Building a Top of the Table Staff

AT/Web Exclusive Articles/Building a Top of the Table Staff

By Sarah J. Kaelberer and E. Dennis Zahrbock

A very good staff gives you a very good team, and a very good team gives you outstanding results. Here's how to build a Million Dollar Round Table "Top of the Table" (TOT) staff.

Finding the right fit

The first step in building your team is finding the right people. The key to choosing the best employee is to focus on the person, not the resume. For example, we have an employee, Lisa, who did not have a resume at all when we hired her. We hired her away from a company that was going out of business. We offered her the job because we knew what kind of person she was and how she worked. Over the years, we'd seen her demonstrate that she had a heart of gold and the desire to do anything it took to help a client or teammate. Those qualities made her a good fit for our team. If the spirit and ability is there, procedures and processes can be taught.

The old saying, "One bad apple spoils the bunch," can prove true in an office environment. One negative person or nonteam player can seriously damage a team's morale. One way to combat this is to get to know the candidate for the job as well as possible. Our office is small enough that we can have a job candidate meet with all the current team members.

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