Although you can do your best in choosing, you cannot choose “the best”. There is no way to determine who is best. Bestness can only be determined in the context of the system in which people act. That system is your creation and your responsibility.
Teams made up of superstars based on some arbitrary measure of performance will fail because every member will seek to outdo the others in order to be labeled “the best”. Bestness is best realized when everyone is working as a unit toward some shared aim, without fear of being outdone or tricked by his or her teammates. To realize and retain “the best”, the system must be organized to bring out the best in all the players working as a team.
When people are enabled and allowed to be at their best, they will stay, so long as they perceive that they are being treated fairly. Use widely available compensations studies to set pay levels at parity. Deliver perks and bonuses to the team as a whole to prevent creating a perverse incentive for them to cheat each other and cheat the system as a whole. This is a method for creating and retaining “the best”. Study hard and do your best to create and constantly improve a system that does this very, very, well.
