Lesson #5: Three Magic Words: “I Want You”

When a team is trying to get a great player to sign with them, the coach always makes the offer in person, face to face.  The coach looks the player in the eye and says three magic words: “I want you.”  

They don’t send the human resource manager or the university’s athletic director or anyone else to do it.  It is never as effective that way.  They don’t do it by phone or letter or email.  They make the offer themselves because it’s a deeply personal thing that has a powerful and compelling message behind it. 

Think about it.  “I want you to join my team. Come play for me.  Let’s win together.”  

Is there any doubt in your mind that employment of a new worker would start in a much more powerful way if the supervisor the person was going to actually work for made each offer face-to-face?

“I interviewed a lot of people looking for just the right person to fill this slot.  I think you are the person who can do it.  I want you to join my team and help us win.  Its hard work but you will be part of a great team that has accomplished some incredible things.  I think you will fit in perfectly with us and help us win.  I want you to take this job.”  

What you say can be long or short…flowery or straight to the point…but it needs to contain the magic words, “I want you.” 

Of course you will have HR in the room to go over benefits and cover the paperwork that must be completed, but don’t leave it to your HR representative make the offer and miss this opportunity to start the working relationship off in a powerful direction. 

“I want you.”  Simply magical. 

Lesson #4: Tailor Fit the Job to the Candidate Who Can Help Your Team Win

When a team has a vacancy, does a good coach look only for a player who will fit the jersey he already has?  Does the coach only look for players wearing the same shoe size as the last player wore?   Of course not!  Great coaches will find the player the team needs to become better and then fit the uniform of their team to that player. 

Similarly, if the coach is focused only on finding a certain set of skills for a new player (such as a good passer if a football team needs a quarterback), he remains open to the fact that he may come across such a good running quarterback that it opens up entirely new opportunities for the team to win.  Instead of remaining blindly committed to what he thought he was looking for, a great coach will be open to adapt the position (and perhaps even his entire offense) to make best use of the skills he finds in the new player

Job descriptions are like this in many ways.  You may think you know exactly what you are looking for in a new worker, and there is a outside chance you might even find an exact match to the job description you have.  But more likely, you will find someone who has most of the skills your job description requires but is deficient in some other areas that may or may not be critical.  The best strategy when facing this is to alter the job description slightly to match the abilities of your new hire, emphasizing some areas and de-emphasizing others.   

Remember, job descriptions are not sacred.  Even if you cannot alter your company’s standard job description for a specific position, you should clearly understand that some “required skills” are more important than others.  Your “team” can benefit most when you remain open to minor alterations of the job description to person you actually hire.   A good rule of thumb is to find a candidate that has at least 75% of the skills you are looking for (and adapting to the non-critical weaknesses the person has), and be open to modifying the job description to capture the additional skills the candidate demonstrates as a “windfall”.   If the “total package” still looks good, you are well on your way to building a winning team!