deliver the results you are seeking.

Let's look at another example. We'll assume you own a company that does specialty welding and machining. You employ 27 staff people in your shop. Your current long-term production manager will retire in about 6 months and you are looking for a replacement.

On your first list, let's say one of the key results you want your new production manager to achieve is to improve productivity by at least 7%. You know this is achievable if he or she makes better use of your new production management software, improves scheduling practices, reorganizes the inventory storage and tool sign-out processes, and corrects the problem you have with getting your staff to consistently use the most efficient and productive processes available.

Now we'll use this information to make your second list. You are looking for someone with strong computer skills. This individual will need to be an experienced manager with great problem solving skills. You are looking for someone who understands process control and has excellent organizational skills. People skills are also important because of your current problems with getting people to follow certain processes.

You can see that when you do a good job of your first list, making the second list is pretty easy. You will use the second list when you are preparing your recruiting materials. When your recruiting materials clearly define the skills, education, and experience you are seeking you will receive fewer resumes from those who are obviously not qualified and this can save you a whole lot of time.

You will also refer back to your second list when interviewing. You will have a checklist to insightfully compare the person you are interviewing with the person described on your profile.

Your third list is simply a list of reasons your company is a great place to work. If you hope to recruit top talent, you will have to include information from this list in your recruiting materials.

Profiling helps you be very clear about your hiring objectives. It's almost clich? to say that it's easier to hit a target you can see clearly. Invest the time required to create your profiles properly and you will recruit more effectively, save time, make fewer ?bad hires?, and end up with a stronger team as a result.