Building the Dream: Five Keys to Assembling the Right Team for Any Company.

Gone are the days of the lone ranger entrepreneur. Today's new start-up visionaries realize they can't do everything alone. Their company's success depends on attracting the right people to help the business excel. However, while on their fast track to success, many entrepreneurs fail to pre-plan their hiring objectives. This can be a road to disaster, causing the business to ultimately fail and leaving the entrepreneur with just a dream. While assembling a team to help the company grow is not usually an entrepreneur's activity of choice, it is something that must be done and done right. In order to succeed, an entrepreneur has to build a group that can give life to the dream. The team has to be able to make the dream happen. Then the entrepreneur has to feel comfortable enough to stand back and get out of the way so the new hires can do what they do best. Without this kind of trust and commitment to the goal, the dream dies.

Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs have never learned how to bring in the right kind of help. They mistakenly rely only on resumes and references, which may ultimately cause them to make incorrect hiring decisions. However, assembling a top-notch team requires careful preplanning and foresight. Following are the five keys that will help any entrepreneur make correct hiring decisions and ultimately build the dream.

1. Staff with the perspectives needed in today's changing marketplace. An old saying states, "Birds of a feather flock together." Nothing could be truer when it comes to hiring. Most entrepreneurs naturally feel comfortable when everyone begins With the same perspective. The problem is that when you work only with similar types of people, you get too narrow a perspective to the day-to-day challenges any business faces. One needs people with varying degrees of experience and skill. This allows everyone to look at a challenge from his or her unique point-of-view, and allows the organization to develop several alternative solutions, each of which is valid. When this happens, there is a greater chance of creatively advancing the company. To choose a diverse range of people, an entrepreneur should ask the following questions before making a hiring decision: "What do I want to accomplish with my business?" "What marketplace challenges must I overcome?" "What qualities do I lack--technical, interpersonal, or strateg ic--that someone else may have?" "How can this person help me reach my goal?"

2. Be clear about the contribution each person should make. In today's marketplace, there's approximately a 40 percent turnover rate of executives within 18-24 months. While the executives may be technically competent to do the job, they often leave or are asked to leave because they lack the interpersonal, team, or strategic skills needed to contribute to the corporation's success. It is critical that their position description be focused on the results they are to achieve and not consist of a list of activities.

Without a results focus, people are left to guess at what they should be accomplishing. To attract and keep the right people, plan the results each person should strive for. Determine what skills are required for the job and put them in writing in the job description. When people know how they can contribute to its success, they are more apt to stay with the company, and help it grow.

3. Select those who have the ability to work in the company's ...