To accomplish your big business goals, you must realise that it will have to be done with and through people. The next pivotal step is then determining what kind of people you need to select for your company. One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is hiring individuals that are similar to themselves as opposed to hiring those with the skills and qualities that complement your own.

Recently, millionaire and entrepreneur Eben Pagan taught me the concept of building a  team of ‘Superstars’. Superstars are those that tackle super challenges head-on, they are the performers that everybody wants in their company and the first ones to get picked for a team. As a business leader, you should be able to identify the qualities of a Superstar to build your own team of top performers. I’m going to share with you the in which Eben broke it down for me and how this has impacted my company.

The Three Things to Look For

Many employees view their day-to-day responsibilities as tasks that they have to do rather than tasks that they want to do. These employees will only perform to the level which they feel is sufficient enough to get the job done, often they will need to realise the consequences of not completing a task just to push them to complete it. These people are not actively engaged in what they do and will not bring the right values to grow your company. You need to look for the individuals with the following three traits that makes them a driven and engaged Superstar because they will form the crux of your business:

1. Proactivity

Don’t hire reactive individuals that wait for something to trigger them to action. In difficult times, these individuals tend to accept that there is nothing they can do in the situation and they become passive and do nothing rather than take initiative to be a highly effective part of your business. Proactive people not only take initiative but also use their resourcefulness to come up with solutions rather than just reporting the problem and waiting for the ‘right’ person to come and solve it.

At E-Web, there was a time in the business when we struggled to keep growing due to the challenges in finding good people, so we decided to emulate the business model of franchise giant, McDonalds. McDonalds’ business is so systemised that practically anybody with next to no training or experience can slot in to perform a role with  great efficiency. However, rapid advancements in technology and the internet began to conflict with our newly adopted systemisation model. We also found that instead of Superstars, we had individuals that just followed their job instructions rather than innovating and thinking outside the box to help the organisation. These individuals were spending time working in instead of working on the business and we were reacting too slow to market changes. This became the choke-hold of our business and we needed to find proactive Superstars which were going to help us in the long-term.

Therefore, we changed the way we worked by getting rid of layers of management in the company and empowered our existing E-Web family members to become leaders in what they do in order to build a proactive environment internally. This quickly became part of our culture and we started seeing great innovation and ideas come to life. This new approach to the way we think and act enabled us to shape new employees into Superstars by teaching them how to be proactive from the get-go. For example, Day 1 of training for a new employee would normally involve teaching the basics of Search Engine Optimisation. Instead, on Day 1 we teach employees how to be proactive in finding ways to become an SEO expert.

From this, I realised that – sure it helps to be born a proactive person but you certainly don’t need to be born with it to be a Superstar. Proactiveness is now a culture which you can build, create and continue to empower.

2. Personal Responsibility

Most people have a victim mindset and are constantly finding excuses for themselves by placing the blame on factors which they consider to not be under their control. These people will often blame one of three things:

• The situation and external forces: By blaming their environment and the conditions within which they work.
• Somebody else: By blaming another person and the fact that they that have ‘affected’ the final outcome.
• Themselves: By blaming themselves for the outcome.

 3. Results Driven

There are different types of people you will encounter in business: the type of people which you tell them what to do and they don’t, people which you tell them what to do and they will complete only what is required of them and then there are those who take personal responsibility to get the task done in the best way possible. These people don’t just try their best to complete a task, they will focus on the end result that they want to achieve and do everything in their power to generate the desired outcome and more.

A Superstar will not just think about what they should do next but about what they can do to get the outcome. These Superstars are results oriented and have a sense of personal responsibility which makes them a person who is willing to own their results.

When you work with Superstars it won’t be long before you realise the improvement in your internal culture and standards. You will find that one employee will naturally start producing the work of 2-3 employees or even more and it will drive your company towards long-term excellence. So take a look at your current team now – do they step up and ask for more responsibility? Do they take it and own it and focus on getting the results? Can you identify the Superstars in your team right now?