How to Hire A-Players
There are currently more open positions than there are qualified people to fill them. This is why every single leader that I work with is frantically searching for talent. It’s also why I was so excited to have Eric Herrenkohl, author of How to Hire A-Players, work with our Vistage group the other week.
One of the questions that arose during our session with Eric was “How do you define an A-player?” While the answer will be slightly different for everyone, I think Eric’s response knocked it out of the park.
“There are 7 billion people on the planet, and nothing is certain for any of us. I’m going to pay people that can handle uncertainty.”
I also asked Eric to share one thing with us that he thinks every leader should know about attracting and hiring A-players.
Here’s what he said:
To learn more about how to win the talent war, pick up a copy of Eric’s book How to Hire A-Players, visit his website, or drop me a line. I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned, introduce you to Eric, or even brainstorm solutions to help better position you to find and secure A-players for your company.
TRANSCRIPT
Chad Harvey (00:04): All right, I’m Chad Harvey, here with Eric Herrenkohl. We just finished an awesome session with our Vistage group this morning about how you find and attract and retain A-players. In fact, Eric is the author of How To Attract and Retain A Players. And Eric, if you had 60 seconds to tell our audience about attracting and training A players, what is the one thing that you would want them to know?
Eric Herrenkohl (00:31): I emphasize being recruiter and chief. And what that means to me is that from the CEO on down, every leader in an organization has a mentality that they’re responsible for recruiting. They’re interviewing all the time. They know what an A-player looks like in their organization. Because at the end of the day, recruiting is a numbers game. The more talent that you are able to reach out and attract into an interview process, the better shot you have of hiring an A-player.
Chad Harvey (00:57): That’s great. I love the top-down approach. Too often, recruiting and retention is something that the CEO wants to delegate. So, this is fantastic.
Eric Herrenkohl (01:04): Awesome.
Chad Harvey (01:05): Very good. Thanks for your time today.
Eric Herrenkohl (01:06): Thank you.
Chad Harvey (01:07): All right.