(that is Mort on the right)
I
do not know about you, but, I do not worship at the altar of money. I
like money, but it is not my master.
The reason I
have been talking about billionaires is not money. The reason is
excellence. Like most people, I admire excellence. And, I study it
quite often.
As we all know
Cleveland, Ohio is a city that has seen tough times. However, it is a
proud city. And, Cleveland is proud to be the home of Morton Mandel.
Mort was born in
1921, one year after his mother had fled war torn Europe, with $1.50
in her pocket. Being that the Mandel family is Jewish, they saw much
persecution in their native Poland.
Mort's
upbringing was rough, to say the least. In addition to having to flee
Poland, Mandel's father developed multiple sclerosis, in his
mid-thirties, and eventually became completely bedridden.
Even from these
very modest beginnings, Mandel became a self-made billionaire. And,
in 2013 he published his business memoirs. The book is titled It’s All About Who You Hire, How They Lead...and Other Essential Advice from a Self-Made Leader.
In 1945, along
with his two brothers, Joe and Jack, Mort started a company called
Premier Industrial Corporation. Premier was the company that would
eventually make the brothers billionaires.
As the name of
his book suggests, Mort believes recruiting is the most important
task of an entrepreneur. In the beginning of the book he says, “If
you asked me to sum up everything I know in the fewest words, I would
do it in just four: ‘It’s all about who.’ All my adult life
I’ve been completely devoted to hiring and keeping extraordinary
people.”
Mandel
continues, “I don’t settle. I will spend weeks, months, even
years recruiting, sifting through available people to find the
extraordinary. The dream of every leader should be to have the right
person in the right job at the right time. It’s a very challenging
goal. Only recently, I waited four years to hire the person I wanted
to succeed me as head of the Mandel Foundation.”
So,
how do you do it? How do you become a good recruiter? Well, just as
Peter Drucker taught Stephen Covey, we want to begin with the end in
mind. As a matter of fact, Mort's book contains a chapter titled,
“What I Learned from Peter Drucker.”
When
recruiting, beginning with the end in mind means thinking through any
given job. What is the job meant to accomplish? What are results?
And, what strengths and abilities would a person need to achieve
those results? Then,
you want to look at a number of people for each position.
Recruiting is a tough job. Which is why it is wise to always
be recruiting. On this point Mandel agrees
with last week's billionaire, John Doerr. Talking to Fast Company
magazine, Doerr once said, “Your biggest challenge will be building
a great team.”
Let
me leave you with one more important insight from Mort's book. You
may ask yourself, what attributes does Morton Mandel look for? The
answer is, Mort looks for the following five things, in this order:
1.
Intellectual firepower
2.
Values
3.
Passion
4.
Worth ethic
5.
Experience
