While personal accomplishments are tantamount to our confidence and feelings of success, we’re rarely one-man bands. In reality, it typically takes a village to accomplish greatness. That’s why it’s so important to surround yourself with those who exhibit greatness and the potential for greatness.

Cultivate a team, keep them motivated and inspired and celebrate their successes as if they were your own, and you’ll have a loyal group of loan officers willing to go to battle for you. And battle you will over the years as the market experiences the traditional up-and-down cycles we’ve all come to expect.

Before you seek out the best, however, make sure you are operating at your best. This ensures you’re confident in your abilities and team, allowing prospects to build trust, confidence and goodwill when you do reach out.

A few helpful tips to get started include:

1. Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Knowing when to allocate a task or vocalize that you’re overwhelmed is a key trait of a premier leader. After all, what’s the point of having a team if you insist on doing everything yourself?

2. Know what you’re looking for

Okay. So you know you need help, now what? Narrow down where your needs exist. Where does your process lag? What tasks tend to tie up a disproportionate amount of your time? Where do you excel, and where do you think it would be beneficial to let others shine?

3. Articulate what you’re looking for

Candidates aren’t mind readers. Sure, they may understand the general job description, but take some time to outline how your operation works, what differentiates your team, what value this team would add to their career and where you’re looking to utilize their strengths.

4. Don’t be afraid to ask questions (both to yourself and to the candidates)

You should be able to determine whether you feel this candidate is coachable, fulfills the need you have, has a positive, ambitious attitude, is committed to this industry in all cycles and generally appears to fit in well with your team and leadership style. You can begin to assess this by asking questions about their sales style, accomplishments, challenges, communication style and sales metrics.

You can’t know everything about an individual from a resume, or phone or in-person interview, but if you know what you’re looking for, communicate that effectively to the prospect and allow them to communicate (using their style) back to you, you can easily determine whether this is the start of a beautiful relationship or not.