The question is how do you select the appropriate individuals to join your team? In this era of disruption the search for the best fit for the company's / organization's culture has also been evolving affecting the human capital in equal shares in terms of recruitment. There are many ways that are used in searching for individuals that best fit a particular company or organization for example online application and research, shortlisting by an agency, headhunting, panel interviews, pitching conference, practical test , referrals just to mention but a few. Nowadays it's easy to get the most educated but finding the right talent and perfect fit for your organization or company culture is a process that can't be achieved through randomness.
I would advise on the model that I call ART which stand for Attract, Retain and Train in ensuring a winning team in pursuit of the company/ organisation vision. As a passionate founder, I have been taking keen attention on how people work in relation to establishing a great team behind existing or new initiative that would take the idea to the next level of financial sustainability and scalability. Establishing a great team isn't an easy process at any stage of your organization or company, it is also a daunting task, especially when most of the things seem to be at the point of stagnation, especially if you are running on limited resources to get the best talent in the market.
I'm privileged to have worked as part of a founding team in different setups. I can't claim everything was successful based on the constituted team, there were many loops of great times and challenging moment, which only the bold could confront. I'm happy to have gotten a chance to work with a great founding team, which wasn't afraid of failures or even speaking out their minds in shaping the desired future. I remember vividly the unrelenting passion, teamwork, shared team's vision and sacrifice optimized in our team based on our shared values to make ourselves better and that of the next generations to come. At the startup level pay wasn't a big concern, but the impact we brought to the success of the organization was the big deal.
Would you work for less pay while pursing the desired future in impacting people's lives positively? I have done this in the past and still would do it again. It is rewarding to work alongside people with the same aspiration in building the desired future while we impact other peoples' lives, learn in the process and earn salary progressively. This is the best experience I received as a founding member and I believe I was very lucky to meet colleagues whom I call the founding type. Founders, board members and all management structures have the biggest role in driving a shared vision mirrored in all the employees that eventual attracts all the external partners that we work with at different levels. In my pursuit for long life learning while implementing Wilsen Initiative (Wi), which is at the funding stage and team building, I have come to learn and appreciate two types of people that is; the founding type and the following type which is a reminiscence of my journey and experiences working in a team.
Inspirational quote;
"Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients." - Richard Branson
In conclusion;
We live in an ever-involving world, we have seen a massive shift on how people work and great process inspired by technology. To mitigate the gaps in human and technological changes we need to take a deliberate strategies in recruiting the best talents with a good mix of both the following and founding type. I believe in the ART model philosophy which is; Attracting the best, Retaining the best, Training all (ART).
