Tracy - Hire and keep the best people: 21 practical and proven techniques you can use immediately

HIRE
AND
KEEP
THE
BEST PEOPLE

BOOKS BY BRIAN TRACY

Advanced Selling Strategies

Eat That Frog!

Effective Leadership

Focal Point

Get Paid More and Promoted Faster

The Gift of Self-Confidence

The Great Big Book of Wisdom

Little Silver Book of Prosperity

Mastering Your Time

Maximum Achievement

The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws
of Business Success

The Peak Performance Woman

The 21 Success Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires

Personal Achievement

Success Is a Journey

Successful Selling

A Treasury of Personal Achievement

Universal Laws of Success

COAUTHORED BY BRIAN TRACY

Speaking Secrets of the Masters

Insights into Excellence

21 PRACTICAL AND PROVEN TECHNIQUES
YOU CAN USE IMMEDIATELY

BRIAN TRACY

Hire and Keep the Best People

Copyright 2001 by Brian Tracy

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Ordering information for print editions

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First Edition

Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-57675-169-5

PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-186-4

IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-607-4

2012-2

Copyediting and proofreading by PeopleSpeak.

Book design and composition by Beverly Butterfield, Girl of the West Productions.

This book is fondly dedicated to my good friend,
partner, business associate, and all-around
excellent executive, Cam Framer, from whom
Ive learned so much about the art and
science of management.

This book is for every manager, supervisor, entrepreneur, or executive who has ever had to hire people as part of his or her job. In each chapter, you will learn key ideas, methods, and techniques that you can use immediately to hire better people and improve their job performance once they begin and ever afterward.

Most people become managers accidentally. As the result of success, experience, promotion, or necessity, they find themselves responsible for the work of others. They have to find, interview, hire, and assign people whose work performance determines their own success. Their pay and promotion depend on the way that the people they have chosen do their jobs.

None of us is properly prepared in advance to select and keep the best people. It is both an art and a skill that can be learned only in the crucible of experienceand as the result of numerous mistakes. Often we look upon a vacancy as a problem to be solved as quickly as possible so we can get back to our real jobs. We overlook the fact that selecting the right people is at the core of our real jobs.

Once they have hired someone, rightly or wrongly, many managers are unclear or unaware of exactly what they can do and say to the employee to build and maintain loyalty, commitment, and enthusiasm for the job and the company. As a result, they often do and say things that hurt productivity and performance instead of increasing it.

If you recognize yourself in this description, this book is for you. It gives you a series of time-tested, proven strategies that work quickly to improve your performance in hiring good people in the first place and then getting the best out of them once they have started work.

You wont find any great breakthroughs or secret formulas in the pages ahead. There are no abstract theories or complex systems. What you will learn are practical principles that are simple and fast acting. They will equip you to get better results from the first minute you apply them.

Most managers, no matter how experienced they are, do not know or do not practice these principles. They hire in a random fashion, relying on intuition and superficial clues from the candidates. They are uncomfortable with the process and try to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Once they have hired someone, they manage and motivate the employee in a random and haphazard way. Many managers actually look upon these interpersonal activities as distractions from their busy schedules, to be completed quickly so they can get back to work.

As you read this book, your attitude toward hiring and retention will change in a positive way. You will learn how to become an excellent manager in these key performance areas that determine your success in your career more than anything else you do. In one hour of reading, you will come up to speed on the critical ideas of hiring and keeping people practiced by the best managers in the best companies everywhere.

By faithfully referring to this book and by practicing the principles you learn, you will become one of the most effective managers in your industry. Your contribution to your organization will increase in value. Your sense of satisfaction and feeling of competence will grow. Your ability to get things done through others, faster and easier, will expand beyond your current level of performance and ability. Your future as a manager, supervisor, entrepreneur, or executive will become unlimited.

B RIAN T RACY
Solana Beach, California
July 2001

The critical constraint on the growth and success of your business, or any business, is the ability to attract and keep good people. All other resources are freely available and can be acquired with relative ease. You can get all the capital, real estate, furniture, fixtures, manufacturing and distribution equipment, and packaging and marketing materials you need. But what makes all these factors productive and profitable is the quality of the people behind them, and there has never been such a shortage of high-quality people as we are experiencing today.