Team building is an art

I am currently interviewing candidates for an Analyst position on my team.  It is hard enough to find someone with the right skills and experience.  But there are other considerations as well:

1.  Any new hire needs to compliment the rest of the team.  A variety of skills, personalities and experience are needed for the team to be successful.  In Walter Isaacson’s great book on the digital revolution, he quotes Steve Wozniak as saying, “Every time I’d design something great, Steve [Jobs] would find a way to make money for us”.  Wozniak was the engineer and Jobs was the marketer.  Both were needed to make Apple successful.

2.  It is not enough to be smart.  I am looking for people who will collaborate and be a team player.  Lee Iacocca captured it well.  “A major reason capable people fail to advance is that they don’t work well with their colleagues.”

3.  Team members need to talk and listen to each other.  The best ideas often result from the back and forth of discussion and reflect a combination of insights and suggestions.  Further, we learn and grow professionally by listening to and potentially challenging the ideas of others.