I used to manage a sales team focused on selling marketing services to emerging hedge fund managers. It was a highly demanding job the required not only great interpersonal skills, but also a fair amount of industry knowledge in order to become successful.
When I was first put in charge of the team, I thought that the more people we could get the better as sales is a numbers game. If we could get enough reasonably productive people and they only got X amount of sales they would cover their own costs and the rest would be profit. It was a great feeling managing nearly a dozen people early in my mid twenties for the most profitable unit in my company.
However, I soon found out that some employees were substantially more productive than others. Some employees were great at gaming the system and finding/stealing the deals that were easy closes while others would be initially slower but built a longer term pipeline and helped other team members.
Over time the cream floated to the top and the team filtered down to only 3 people, and I kept it that way throughout my tenure. So much so, that it would take me months to find replacements for team members who would get much higher paying jobs within the hedge fund industry.
Finding the engaged and highly engaged employee was no easy task. But for me, aside from having the requisite qualifications, I was looking for an intense desire to succeed as evidenced through at least some kind of obstacle that would deter 90% of other people from even trying.
One example was a lady who was extraordinarily successful at running her own business in the fitness world, but gave that up in order to get an MBA from a top school and transition into the world of finance. She was naturally inclined to help other people, had a drive towards constant self improvement, and became a top producer for the firm. It came as no surprise when she was hired away by a multi-billion dollar firm and has gone on to have a highly successful career.
As much as possible, I try to surround myself with the type of people who are both driven to succeed, are humble enough to seek constant self improvement, and look to help other people along the way. The formula works not only as a manager seeking employees, but also in every day life, especially that of a small business owner.
The thing is that successful people tend to surround themselves by other successful people. The top singers and actors tend to congregate with other top actors and singers. The top athletes will even hang out with the top athletes from other sports. The same is true with politicians and business people. The hierarchy may be off putting to some people (probably not to those at the top of the pile), but if you turn the pyramid upside down you will see that it is more of a funnel.
At the top of the funnel you have every Tom, Dick, & Harry. But, as you start to filter for personality and character attributes you find the "Engaged" & "Highly Engaged" people, the "High Flyer."
So, in a sense, surrounding yourself with successful people helps you distill your business and/or social network down to the those of like mind. As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together, and so soaring with the eagles is the way to go.
