Thanks Dad, for the best hiring lesson I’ve ever learned – and now need to use

I like to think entrepreneurs hire differently. Every company will say they want people ‘who go the extra mile’, but I believe entrepreneurs have a better ability to spot individuals who have that potential.

Our business is currently embarking on a major recruitment drive – on a global scale – linked to tremendous growth we’ve experienced in the past 12 months.

And this has forced me to empathise even more so with clients for whom we identify candidates, on a daily basis. They want and need the best possible people and we are very much in the same boat.

So, I have to look no further than my own father for an example of how to get this right. He worked tirelessly through my childhood on his businesses to give us the best he could. It was not always easy. He brought me on board at a young age during my school holidays and had me working every Saturday from the age of 15. I absorbed what I saw like a sponge and everything he did was with meticulous care and effort. He worked all hours of the day and it was an extremely rare occasion when he made it home for dinner.

When I asked him for a season ticket for Spurs, he wasted no time telling me ‘go and earn it son.’

When I started my new secondary school my dad became my wholesaler and I was selling record bags and watches in the playground which certainly gave me a taste of how to be entrepreneurial, business savvy and most of all, if I want to achieve anything I have to put in the effort.

Being exposed to this environment gave me the only way I know how to conduct myself today. No CIPD training or management consultancy can instill a sense of ‘truly caring’. This hard working ethic, however is everywhere – not some hidden panacea only available to a few.

Football managers, for example, all agree that ability is nothing without effort. We can all relate to that principle.

Having become a father within the last few months, my main wish is that my daughter sees the same passion and enthusiasm that I learnt from my Dad – and that she knows that’s the road to success, whether she becomes an employee, or, like me starts her own business.

Very much like EQ, the principle of ‘going the extra mile’ can be learnt – and something we can constantly improve on. There’s no degree or diploma in this, it’s simply a life skill which equips us for any work environment – across whichever career path you choose to follow.

I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what I have without being exposed to his hard working ethic. While his exact style can’t be duplicated, I know how to spot these raw ingredients while we seek new talent to grow our business.

So, thank you Dad for teaching me the best lesson in not only how to grow as an individual, but how build our company.