Robin Sharma (Titan Academy founder) presents a mastery-session on building a "team of Picassos": hire exceptionally (expect many hires per superstar — "one from 1000"), prioritize mindset and values over CV/history, apply deep rigor in multi-stage interviews (including observing behaviour over a meal and psychological testing), and refuse to accept C-level performers if you want an A-level company. He closes with retention tactics: Always Be Learning (grow employees), show appreciation (team events, experiences), treat people with respect, and "break bread" — shared meals to bond teams.
Chapters
Hi, it's Robin Sharma, author of the Leader who Had no Title, founder of the Titan Academy. Welcome to this mastery session. I know you're going to love it. It's all about how to build a team of Picassos. Well, why am I doing this podcast? Someone who was at the Titan Summit a few months ago, that's my flagship event that I run every single year, he said the best idea that I got from the four day event was your concept of building a team of Picassos. He said, I'm already working on doing that. I know it's going to totally change the quality and caliber of my company. And so what I thought I would do is I would share some of my ideas on building a team of Picassos. And this is not from a book I've read. It's not from a conference I've been to. I've spent many years building multiple businesses and I'll tell you, at my core business, I have the best team in place that I've ever had in the history of the company. And so what I'm going to share with you in this podcast hopefully will be a game changer, but also will be incredibly practical because it's derived from tremendous experience. I mean, I have had to hire a lot of employees. I've had to let go of a lot of employees. I've dealt with difficult employees, I've got knocked down by some employees. I've been lifted up by a lot of employees. And so what I'm sharing from you comes from a the heart and it comes from the trenches. So let's get into the first lesson to build a team of Picassos. I call it the one from 1000 Insight. The one from 1000 Insight. What does that mean? It means that if you want a team of Picassos, you might have to go through 1000 different people to find the one person who will be a superstar. You know, I've hired a lot of people and sometimes people say, you know, for your executive assistant, you have tried 15 different people or 20 different people. For your business development person, you've tried seven different people. For your IT person, you've had so many different people. Why is your shop a revolving door? Well, if you talk to experienced people who have built world class companies, they will all tell you the same thing. Sometimes you have to hire 1,000 people to find the a performer. And let me just ask you right now here on this podcast, how many people do you know that are truly world class? How many people do you know that over deliver? How many people do you know that are merchants of wow. How many people do you know are truly exceptional? It's probably one in a thousand, right? So to find that a player for your team that true Picasso, you might have to hire a lot of people. To find that one person you're not doing anything wrong. It's simply the process of building a world class team. Number two, hire on mindset, not on history. What do I mean by that? Well, when I hire, you know, and I still remember reading Isaacson's biography on Steve Jobs and they reported Steve Jobs would sit in on almost every hiring decision. Look at Microsoft. A Microsoft executive once said the secret sauce of Microsoft is not software, it's hiring. So the second point which I'm saying is higher on mindset, not history. When I hire someone I am much more interested in their core beliefs and their primary values. Because if there's no belief fit and there's no values compatibility with our core values, then I'm not interested. I mean some of the core values we've built our core business on oad an obsessive attention to detail. If someone is in a position that requires obsessive attention to detail and the person we're looking at, the prospect doesn't care about details, they're not going to fit. One of our core business values is Abdov always be delivering outrageous value. I mean I'm not in this for the money, I'm in this for the love. I want to give 10 times the value to our customers that they have any right to expect. You show up at the Titan summit every single year. You are blown away by the value of the learning and the user experience. That's just the way we play. So when I hire, if someone's not all about generosity and giving, they're just not going to fit. So what I'm saying is we hire on the mindset of the person rather than on the history. I don't really care too much where they've been. Yes, we check their record, yes we check their references. But I'm more about mindset, core values and ways of operating. If you are operating at the level we play at and there's a match with our values and ways of doing things, I want you on my team. Number three, do deep rigor. You want a team of Picassos, don't just hire them. On the first meeting I once heard someone say a job interview.
It makes me laugh just sharing it. But he said a job interview is a meeting of two liars. And what that means is every interview the and of course no one's lying, but. Or maybe some. Well, actually prospects do lie, you know that. But a job interview, let's be honest here. The prospect is going to tell you exactly what you want to hear. I've experienced that so often. I hired someone about a year and a half ago, they told me everything I wanted to hear. They were, let me just be polite and say they were one of the most non compatible people in the history of our company. But in the interview, they looked like rock stars. And so just remember to do your deep rigor. Don't just do one interview. Develop an incredibly intense hiring process. Do a first meeting where maybe your frontline people meet that prospect. Then do a second meeting where your core team meet the job prospect. Then put them through some psychological testing. Then do a third meeting. Here's a nice idea. I don't like the word nice. Here's a gorgeous idea. Have a meal with that person. Why? You can tell a lot about someone by the way they treat the servers. You can tell a lot about someone, whether they're punctual, whether they're polite, whether they're messy, all over the place. It might show that they have some inabilities to notice certain things. So have a meal with that person. Then finally you, maybe you're the business builder, you meet that person. But do deep rigor in your meeting. And then the final lesson to build a team of Picassos is simply remember this brain tattoo. You can't have a A level company with C level performers. So if you hire C level people, please don't be surprised if you have a D level company. If you truly want an iconic business, one that stands the test of the generations, one where you build what I call a globally cherished brand, then you absolutely must make it your dominant obsession to hire and manage and retain and engage other only A level performers. And before I leave you, let me give you some quick tactics that have worked incredibly well for me to keep top talent. I've already, I've shared with you some methods to help you hire your Picassos. Well, how do you keep them? Number one, be all about growing. Here's the acronym. Always be learning. Gallup has done some gorgeous research on keeping top talent. The number one way to keep an A performer is not money. According to the research, one of the top Money is usually 6 or 7. One of the top things that people want right now, they want a place where they feel a sense of belonging, but they also want a workplace that challenges them. So be all about developing them, grow them, be like the coach of the Lakers or the coach of a great sports team. Coach them, develop them, challenge them, encourage them to grow. They might not always love it. They will appreciate you for it. Another way to keep top talent is appreciate them. Tomorrow, guess what I'm doing with my team? I'm going to spend the day in a team building session. In the afternoon, we're going to watch the movie Burnt because that to me is all about being a Picasso of your craft and a great team. And then in the evening, I've reserved the chef table and we are going to have a world class meal together, me and my beloved team. Why? I want to appreciate them. Next thing, if you want to keep people, respect them after growing their talent, appreciating them as human beings, you've got to treat them with respect. No one's going to handle or accept temper tantrums. No one's going to be around ego full people. No one's going to be around toxic leaders. Respect people. Be on time, be punctual. Treat them with love. Treat them with respect. Listen to them. They will love you. And the final thing, and I learned this from one of my friends, break bread with them. It's the old concept of the hearth, or the hearth, or however you want to pronounce it, actually, it's the hearth. And that would be like families and loved ones getting in front of the fireplace and breaking bread together. And I know this is unorthodox, but the way I teach elite performance and leadership and becoming a titan of your industry, I, I share a lot of unorthodox ideas that actually work incredibly well. And this one worked incredibly well. Break bread with people. The team that eats together stays together. I think it was Napoleon. Yeah, I think it was Napoleon. The only war he ever lost was when he didn't feed his army before the battle. Feed your army before the battle. They just may stay with you their entire careers. Thanks for being with me on this mastery session. Hope you've loved it. Hi, it's Robin. I invite you to subscribe to this podcast and definitely go over to robincharma.com for more information, tools and resources on mastery, elite performance, and living a world class life.
