Seven Critical Recruiting Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Adding someone to your team is a very important exercise. Getting it right can have tremendous outcomes for you and the recruit. But getting it wrong can be quite disastrous for all involved.

Just a few years ago, during my time in sport, one recruiting decision comes to mind as an example of how pivotal this can be.

We were sitting not far from the bottom of the ladder with a few games left in the season, following the departure of a key player and a series of losses. The coaching staff had to sacrifice family time at Christmas and huddle together for a mid-season recruitment.

Given the holiday season and the external pressure and stress, it would have been easy to take short-cuts or break away from proven learnings. Instead, the hard-work, commitment and resilience of the coaching team, came through and not only did the recruitment result in a Championship that season, the contribution of that one person continued for many years on.

It is rare for a single signing to have such lasting b…