Building a team

Praful Kulkarni struggles with the same challenge many leaders do: finding the right people and aligning them under one vision.

“That’s kind of an ongoing challenge for every leader, to make sure everybody is on board,” the president and CEO says.

Since founding gkkworks, originally his MBA thesis, Kulkarni has kept to a few steps in order to surround himself with the right team and ultimately grow the company.

When it comes to hiring the right people, first you have to determine, as the leader, your strengths and weaknesses. Then determine the talent you need and reach out to those in your industry for suggestions.

If you’re looking for people to subscribe to your vision, you need to communicate it to those whom you’re interviewing and employees who maybe aren’t getting it.

The process has helped Kulkarni grow gkkworks, an architect and construction firm, to 250 employees and $81 million in revenue in fiscal 2009.

Smart Business spoke with Kulkarni about how to surround yourself with the right employees.

Understand your abilities. Recognize your strengths and weaknesses as a leader.

One could kind of take a look at whatever stage they are, or the CEO is, and see what kind of experience base they’ve built. Where they’ve had successes and where they’ve had failures — stepping aside and not getting too much bravado and emotional tie up into what you’re doing. An objective evaluation of what has worked and what has not worked will typically tell you what your strengths and weaknesses are.

When I started the company, I had a good sense of how to create successes in business development, so I needed somebody who could do great project management in the work that we do in design, planning and construction management because that was not my strong suit.

I was reasonable at it, but you want to find people who excel in that.

If accounting and finance and management is something that you need, then you need to find people with that skill set. It also depends on the complexity of the company and what are the different pieces that you’re going to need and what piece you’re going to run as the primary charge.