Today’s workplace demands high-functioning teams. In the global economy, collaboration and innovation are how work gets done, and the complexity of that work necessitates a dizzying array of skill sets. In this kind of environment, it’s not surprising that what Bruce Piasecki calls “fierce individualists” are becoming all but obsolete. That’s why when it comes time to add to your team, he says, it’s critical to make sure you hire good team players and not future MVPs.

“Invest in coachable hires,” advises Piasecki, author of Doing More with Teams: The New Way to Winning. “Many companies make the mistake of hiring high performers who are talented but perhaps not team-oriented and loyal. What they fail to realize is that even the most brilliant individual is less powerful than a cohesive, well-orchestrated team. Far less powerful, in fact.”

As Piasecki’s book explains, the near future will be all about innovation for sustainable value creation, led by teams. The days when a larger-than-life personality is allowed to steamroll over the rest of the company are over. This destroys morale, which destroys results.

Companies can’t afford to make bad hires. They have to be able to distinguish team-minded individuals in the interview process. Piasecki offers the following hints on the qualities you should look for:

Conduct interviews in a team of four or five leaders.
This will replicate the dynamics of the team setting the new employee will be working in, explains Piasecki. “Good team players tend to do well in settings of four or five people asking an avalanche of questions,” he observes.

Look for an intrinsic ability to “bond” with interview team members.
Even more important than dress, training, or résumé, says Piasecki, is the candidate’s ability to “bond” instantly to at least three to five members in the interview team. This doesn’t merely mean an affinity for small talk or schmoozing. The bond we’re discussing here must translate to action in a “reliable, sustained way” with those people—and it will reveal itself in the specific points the candidate makes.

They demonstrate a desire to work with you for a long time.
As a player in the global economy, your quest is to generate revenue through respect, relationships, and long service. That kind of well-paid loyalty requires a team player, says Piasecki. You are always looking for a longer term player, someone who is coachable in a matter of seasons, not just individual project events.

“Fierce individualists tend to ‘make their mark,’ then move on,” he explains. “But in our swift and severe world, we need people who have a deep craving for the kind of team connections that grow stronger over the years.”

Good team players look for feedback.
In fact, they long for it. It’s not that they want the praise, but that they want to get a feel for the path of improvement available to them. They will expect it to be a two-way conversation, whereby you are able to interact with their responses, not just a Q & A session. The way they behave in the interview will mirror the way they’ll behave on the job.

“You may never have a candidate who does everything on this list ‘right,’ or answers every question the exact way you want it answered,” Piasecki says. “But if you approach your interview with an awareness for a teamwork attitude, you probably won’t go wrong.”

Dr. Bruce Piasecki is the author of Doing More with Teams: The New Way to Winning and president and founder of AHC Group, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in energy, materials, and environmental corporate matters, whose clients range from Suncor Energy, Hess, FMC, the Warren Buffett firm Shaw Industries, Toyota, and other global companies in his Corporate Affiliates training workshops. www.brucepiasecki.com