Is there a person you desperately want to add to your staff or team? If you are trying to build a quality organization, you have thought about this subject countless times.
This past weekend the Philadelphia Eagles shocked the football world by signing the game’s top free agent, cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. Only hours before the signing, most expected him to sign with the New York Jets. Even top NFL insiders did not even know the Eagles were in the running.
But the Eagles knew who they wanted and went out and secured his services. How they did it, though, is something all leaders can learn from.
- Compensation – Let’s address the pink elephant in the room first. Top talent is in high demand and often require top dollar.  Eagles general manager Howie Roseman and president Joe Banner gave Asomugha a package worth $60 million over 5 years.
- Aggressiveness – Philadelphia head coach Andy Reid told www.boston.com that “Howie and Joe worked their tail off and put together this phenomenal plan.  They came out of the gates like wild men and attacked the issue. But they’ve rewarded our football team and the city of Philadelphia with some great players.’’
- Go The Extra Mile – To get the employee you always wanted, sometimes you have to go to extraordinary lengths. Peter King in his wonderful Monday Morning QB post discusses an exchange of text messages between Roseman and Asomugha’s agent Ben Dogra beginning at 12:38 AM Friday morning July 29th. They negotiated until 3:00 AM and finalized the deal the following afternoon. To read King’s entire article, click here.
- Be A Desirable Place To Work – Are you a place that people want to work? Do potential employees view you as the type of organization that can help them achieve their personal goals? Asomugha wants to win a championship. Banner tells www.ESPN.com, “Andy has a great reputation, and we offered him a lot of money. We had to reach a certain threshold. I think we’re a place and at a time and have been for a while where it’s considered a highly desirable place to play and an organization likely to be competing at a top level. We’re playing on a grass field, putting money up. He was able to check off the boxes on his list.”
- Have A Vision Of Where They Can Make A Difference – When leaders reach a certain level, they want to make a difference and have influence. Roseman told www.SI.com, “It’s always been a priority position for us.  Corners, pass rushers, and we felt like last year, we were in a situation where maybe we got a little short-handed, and we thought it was a place that we wanted to go heavy and have a lot of talent at. You can never have enough cover corners.”
- Do Something Creative And Out Of The Box – Bob Ford of www.philly.com has an interesting perspective. He states, “The more interesting possibility is that the Eagles really do plan to keep all three (cornerbacks), and plan to start all three, going with nickel coverage even more of the time than before. New defensive coordinator Juan Castillo has had a long, reflective offseason to put together his scheme, and he could be taking the Jim Johnson cover-and-pressure philosophy to a new level.
Is there a reason the linebacker roster is so unimpressive? Maybe it’s because Castillo is inventing a base 4-2 defense in which having three linebackers on the field becomes an increasing rarity. Both Rodgers-Cromartie and Asomugha are 6-foot-2 and a physical handful on the field. Either one, if you chose to go that way, could operate as a nickel back with a presence that is less than a traditional linebacker perhaps, but more than the usual collection of undersized Eagles cornerbacks could ever bring.”
Compensation, Aggressiveness, Something Extra, Desirable Work Environment, Vision, and Creativity. The Philadelphia Eagles acquisition strategy included these six elements. If your’s does also, you just might get the employee you always wanted.
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