The ESPN Recruitment Playbook

👋 Welcome to Elite Team Tactics, where we share insights from the world's most successful teams every Sunday, to help you become the best leader in your industry!

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✍️ Coming up in today’s edition:

1. One quick win: How ESPN continually hires the best talent in the industry

2. One proven system: Thriving in chaos - 4x principles for leading through market crises

3. One million-dollar question: 2x performance questions to ask your team regularly

Let’s dive in.

1. ESPN INVESTIGATIVE UNIT’S APPROACH TO HIRING

Brad Wolverton who is now an award-winning journalist, scaled the Hustle to 2.5m subscribers and is now Editorial Director at HubSpot Media.

When he started his career as a passionate sports journalist, ESPN was the #1 company he wanted to work for.

ESPN's investigative unit is one of the most successful in the industry, consistently delivering groundbreaking stories that captivate audiences.

So how do they attract the best talent?

Brad recently shared a glimpse into their hiring process:

• ESPN flew him and several other up-and-coming journalists to their Connecticut HQ

• Interestingly, it wasn’t labelled a “job interview”

• The cohort received a full tour of the facilities upon arrival which naturally increased the positive word of mouth within the online community of journalists

• They were then introduced to several leaders across different departments to get an insight into the roles/operation whilst the leaders were able to vet every candidate for skill and culture fit subtly

• No decision was made on whether Brad would receive a job on the day

• All of the cohort were then flown back to their home town/city

This one experience made Brad want to join even more. Despite not receiving a job offer, the process gave Brad an exclusive look into their offices, people and culture within ESPN.

If you have a unique element to your company or culture, find ways to showcase that to the best talent in your industry.

For ESPN’s HR team, this process enabled them to build a database of A players with different skill sets so that when the right project arose, they could pull the trigger quickly from the vetted list of candidates.

Note to self: Always be recruiting.

2. LEADERSHIP IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

What differentiates a great team from a good team in times of crisis?

This question is getting asked more frequently given the impact of AI and the Global Pandemic.

The natural tendency is to respond to the external market environment but a former partner at Silicon Valley’s GrowthX investment ecosystem - Rebecca Homkes - has demonstrated a new method that is being used in some of the highest performing teams in the world:

Building internal predictability.

The market is always going to throw curveballs which are are outside of your control.

However, if your company has strong internal predictability, everyone will know how to respond in those moments and can anticipate how other leaders across the business will react.

This “aligned speed” of your teams is fast becoming a major competitive advantage.

But how do you build it?

Have a look at the following four principles and ask yourself, how many of the leaders across your team(s) would say “yes” to every one:

1. I know what we are trying to achieve and why it matters

2. I know when and how to make critical decisions

3. I can rely on others to do what they say they will do

4. When I do adapt, within the boundaries of strategy, it is recognised and rewarded

The order of these principles matters.

People need context on the strategy first and then empowerment to make critical decisions with the right information at their fingertips.

The ability to rely on your team mates is the cornerstone of all high-performing teams.

In the famous words of Chicago Bulls & LA Lakers head coach, Phil Jackson: “Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough.”

And finally, for all the speeches and town halls CEOs give on the fast-changing and complex environment, they spend considerably less time speaking about how to operate within it; and even less still recognising and rewarding leaders who do.

Never forget to celebrate your people when they adapt and make fast decisions that stay within boundaries, especially when the original strategy is affected by external market conditions.

This will encourage others to do the same when they find themselves in situations where they must exercise independent thinking and action.

Keep these four principles constantly in mind as they are the cornerstone of high-performing teams.

• If your team will answer “yes” to all four, congrats on building a great team 👏

• If not, spend the next quarter working on the ones that aren’t a straight “yes”

It can be useful to quickly survey your team on the four principles to see if you have any blindspots.

Rececca’s work on this topic is used by Mercedes-AMG and many more high performing organisations so I’d recommend her book here if you are looking for your next read 📚

3. TWO PERFORMANCE QUESTIONS TO CONSTANTLY ASK YOUR TEAM

What do we look like at our best?

• Behaviours that are demonstrated

• Communication

• Patterns of actions

• Feedback and recognition

What’s stopping us from doing that everyday?

• Are there any communication gaps?

• Does everyone have access to the necessary resources and tools to perform at their peak?

• Are roles and responsibilities clear?

• Are there any interpersonal conflicts affecting team cohesion?

• Is there a better way to distribute tasks in the team to avoid burnout?

• Are there any processes that you find inefficient or cumbersome?

These barrier questions are designed to uncover obstacles that impact team performance.

It is your job as the leader to regularly ask these questions and action the feedback.

MY FAVOURITE FINDS 🔗

For your productivity:

• 6 tactics to leverage AI to increase your productivity (Link)

• 9x time management mistakes to avoid (Link)

For your team:

• Tom Brady and Jay Z video on building world-class teams (Link)

• More people are thinking about quitting their jobs than in the great resignation (Link)

For your health:

• If you teach your kids anything, teach them this (Link)

• What happens to your body when you eat eggs everyday (Link)

See you next week 👋