11 Keys To Recruiting Top Talent

https://youtu.be/NMimXlcbQJM

The lifeblood is any successful church, business, non-profit, or athletic organization is the ability to continually add and develop new talent.  Successful and sustainable leadership requires great recruiting.

Wednesday, February 1st was National Signing Day for America’s top high school football talent.  The Ohio State Buckeyes finished with the 2nd-ranked class as judged by Rivals.com and one of their Top 10 classes ever.  For his primary role in the Buckeyes’s success, defensive back coach Kerry Coombs was voted the Rivals.com 2017 Recruiter Of The Year.

As I read columnist Josh Helmholdt’s profile of Coach Coombs, I gleaned 11 Keys To Recruiting Top Talent:

1. You Must Also Recruit Their Family And Friends – Top talent does not make important decisions in a vacuum.  When they join your organization, it is often a family decision.  Coach Coombs, a former state championship-winning head coach at Cincinnati’s Colerain High School, said, “I saw what kids liked, enjoyed and appreciated and what they didn’t and what parents liked, enjoyed and appreciated and didn’t.”
2. You Must Recruit From A Large Pool Of Candidates – My experience has been you must look at a minimum of 10 talented individuals to get one top talent.  Rivals analyst Mike Farrell said, “Ohio State did its best job ever recruiting nationally this year and Coombs was a huge part of that in addition to some key work locally as well.”
3. Top Recruits Respond To Enthusiasm – If they are going to spend the next season of their life with someone, you want to enjoy being around them.  Farrell added, “Kids like his enthusiasm.”
4. You Must Prove You Can Help Top Recruits Achieve Their Goals And Dreams – Top talent has options.  Therefore, they can be picky and want to know what is it in for them.  Will working for you help them achieve their goals?  Do you have a proven track record of success?  Farrell concluded, “they certainly take notice of what he and the Buckeyes do when it comes to putting players in the NFL.”
5. Top Recruiters Have Been Previously Recruited – There is a difference between exposure and experience.  Coach Coombs said, “The biggest single advantage that a (former) high school coach has is he has seen everybody recruit.  I was exposed to so many different talents and tremendous recruiters who came through my office that I’d like to think I learned from them.”  Coach Coombs learned effective recruiting techniques from those who recruited his players.
6. Recruiting Top Talent Requires A Personal Touch – Of all the coaches who came through Coach Coombs’s office, one of the ones who impressed him the most was then-Bowling Green head coach Urban Meyer.  Rather than having an entourage, Meyer did the “trench work” and provided the personal touch which impressed Coombs.
7. Your Organization’s Top Leader Must Also Be Your Top Recruiter – Leadership is the desired destination at which others should wish to arrive.  At Ohio State, the top recruiter is Coach Meyer.  Coombs said, “I promise you, the best recruiter on our staff is our head coach.”  Recruiting cannot be outsourced.  The leader must own it.
8. It Takes Teamwork To Make Recruiting Work – Successful organizations know recruiting is not for lone rangers.  It takes a team.  Coombs added, “And we have eight other assistant coaches that they grind and they work. The great thing about our place is I know every other guy is working as hard as I am on the recruiting process, and we’re all working it together.”
9. Effective Recruiting Happens By Securing Top Talent Early – You never have to recover from a good start.  Ohio State had an amazing 10 commitments in place before starting their junior seasons.
10. Your Best Recruiters Are Often Your Current Recruits – People want to be around their friends.  Since many the incoming players were already in place, they began recruiting other players and became ambassadors for the school.  Coombs noted,  “they were phenomenal recruiters.”
11. Top Recruiters Work Hard, Very Hard – Nothing great in leadership happens apart from hard work.  BuckeyeGrove.com’s Marc Givler said, “Coombs is a tireless worker who continues to go into some of the nation’s toughest regions to pull top-flight talent.”

What is one thing you learned from this list which will make you a better recruiter?

Click HERE or on the image to the left and as a free gift for subscribing to this site, you can receive my new Ebook 1269 Leadership Quotes: Timeless Truths From 2016’s Top Christian Leadership Conferences.  Featured are the Johnny Hunt Mens Conference, ReThink Leadership, Orange and Leadercast Conferences among others.  If applied, these insights will make you an exponentially better leader.  Enjoy!!!