Today’s leaders often must navigate unpredictable seas. The many demands on a leader’s time vie for priority, including the need to live as a human being outside one’s leadership role. Thus, many leaders find themselves out of balance with their personal values and priorities.

Leaders will agree they need more balance. But most leaders find this elusive — they strike a balance for a moment or a day or a week, until the next crisis hits, which it inevitably does. Balance begins to sound like a platitude, a “nice to have” that doesn’t jibe with reality.

The tool leaders need to find balance is ballast. Ballast is a heavy substance that can be moved around to help maintain equilibrium. Ballast, when well-designed, brings stability and control to a ship. Its genius is in its flexibility — a crew can move ballast depending on the challenges they currently face.

Many factors led to the Vasa’s early and expensive demise. The top-heavy ship was structurally flawed. And there was no chance of overcoming this problem since she also carried insufficient ballast. This left her with little fortitude for her real-world voyage into the winds and sea. Each person has to find their own source of ballast. It’s the attention you devote to the most important areas in your life — the actions you take to create stability in the midst of turbulent seas.

Here are three steps to add ballast to your vessel:

1. Identify what’s at your core. Ballast sits in the belly of the ship below the waterline thus lowering the center of balance. If you stabilize this region, you stabilize the entire ship. What does stability look like for you? Identify the key values — intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual — that guide your work and life — the “four corners of your core.”

2. Distribute the ballast based on need. It is important that your ballast remains stable during a storm. A crew maintains this stability by dispersing the ballast to port, starboard, bow, and stern depending on changing conditions. Learn where you need to move ballast around the corners of your core.

3. Stack ballast where you can. If you’re struggling to find balance, you are already tight on time. You may not be able to have a date-night, complete an hour-long workout, and practice Swedish because you just relocated to Scandinavia, all in discrete chunks of time in a single day. However, you and your partner might be able to run together while egging each other on in Swedish. Now you’ve managed to simultaneously disperse ballast in the emotional, physical, and intellectual corners of your core.

Each of us has turbulent situations to navigate through work and life. When you are vigilant about your conditions you can apportion your ballast accordingly. What adjustments can you make that will bring stability to your core?

Nothing is more important for an organization – be it a Startup or matured Business – than getting the right People. However hiring great talent is a challenging task in the absence of a few support mechanisms.TalentSteps is focused on helping you with the complete recruitment process from Resume to Onboarding to empower you to find Great Talent.

Here are a few tips on how Startups can attract and hire great talent.

Clarity – Be clear about who you want. Having a clear Job description with the expected knowledge and skills would be the right starting point.

Experience – While you tend to believe that you are selecting the candidate, the opposite is true – It’s the candidate who is selecting the organization. Ensure that the experience from sending the resume to receiving the offer is positive as it reflects the brand of the organization and will send the right message to the candidate.

Selection – If you don’t know how to select the right candidate you will fail to get great talent. Match your selection process to the required knowledge & skills and ensure you have the right combination of tests & interviews to get the right data for your decision.

Branding – If you want great talent you should be able to attract them well. Do you have a career website and how does that position you to attract talent.

Tools – Does your team have the right tools to hire great talent and is it a structured approach to ensure that all members are working towards the same objective? Job descriptions, Role Clarification Docs, Selection Tools, Career Website, Software platform are required to make you successful in hiring great talent.

Our services will help you to reduce save time, reduce cost & risk, increase candidate & employee satisfaction and help you to help you to get great talent for your business.All these services are available to you with zero investment, anytime start & stop option, short to long term durations, 24/7, remote & onsite and cost-effective packages.

Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren’t sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.

1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. “Lose 5 pounds” is a better goal than “lose some weight,” because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you’ll “eat less” or “sleep more” is too vague — be clear and precise. “I’ll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights” leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you’ve actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it’s not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.

To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., “If it’s Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I’ll work out for 30 minutes before work.”) Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don’t know how well you are doing, you can’t adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don’t underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure. 

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won’t improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.

Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The good news is, if you aren’t particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don’t have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking …. well, there’s no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.

7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control “muscle” is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn’t get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.

To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you’d honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don’t. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur (“If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.”) It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that’s the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.

8. Don’t tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it’s important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don’t try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don’t put yourself in harm’s way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won’t do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., “Don’t think about white bears!”) has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.

If you want to change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like “If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down.” By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.

It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don’t need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It’s never what you are, but what you do.

About The Author: Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. is a motivational psychologist, and author of the new book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (Hudson Street Press, 2011). She is also an expert blogger on motivation and leadership for Fast Company and Psychology Today. 

We all get the Monday blues from time to time, but luckily there are ways to take action against them. If you’re going through a rough patch or are lacking job satisfaction, check out these ways to have a happier work day.

Organise your work day

If your day often leaves you feeling stressed and overwhelmed, it is time to calm things down by getting more organised. Firstly, make sure you arrive a few minutes early for work to give you time to organise your tasks for the day and get mentally prepared. Secondly, organize your space by clearing away any clutter and streamlining your workspace (this includes clearing your desk and deleting old emails). Finally, make a list of everything that you need to do that day in order of priority. If you can, try taking care of the more difficult things first to take a weight off your mind.

Wear a mood-boosting outfit

While many of us are required to wear a uniform or adhere to a dress code for work, if you do have more freedom to dress as you wish, try opting for clothes or accessories that boost your mood. Whether you opt for a piece of jewellery that reminds you of a special memory, a colourful bag to brighten up your day, that confidence- boosting outfit, or even your favourite underwear beneath it all, adding something special to your worn-in work attire can really brighten your day.

Add some variety to your day

They say variety is the spice of life, and this is never truer than when it comes to your working day. Following the same routine day in, day out can quickly cause boredom and dissatisfaction to set in, so try making every day a little different in any way you can. Try doing routine tasks in a different order, talking to someone new or taking a different route to work (perhaps even using a different mode of transport, such as cycling, if you can). If you really can’t shake up your work day itself, instead try organising something fun and different to do on your lunch break every so often.

Brighten up your desk

Research has shown that workers who have input into the design of their workspace are up to 40 per cent happier than those who do not. While you may not have the authority (or inclination) to decorate or rearrange your whole office or work place, try brightening up your individual area by purchasing some nice stationery, putting up a photo, funny calendar or small piece of artwork, or getting a nice plant for your desk.

Stay active

If your working day is getting you down, try giving yourself an instant happiness boost by squeezing some exercise into your lunch break. Exercise is good for boosting self-esteem and letting off stress, and it also releases chemicals in the brain such as endorphins and anandamide which can boost your mood and leave you feeling great. If you have shower facilities at work you could go for a lunchtime run. Alternatively, a brisk walk around the shops will get your heart rate up without working up a sweat.

Snack on ‘happy foods’

Got a tough day ahead? Then make sure you pack some healthy snacks to keep your spirits up. Certain nutrients in food can affect how we feel, so try stocking up on well-known happiness-inducing foods such as walnuts (for Omega-3 fatty acids), bananas (for serotonin-producing tryptophan and relaxing magnesium) and wholegrains (for mood-boosting B vitamins). Also, stick to low-GI foods for slow-release energy, as low blood sugar levels can lead to depression and fatigue.

Be positive and friendly

Regardless of how you feel, try to adopt a positive and friendly attitude when talking to colleagues – yes, even the ones who get on your nerves! Try to resolve any conflicts, avoid office gossip, and treat everyone as you would like to be treated, and you may find that you get the same in return. Furthermore, research shows that the act of smiling can actually make you feel happier, so try to paste on a smile however you really feel – it may just boost your mood.

Appreciate what you have

If you know that your job isn’t the one for you but are stuck with it for now, try to make the best of what you’ve got. The job may not be permanent, but going to it every day with no sense of purpose (other than to get through to the end of the day) will quickly get you down. Try to identify a sense of purpose or positive of doing the job, whether it is noting that the position is getting you nearer to your dream job, helping others in some way, or giving you an opportunity to build on certain skills

A failure to embrace pursuit is to cede opportunity to others. A leader’s failure to pursue clarity leaves them amidst the fog. Their failure to pursue creativity relegates them to the routine and mundane. Their failure to pursue talent sentences them to a world of isolation.  Their failure to pursue change approves apathy. Their failure to pursue wisdom and discernment subjects them to distraction and folly. Their failure to pursue character leaves a question mark on their integrity. Let me put this as simply as I can – you cannot attain what you do not pursue.

Smart leaders understand it’s not just enough to pursue, but pursuit must be intentional, focused, consistent, aggressive, and unyielding. You must pursue the right things, for the right reasons, and at the right times. Perhaps most of all, the best forms of pursuit enlist others in the chase. Pursuit in its purest form is highly collaborative, very inclusive and easily transferable. Pursuit operates at greatest strength when it leverages velocity and scale.

I also want to caution you against trivial pursuits – don’t confuse pursuit with simple goal setting. Outcomes are clearly important, but as a leader, it’s what happens after the outcome that you need to be in pursuit of. Pursue discovery, seek dissenting opinions, develop your ability unlearn by embracing how much you don’t know, and find the kind of vision that truly does see around corners. Don’t use your pursuits to shift paradigms, pursue breaking them. Knowing what not to pursue is just as important as knowing what to pursue.

It’s important to keep in mind that nothing tells the world more about a leader than what or who they pursue – that which you pursue is that which you value. If you message to your organization you value talent, but don’t treat people well and don’t spend time developing the talent around you, then I would suggest you value rhetoric more than talent. Put simply, you can wax eloquent all you like, but your actions will ultimately reveal what you truly value.

Lastly, the best leaders pursue being better leaders. They know to fail in this pursuit is nothing short of a guarantee they’ll be replaced by those who don’t. All leaders would be well served to go back to school on what I refer to as the science of pursuitology.

What’s been the best thing you’ve pursued? What pursuit has led you astray. Thoughts?

Leadership interview focuses on evaluating and exploring some important leadership competencies. These interview questions are most important in order to check the competencies of job seekers, their leadership skills and potentials. Leadership and management activities look alike, but slightly different in some manners. Management is a component of leadership and a leader is responsible for performing some important functions such as planning, organizing, managing, and controlling. Effective and perfect leadership will definitely help the organization in every manner.

Leadership is an ability to motivate employees for doing the works and allotted tasks sincerely and dedicatedly. Almost every company needs a leadership in order to run company smoothly and effectively. This job is in great demand. If you are thinking to apply for the job description given above, you need to prepare well for the interview process. Following are some important leadership interview questions.

1. How would you explain your leadership quality? Give me some qualities of a leader.

This is the frequently asked leadership interview question. Question is asked to find out that is your style congruent to organization or not. Some leadership qualities are integrity, dedication, motivation, humility, Magnanimity, creativity, fairness, openness and sense of humor.

2. Explain your values and ethics as a leader? Give me some example of these

Qualities of a leader are also known as value and ethics. They are the most important leadership competency. A perfect leader will always be able to solve problems and ethics in personal behavior. A good leader encourages everyone for enhancing honesty, fairness, transparency and confidence level.

3. What are the roles and responsibilities of leader? How will you demonstrate it with your company’s manager?

The role of leader is not limited to some works and tasks. He has to communicate with the lower level workers after making some smart and effective strategies. He translates some plans and strategies with very clarity. He is used to identify short term objectives, performances, measures, communicate priorities and agreement to management.

4. Explain some innovative solutions you developed

A good leader will always promote innovation and change in the way of working. He helps in finding solutions for the given problems and emphasizing openness to changing environment.

5. Explain the time when you got really tough competition.

Leaders are the only persons who build strong organization vision both externally and internally. They make some effective marketing, advertising and communication strategies within the company and also remove obstacles.

If you are going for the leadership interview, always give clear and honest answers to the questions. 

Innovation is the only ticket out of this recession. I believe this is true for America as a whole and it’s certainly true for the individual organizations that make up our nation. I’m not just talking about product development. I’m talking about new services, business processes, means of communication, and methods of collaboration. Companies that can churn out innovative ideas–good, workable innovative ideas–will be able to adapt to the new realities we face. Those that can’t, won’t. The heart of innovation, of course, is people working together eagerly, intelligently, and productively. When this synergy happens, ideas pour forth like water from a newly tapped underground spring–or like fireflies showing up en masse at dusk. Innovation is all about good teamwork. It’s really that simple. And it’s what The Firefly Effect is all about. If you’re like many leaders, you have a group of shell-shocked lay-off “survivors” who are wandering around lost in a state of general worry and angst about the economy. 

You can use innovation principles to direct their anxious energy toward solving critical problems for the company. It helps them; it helps you; it helps everyone. So how can you deliberately create a more innovative culture–call it “Operation Firefly”–at your company?

Here are some tips to help you get started: 

• Understand the (non-flashy) new role of leadership. In America as well as in the rest of the world, the focus is moving toward such “right-brained” skills and talents as creativity, empathy, intuition, and the ability to link seemingly unrelated objects and events into something new and different. That means leaders must a) create and maintain a safe, respectful environment where individual creativity can emerge to its fullest potential, and b) focus that creative energy in the right direction based upon the core purpose of the team and the targeted goals. If you’re a “command and control” type, you’d better start rethinking your style. Today, successful leaders aren’t flashy and aggressive. They lead through inspiration and collaboration. Look at your current behaviors and determine which are helping you achieve your vision for leadership through engagement and which are holding you back. Start small–and stick with it. 

• Search for untapped talent on your team. Frankly, it is in our individual and corporate nature to try to deal with differences by eliminating them. However, in the same way that what look like plain old fireflies are actually comprised of more than 2,000 known species, employees are far more complex and unique than they might appear at first glance. Unearthing the hidden talents your employees posses is the first step toward using these areas of hidden development to your team’s advantage. Employees who are recognized as unique, and who are seen as having significant contributions to make, become more engaged and passionate about their work. They light up to far brighter levels than ever before. Look for the hidden strengths and untapped potential of your existing employees and you’ll see them transform before your eyes. It’s almost like hiring a team of new creative superstars. 

• Encourage creative abrasion…but swat ferocious fireflies. Are you uncomfortable with conflict in the workplace? Don’t be. Conflict is natural, expected, and, because it’s a sign of diverse thinking on your team, even desirable. I call productive conflict “creative abrasion.” However, leaders must take steps to keep the conflict focused on the issues and not let team members direct their ire at one another personally. And you must deal with ferocious fireflies: toxic, manipulative employees who gain the trust of others on the team only to viciously turn on them later. In the world of fireflies, there is one species in which the female is called the femme fatale. She mimics the welcoming signal of another species to gain their trust. Then, when the victim is close enough, she pounces on it and consumes it. And yes, there is a human equivalent of the ferocious firefly. If you have one on your team, you must eliminate him or her immediately. Otherwise, it will be impossible to build a culture of trust. 

• Deal with other, more insidious “trust busters,” too. In all my years of working with teams, I consistently see (besides the presence of a ferocious firefly) three other problematic behaviors that damage or limit trust. They are: 1) a refusal to share personal information; 2) sarcasm disguised as humor; and 3) one or more disengaged members of the team. In order to innovate, people must be able to connect with each other in a real, deeply personal way. If just one person refuses to open up or truly engage, or if he throws barbs at other team members under the guise of humor, he’ll cause an erosion of trust. And in the absence of trust, no real progress can be made. 

• Make sure quieter fireflies have a chance to glow. You’ve no doubt noticed that certain people naturally dominate the discussion while others tend to hang back and go with the flow. Problem is, if your big talkers and “star employees” are always allowed to verbally run over the quieter/less visible members of your team, the same ideas and solutions will always get implemented. Some simple tricks can prevent extroverts from taking over and introverts (who may have some brilliant ideas under their hats) from getting overlooked. Insist that everyone jot down their initial ideas in silence and then share them, round-robin style. Impose a time limit so that no one is able to out-talk her quieter teammates. Sometimes, simply moving a predictably dominant person away from the front of the room and parking her next to a more reserved team member can change group dynamics dramatically. 

• Don’t let team leaders keep too tight a lid on the jar. Just as fireflies’ lights fade when they’re held captive, a leader who dominates and controls his or her team will squelch creativity. If you’re the leader, you must take deliberate steps not to do this. For instance, don’t sit at the head of the table. Use positive reinforcement (both verbally and nonverbally). Don’t get into a prolonged conversation with only one or two other team members. If you’re not very, very careful, you’ll end up biasing the people in the room by virtue of your position of power. People have a natural tendency to defer to the leader, even when he or she is trying very hard not to be dominating. You have to watch everything: tone of voice, body language, facial expressions… everything. 

• Make meetings fun, exciting, and inviting. For instance, you might bring a creativity toy or two–something interesting enough to engage someone’s hands but not so fascinating that it distracts them from the reason for the meeting. Use a whiteboard rather than the dreaded flipchart. And try techniques like mind-mapping (for left-brain thinkers) or brain-writing (for right-brain thinkers) to get creativity flowing. Boredom and drudgery do not facilitate innovation and problem solving. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you’re holding light, fun, engaging meetings that people actually want to attend. If they don’t want to be there, they won’t be in the right frame of mind to accomplish anything worthwhile–and they won’t. 

• Shine the light of accountability on your team. Even the most energetic, productive meeting means nothing if people don’t follow up the decisions they reach with action. As a team, create a common picture of what personal accountability looks like. Then, delegate very specific assignments to very specific people. Finally, set a date for a follow-up meeting in which everyone must report on whether they fulfilled their commitments, and if not, why not. Uncomfortable as this may feel at first, it shows everyone that lame excuses won’t be tolerated. This applies to the leader as well. 

• From time to time, escape the office for a creative excursion. When you really need to tap into your team’s creative talents and boost their ability to work together, you need to get offsite. Yes, even in–in fact, especially in–these stressful times. And no, I’m not talking about the stereotypical ropes course or fall-backwards-into-a-teammate’s-arms trust building exercise. I mean excursions that truly create lifelong lessons and connections you can immediately apply to improve your performance as a team and a business unit. I’ve been privy to off-site team building exercises in many different settings, from a visit to the zoo to a tour of a plane manufacturing plant to a wintertime yacht sailing excursion. They’ve all been incredibly fruitful. These adult “field trips” yield fresh insights on teamwork and help you think about problem solving in a new way. And they also help you see others on your team in a new light. After reading this advice, you may be thinking, Okay, all this talk of toys and trips to the zoo is fine for other companies or maybe other departments, but certainly not for my team. 

We’re struggling to stay alive. We just don’t have time for innovation. You’re absolutely wrong. Innovation is everyone’s job now. It’s no longer the purview of R&D or marketing. That no longer makes good business sense. You must make time for innovation. At the very least you can devote one hour of team time a week to a truly innovative brainstorming session. Even if you don’t see immediately usable outcomes, there is unmistakable value in keeping people engaged in the excitement of their work. All it takes is for one person to have a bright idea and pass it on to others–like the spark of a firefly that magically illuminates a dark night.

Senior Design Engineer (Gurgaon) – Plant Design (Piping).Exp: 20-30 Yrs Budget 30-40 Lac/Annum. Degree: BE NO Diploma
Must to have: Candidates from EPC companies only

Deputy Chief Engineer (Gurgaon) – Electrical.Exp: 20-30 Yrs Budget 30-40 Lac/Annum. Degree: BE NO Diploma
Must to have: Candidates from EPC companies only

Senior Design Engineer (Gurgaon) – Civil.Exp: 20-30 Yrs Budget 30-40 Lac/Annum. Degree: BE NO Diploma
Must to have: Candidates from EPC companies only

Senior Electrical Engineer (Gurgaon) – Degree/Diploma in Electrical Engineering. This is a Site Management and Project Execution profile. Candidate will have to be deputed to running site. Ideally someone with 10-16 years of experience in Executions of either Substations/MEP/Data Centers.

Kindly share your resume at sourcing@a-square.co.in

THE PREPARATION
Before you even think about sorting through the hundreds of resumes that you probably already have in your inbox, you must first take some time to prepare yourself before going into the battlefield. First and foremost you need to get together with your sales team and create an “ideal candidate” profile; deciding what would make a salesperson successful in your company. Just because someone was the #1 sales person at cruise line does not mean that they will be a top seller in your organization that sales computers. So, identify some key players in your team, see what qualities have made them successful, what qualities have hindered them, go through candidates that haven’t worked out in the past and see why they didn’t last. Once you have created the “ideal” candidate, you can begin the hunt for your next star. After all, you can’t find what you need if you don’t know what you are looking for.

THE RESUME
Being able to identify and differentiate a good resume from a bad one is a key step in your search for the next superstar. A resume is the first indicator of many things such as communication, but also their attention to detail, written skills, presentation, how they sell themselves, how successful they have been in other positions and employment longevity along with many other things. Reviewing the resume carefully and knowing exactly what you are looking for in your next hire will allow you to only move forward with those that you truly feel will add value to you team. Although a resume is only a limited representation of a candidate, it is one of the most important ones too. So, if a resume looks like they only spent an hour on it; chances are they probably did.

THE PHONE SCREEN
This to me is one of the easiest parts of the process as far as deciding whether or not I will continue on to a face to face interview or not. When you think of a great sales person you think of someone you can click with, someone that’s engaging, personable, likeable and a great communicator. If you feel like you have to drag answers out of them during the phone screening, if the conversation doesn’t flow naturally, if they are not enthusiastic and spark your interest than most likely your clients that they will be selling too will see them the same way. At the end of the day people don’t buy from a name brand they buy from the people they like and people they feel comfortable with. So if they can’t sell themselves, you cannot expect them to successfully sell your products/services to anyone else.

THE INTERVIEW
This is where it can get tricky. A lot of people present well, have great personalities and might have relevant experience but might not be the best for your position. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and really dig into their metrics; how they measured in comparison to others and really put them in the hot seat. The truth only has one face, so no matter how many different ways you ask the same question the answer should remain consistent. Ask questions that will that will expose synergies, strengths, specifics, situational questions, their drive, their competiveness, passion and accomplishments. But never settle for just a superficial answer; ask what they did to get there, how they accomplished it, what made them different, how they remain competitive, etc… It’s a job interview and you are in control, so take control and keep asking until you feel you are satisfied with the answer. The interviewer should only talk 10% of the time; the rest should come from the candidate.

THE DECISION
At the end of the day you can only uncover so much during the hiring process, but the more you can uncover and the more prepared you are to interview, the better off you will be and the more educated the hiring decisions you make will be. So take your time in creating an ideal candidate profile, review resumes very thoroughly, don’t be afraid to ask uncomfortable questions, and always remain open minded on where your next superstar can come from. The identifying and hiring process is an important part of finding great sales people but what happens after you hire them? How are you keeping them satisfied, challenged, and motivated? Recruiting goes far and beyond just interviewing. Good luck and happy hunting.