A-Player Attraction

5 strategies to assure effective execution of the Hire the BestTM Solution: Part Five of Five, Network using our Hire the Best™ A-Player Attraction System.

In our 5-part series, we’re examining the Hire the Best Solution™. If you missed parts 1 through 4 find them here: Sustainable Profitability | Sweet Spot | Innovation | Lean & Mighty The next step? Hiring A-Players.

What does it mean to hire an A-Player?

It means keeping your team as small as possible while delivering BIG IMPACT. It's possible with A-Players. Hiring top talent for your business may cost more, however in the long run, an A-Player produces 9-12 times the work that warm bodies produce. 

While researching for How to Hire the Best, I identified 4 important qualities an A-Player seeks in their roles:

While A-Players are everywhere, they are hardly ever actively looking for work. They are employed. So, you must always be on the lookout for A-Players and build relationships with them. If you wait for an opening you are too late.

  1. A-Players are seeking a career, not a job. They want opportunities for advancement. This means REAL opportunities for advancement that you lay out for them, with clear goals and opportunities to reach those goals. Any business can say, “We offer opportunities for advancement” but very few lay out a clear trajectory for an A-Player to advance, much less tie that to pay increases.

    Take the time to lay this out. Present it to your candidates during the interview. Make it stand out. Scratch and sniff on neon orange paper is good (I'm only partially kidding about that!). I teach the ins and outs of how to do this, while balancing the cash flow needs of a growing business in my How to Hire the Best System™ on-line course.

  2. A great boss and co-workers. If you know why your employees like working for you, share this everywhere–your website, social media, job advertisements, in your lobby, etc.  When our clients start with us, we survey their employees to discover this for them. It becomes a great tool fo use as you develop your recruitment marketing.

    Similarly, if you have a team of A-Players, show them off every chance you get. Share all the good things about them in social media. Share their accomplishments in your company newsletter.

    A-Players hang together! Like attracts like. Sharing your A-Players and what they are up to is the best way to attract more team members like them to your business.

  3. Interesting work. A-Players like challenges and problems to solve. Bring it on. We do our best when we are stretched just outside our comfort zone. Don't be afraid to challenge them.

  4. Work-life balance. Work supports life, not the other way around. Respect their family and life commitments outside of work. Discover their interests. Support their goals. For a great example of how you might go about doing this, check out what Core Growth Strategies is up to in our Great Place to Work Spotlight.

For more on Hiring A-Players, be sure to check out a past blog, “ASK DR. SABRINA: HOW DO I KNOW IF WE ARE ATTRACTIVE TO A-PLAYERS?”

More details available in my book, How to Hire the Best.
(Contractor Edition coming Fall 2019!)

Ready to transform your business into a highly profitable, Great Place to Work?

Apply to work with us today!

About The Author

Dr. Sabrina Starling, The Business Psychologist and international best-selling author of the How to Hire the Best series and The 4 Week Vacation™, is the founder of Tap the Potential and host of the Profit by Design podcast. At Tap the Potential, we work to free business owners from the constant demands of a growing business.

We believe work supports life, not the other way around. Clients in our Better Business, Better Life coaching program have more time for what matters most and more money in their bank account than they’ve ever had. Next, we send them off on a 4 Week Vacation™ to celebrate their hard-earned journey to take their life back!

Dr. Sabrina and her team at Tap the Potential are on a mission to change the story of entrepreneurship from one of long hours, grinding it out, to one of sustainably profitable businesses that support and enhance life. The Tap the Potential Solution™ and our Tap the Potential Family of Business Owners are disrupting small business as usual. We are on our way to making the Tap the Potential Solution™ the mainstream model for growing business.

By 2023, 150 Tap the Potential clients will have taken 4 Week Vacations. These are the trailblazers, role modeling what’s possible for entrepreneurs. In many entrepreneurial circles, it is becoming more and more common for one entrepreneur to ask another, “Have you taken a 4 Week Vacation™?” (as opposed to asking “How many employees do you have?” or “What is your annual revenue?”). Taking a fully unplugged 4 Week Vacation is rapidly becoming the recognized symbol of entrepreneurial success.

Never one to accept the status quo or back down from a challenge, Dr. Sabrina’s How to Hire the Best series grew from her desire to solve the toughest hiring challenges interfering with her clients’ growth and profitability. What sprang from her experience working with entrepreneurs in rural areas catapulted her into becoming the world’s leading expert in attracting top talent in small businesses—no matter what hiring challenges those businesses are facing—and earned Tap the Potential’s reputation as the go-to resource for entrepreneurs committed to creating Great Places to Work with thriving coaching cultures and highly engaged team members working from strengths.

As The Business Psychologist, and with her years of driving profit in small businesses, Dr. Sabrina knows what it takes to find, keep, and motivate exceptional performance out of your biggest investment—team members.