Coaching a soccer team is so much like running a company.  I'm amazed at the similarities.  Find talented people, provide them training, make sure they're enjoying what they're doing, have core values that are non-negotiable, motivate them, inspire them and lead them. It's the same thing in a company; it's just not with a soccer ball.  Take hiring for example. The key is hiring the right people in the first place; matching the person to the job and the culture of the business.  
At E.E. Robbins, the qualities we look for are the same qualities our customers look for.  In the engagement ring business, you have to find people that truly and sincerely care about their customers. That is what our brand is built on. What we've discovered over the years is you cannot teach someone to have heart who doesn't have heart. You cannot train someone to care who doesn't care. Yes, you still have to train employees, but most of the training is product knowledge rather than how to be nice to people, because they already know how to be nice to people. How do we discover these qualities in the folks we interview?  We have two or three interviews, as well as written tests to measure a prospective employee's ability to learn quickly. It's both subjective and objective questions to discover their aptitudes and personality. And most of it is in the person-to-person type questions. You'll ask them, what was their favorite job? You'll ask them questions like what did you like about your previous job, what are your interests, what didn't you like…? You just get a feeling of them as a person. You want to make sure that they're right for the job for your sake and for theirs.  It's important, not only for our company —the amount of time, energy and money we spend on training someone—it's also important for that person's life.  You want to make sure they're in the right place.
We try to find the natural talents of potential employees.  In their book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton share results from a research study aimed at understanding the basis for employee success in the workplace.  The research indicates that employers should start with these two assumptions:•    Each person's talents are enduring and unique.•    Each person's greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength.  Strengths can be developed, refined.  But they cannot be taught.  We look for the strengths that best match our needs…and for good reason.The cost of a wrong fit can be incredibly high, anywhere from one to five times annual salary.  ADP even has a "bad hire calculator" to help figure out hiring risks.   These only take into account, things like advertising costs, the time involved in the interview process, productivity losses, training investment and relocation. Numbers alone don't tell the complete story.There are also opportunity costs as well for the employee. For example, while the employee is working in a job they're not suited for, you're going to cause them a lot of anxiety, a lot of questions of self-worth if they haven't succeeded. There's also going to be a stall in their game plan of life, finding the right career. In a sense they are on hold. I feel an obligation to make sure this doesn't happen.  But I'm not going to tell you that we haven't made a couple mistakes along the way, because we have.  Nobody bats a thousand in hiring; whether you are hiring for the CIA or looking for a preschool teacher.   No matter which side of the hiring equation you're on, look at the man in the mirror. Take personal responsibility. When I coach soccer I am sure tell my players, you can't control the world, you can't control everybody on your team, you can't control the other team, you can't control the ref.  But you can control yourself.
Posted By Emerson At 2:51 PM