What is the top characteristic you look for when hiring someone for a brand new team, or to work on a newly developing project? Why is this trait so valuable?
These answers are provided by Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year and have created tens of thousands of jobs. Learn more at yec.co.
1. Vision and Conviction
The most important thing when forming a team is to share ideals and a vision, and that there is a passion for the idea or project you are working on. That not only money is the main focus, but a common goal. In this way, you will ensure that you have a committed and passionate team, and that their energy will not vary with respect to how well the company is doing financially. – Kevin Leyes, Team Leyes
2. Alignment to Company Core Values
Core values allow the company to present the rule book and set expectations for being a member of the team. Creating a series of questions very early on in the interview process can help weed out candidates that eventually will hurt the culture, instead of becoming a cultural contributor. No matter how talented or connected they are, if they don’t align with values they’ll hurt the company. – Phillip Oakley, Common Giant
3. Experience
It’s so important to have people who have a good background in something similar to what you are trying to accomplish. The more experience you can leverage into your organization the fewer mistakes you will have to fix. – Nicole Munoz, Nicole Munoz Consulting Inc.
4. Superb Communication
If your team can’t communicate with each other or to you about their projects and the happenings within the company, it’ll be difficult for it to succeed. I always go for the candidates who communicate well, clearly and honestly. I need someone I know I can trust with business operations so that if anything should go wrong, I’ll know. – Jared Atchison, WPForms
5. Attention to Detail
New projects usually take a ton of time and resources. We like to look for someone that knows how to pay attention to fine details. This trait is important because if one thing goes wrong during the inception of this new goal, it could cripple the company through a lack of engagement and sales. When someone is willing to look at details in a management position, we consider this a winning trait. – John Turner, SeedProd LLC
6. Commitment
A candidate with extensive experience is good, but the best employee to hire would be someone who’s committed to continually improve their skills and grow with the company as well. I also would prefer to hire someone who has integrity over a potential candidate who has achieved so much but has a questionable character and work ethic. – Kyle Goguen, Pawstruck
7. Passion for Their Line of Work
You can always expect the best work and effort from someone who cares about what they do. When searching for a new hire, I always look for inner motivation and passion for their skill. Such people are always learning and staying up to date with news. Passion for their job means you have someone reliable on your team whom you can depend on to do a great job. – Blair Williams, MemberPress
8. Adaptability
New projects and teams evolve along unforeseen paths. It is impossible to hire people with the precise qualities a project needs because it’s impossible to predict how its parameters will develop over time. That makes adaptability a key characteristic. I look for evidence that a new employee is able to evolve as a project’s requirements change in response to the challenges it encounters. – Corey Northcutt, Northcutt Enterprise SEO
9. Positive Attitude
It’s important that whoever joins my team has the behavioral skills to work well with others and maintains a positive attitude. You can have all the experience in the world, but if you don’t know how to work with others and don’t possess your own personal skill set, then it doesn’t mean much long term. – Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
10. Integrity
Integrity is one of the top characteristics we look for when hiring someone in any role. Without integrity, nothing works. A person who has integrity can be trusted to do what they said they would do when they said they would do it by. Integrity also demands truthfulness and honesty. A team member with no integrity will slow a project down, and cause more work for other members over time. – Matt Diggity, Diggity Marketing
11. Creativity
Any time we want to make something new, we want somebody who can bring something new to the table every conference call, business meeting or brainstorming session. This makes the team more exciting, daring and dynamic. The more ideas we have on the table, the more solutions we can present to our clients. – Solomon Thimothy, OneIMS
12. Loyalty
I value loyalty — my team usually stays with me for years and I rarely fire someone. This is why in building my team, I always make sure I hire someone loyal. With loyalty comes less amount of time and money spent in training and rehiring. With loyalty comes consistency in the development process and plans of the company. Loyalty means a strong and stable company. – Daisy Jing, Banish
13. Ability to Learn
Almost anything can be taught other than the ability to learn itself. Some people are simply better at assimilating information and gaining new skills than others. The ability to learn also means that the individual will be able to grow with the company as we move forward. – Keith Shields, Designli
14. Honesty
What I look for before I get into any type of partnerships or working with a new team member is their track record. I checked their credibility and their past accomplishments. Then I ask them about their failures and how they’ve overcome them. For me the most valuable trait is honesty. Trust needs to be established on the get-go before I move into any type of project. – Fritz Colcol, ABN Circle
15. Character
Hire character. Nothing is worse than working with someone that is difficult and lacks character. These people are a corporate catastrophe! They will change the corporate culture of a company. People will spend more time avoiding and ignoring them, just to not deal with them. This is counterproductive. Team players grow the company, profits and happiness in the workforce. Hire good people! – David Chen, GTIF Capital
