‘The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world.”

That quote of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, underscores the importance of putting together a team of people who will drive your business to heights you would never believe possible. If you don’t have great people working for you, you don’t have a winning team—and, if you don’t have a winning team, you won’t be successful.

We all want to be successful, no matter what business we’re in or whether we own our own companies or hold executive positions. If the companies we work for or operate don’t succeed, neither will we.

The question is this: How can we hire, train, and retain employees who will be great team players? A great first step is to ask your top performers for recommendations when hiring; they can be your best recruiters. You might even give them a monetary reward if you hire the people they recommended.

 …