Customer Reviews

How to Hire A-Players: Finding the Top People for Your Team- Even If You Don't Have a Recruiting Department

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I haven't purchased the book and it may well be worth five stars from everyone. This review is intended as a sanity check for other people who buy lots of books on Amazon.com and who count on natural reviews to help guide their purchases.

I took a look at this book based in part on the remarkable rating. However, all current ratings (as of July 21, 2010) are five stars, mostly by Real Name(tm) reviewers who've never reviewed another book, mostly from around the day the book was first released (fast readers or advance copies?).

While the current thirteen rave reviews may indeed be legitimate, representative, and spontaneous, my spidey sense tingled as I went through them. I certainly don't doubt they're real people given that at least a couple of them (e.g. Jennifer Pausch and Rich Ledbetter) both appear to be existing customers of the author who've also provided nice testimonials for his website.

I theorize this is a deliberate (and a little too obvious) marketing campaign rather than spontaneous reviews like we rely on for most other books (or maybe other authors' publicists are just more subtle). If the former, to me that feels misleading and in bad faith towards those who look for a pattern in natural reviews to help make a buying decision.

Maybe Amazon also needs a "Disclosure: I know the author on a first name basis(tm)" demarcation? Or perhaps this is indeed a really awesome book with an unfortunate and irrelevant confluence of indicators in the reviews. I'm keen to see additional spontaneous and bona fide reviews from people who don't know the author and have read this book.

This book is very drawn out. A synopsis of this book would be:

1) Always be on the lookout for potential A players (at least 4 chapters)
2) Suggestions on where to find A players (but these suggestions aren't hidden gems or anything special)
3) What A-players are looking for in a company
I would say the whole book had about a dozen concepts, but those three were 90% of the material.

There are definitely concepts in this book worth reading. But reading this book from front to back, (like I did), will be intellectually under-stimulating; (I don't know how I did it). I'd recommend others to read it but to skip around while doing so.

Hiring A-Players is a clear and easy guide to finding and hiring top talent. This book gets straight to the point with tips and actions for meeting a critical need in any organization - finding talent that can make a difference.

If you are short on time, read the A-Player Principles and A-Player Payoff Points. Each provides insights and concrete action steps to help you find and recruit those individuals who can make a real difference in your business.

Eric offers helpfull tools and insights through the A-PLAYERS book that can help any leader attain and keep top notch people. It is not just about recruiting solid performers but also about developing and retaining them to be future leaders of your business. Take the time to read this book. It is one book you need to add to your library and keep in your tool kit... Thanks Eric....

Eric H. has an opinion and is not afraid to share it: he feels that it's a waste of time trying to turn poor performers into top talent. Instead, he argues that employers should spend their energy on finding the good talent to begin with.

This point of view certainly has merit, although not everyone is going to agree with it. He provides a thought provoking way of looking at talent, along with many tips and instructive insights into how to actually get out there and find that talent.

A good read for recruiters and anyone involved in recruiting (HR, hiring managers, small business owners, etc.).

"If your team is a Great Dane surrounded by Chihuahuas, your `big dog' is at risk" writes Herrenkohl as he makes a compelling case for the importance of effective recruiting strategies. As a learning and training professional, I know from experience that you can't solve performance by transforming C-players into A-players. You have to start with A-players and develop them do their highest potential. Herrenkohl's step-by-step primer walks through exactly how to find, court, woo, and hire top-notch team members with specific tactics and practices. This is an ideal playbook for corporate managers and small business owners alike.

I liked this book and recommend it to anyone who has to put a team of independent contractors together to make a real estate development project happen. Everyone has heard the adage "location location location" when it comes to investing in real estate. While I can't refute the adage, as a professional real estate developer, I must add "procure procure procure". When developing a property, often the difference between a profitable venture and an unprofitable one is how well you buy. Hiring the right contractors is a large part of the budget for every property I develop, and How to Hire A-Players has great strategies for finding the right tradespeople to make a project work.

Erics book is a must read for anyone who wants to hire "A-Players" or be an "A-Player." It is filled with "block and tackle" advice and solidly researched expertise. This is an easy to read guide for building a better team, and is filled with the kind of advice you can put into practice immediately.

Can your business afford to settle for anything less than A-Players? Mine can't. Eric guides the reader through the steps to create a team of top talent. I've found his principles incredibly helpful in my role leading a line of business in a global corporation. We often say our success depends on our people. I'm passing this book along to my directors with a message -- don't settle for less than A-Players! This book helps us identify A-Player profiles and then how to get out there and find them. The book is loaded with A-Player Principles and chapters close with A-Player Payoff Points that you'll go back to for reference.

A-Player Principles provide practical advice that you can use today to start finding the right people to grow and build your organization. As the owner of a ten-employee, growing business, finding talent absorbs a large portion of my time and thought. These principle make that time more efficient and effective.