Page 197 - Free the Idea Monkey

yo WhTHE ALPHA EFFECT
If you want to attract and retain your most creative and ingenious

Idea Monkeys (some companies refer to them as their “Alphas”), you
must feed their hunger to innovate.

As I touched on earlier, much of
what I’ve read and certainly everything
I have experienced running our firm tells
me that the keys to attracting and retain-
ing the best employees—the Alphas—are
making sure they are working on something:

A. meaningful,
B. in a lower stress environment, and
C. with a reward system that makes sense.

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Now think about the person in your company who everyone
looks up to. What do you most appreciate about her? I bet you
name such characteristics as action-oriented, driven, passionate,
fun and genuine.

Importantly, these three criteria for Alpha attraction and reten-
tion are quite obviously linked through innovation.

Alphas naturally move into roles with greater challenges and
opportunities to learn and make a difference. It isn’t about money.
Money follows these types of people because they follow the chal-
lenges. They find them and master both problems and opportunities
and get well paid for doing so.

182 T H E D A V I D S T R A T E G I E S