Team Building is a critical part of accomplishing any goal, personal or professional.  People tend to suck at this, preferring to surround themselves with yes-men or those like themselves.  It takes a discerning eye and a developed skill to realize WHAT you bring to the table to meet your goals, and from there you can determine what you need.

The first step is to figure out what you do, and do not, bring to the table yourself, and quantify it.   To be most efficient, everyone in your circle or team should be spending as much time as possible doing what only THEY can do.  From an operations stand-point, I look at what each person is doing and often people overlap, or spend way too much time doing things they should be outsourcing to people that are cheaper or have a more concentrated skill set.   It is a useful exercise to tally your own personal hourly rate and use that as a benchmark when making operational decisions.

How do you find good people to work with?  The best way is usually personal reference.  It’s important to network and continually refresh your circle of acquaintances.

But if you’ve tapped out your network, then you’ve got to do some hiring.

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