John Spence,
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
ISBN: 0470494514
 

This is a synopsis only.  RESULTS.com recommends you buy the original book.

The key to business success, based on the author’s work with thousands of organizations (including GE, Microsoft, IBM, and Abbot Labs), is tied to the disciplined application of the Six Principles of Business Success:

1. Vivid Vision
2. Best People
3. Robust Communication
4. Sense of Urgency
5. Disciplined Execution
6. Extreme Customer Focus

Application of these principles may be simple, but not easy.  It requires leaders with a passion about their business and its success, persistence, practice, and perspective to see patterns and trends that others do not.
 

Vivid Vision

Whether you lead two people or 2,000 it is critical that you have a clear, compelling and extremely well-communicated vision of where the organization is headed and what it stands for.  The mission (or purpose) is why the company exists, the values are the guidelines for behavior, and the vision (BHAG©) provides a vivid description of where the company will be in the future.

The key to Mission, Values and Vision (M/V/V) is not just creating them, but they need to be communicated and applied throughout the organization.

Ideas for bringing M/V/V alive in the organization include:

• Rewarding employees for demonstrating the values.
• Using M/V/V in the recruiting process by creating specific interview questions to identify alignment to them.Communicate repeatedly these elements in company newsletters, presentations, and signage.  Create fun posters, apparel and other items that reflect M/V/V.
• Audit how well the company is living its M/V/V through customer or employee surveys.

Best People

The success of your business is directly tied to the quality of the people you have on your team.  Many companies say, “Our people are our most important asset,” but very few have put in place a system to make talent management a key strategic advantage.  With the right people in the right culture, success and profitability will result.
Attracting talent is a strategic commitment that will take ongoing time and effort.  Leaders should maintain a roster of great people for every position, whether the position is currently vacant or not (talk to people now who may fill a position five years from now) and spend time identifying and keeping in touch with these individuals.

The best talent is attracted to a strong culture, and an organization with clear M/V/V.

Talented people demonstrate the 5 ‘C’s – Competence, Character, Collaboration, Communication and Commitment.

Hiring the best talent is not enough.  Once hired, people need to be highly engaged in the organization.  Engaged employees is the single greatest driver of customer satisfaction and loyalty, and overall company success.

Engaging employees requires a clear and compelling M/V/V, along with giving them an environment where they can progress and contribute, and establishing leadership that is authentic and approachable.
 

Robust Communications

Communication breaks down in many organizations at two levels, interpersonally and organizationally.

Strong interpersonal communication involves open dialog, building rapport, active listening, awareness of body language,  and a willingness to engage in constructive conflict.   Constructive conflict is difficult and requires courage and honesty.

Robust communcation at an organizational level builds from the interpersonal.  Leaders must model strong interpersonal communication skills, while being authentic and brutally honest in confronting reality and communicating the decisions and strategies moving forward.
 

Sense of Urgency

In business today, speed rules.  If you cannot move quickly the competition will - not to mention that customers hate waiting and are becoming more and more conditioned to instant response.

Speed requires making decisions, often in an environment of imperfect information.  To make good decisions …

• information must flow easily within the organization.  There can be no ‘hoarding’ of information, knowledge or learnings, and it must move without friction.
   
  AND
   
• intended results or outcomes must be clear.

With these components, all employees can make decisions about their priorities; deciding what to do and, more importantly, what NOT to do.

Bureaucracy can be the enemy – seek to eliminate hierarchy, bureaucracy, inefficiencies and any activities that do not add value, serve customers, or make employees more effective.
 

Disciplined Execution

Many companies have grand ambitions, but only about 10% of businesses can effectively execute on their strategic priorities in a disciplined and thorough manner.   Urgency and discipline can exist together and must be balanced.

Disciplined Execution requires:

• Systems and processes that align to strategic goals.
• Individual objectives that tie strongly to corporate objectives.
• Mechanisms for continuous improvement or innovation of processes.
• Give people the resources, tools and training to perform well in their roles.

Extreme Customer Focus

At the end of the day, the only critic whose opinion counts is the customer’s, and the company that owns the “voice of the customer,” owns the marketplace and will outpace the competition.

Know the ‘moments of truth’ for your customers – what are the key points where the market interfaces with your company?  Determine how to make each of these moments a highly satisfying interaction, and recognize that front-line employees are typically the most important element of these interactions.

Characteristics of great service include reliability, professionalism, empathy, responsiveness and ambience.

Confronting Reality- Doing What Matters to Get Things Right  -  Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan

     

Execution - Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Ram Charan

What the world's greatest managers do differently

Marcus Buckinghamand Curt Coffman
Publisher: New York : Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0684852861

 

This is a synopsis only.  RESULTS.com recommends you buy the original book.

 

How do you measure and grow your human capital?

Financial statements do a poor job of measuring the true value of a company.  A great deal of your company value is tied up in your human capital – the hearts and minds of your people. 

The Gallup Q 12

Extensive research by Gallup has discovered 12 statements that are be the most powerful predictors of employee engagement.

The teams with highest engagement scores had:

• increased sales growth
• increased productivity
• increased customer satisfaction
• fewer accidents
• lower staff turnover
• less staff absenteeism

Each question is rated on a scale of 1 - 5

(1= strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral / no opinion, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree)

1. I know what is expected of me at work.
2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.
7. At work, my opinions seem to count.
8. The mission/purpose of the company makes me feel my job is important.
9. My co-workers are committed to doing quality work.
10. I have a best friend at work.
11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
12. In the last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

Research shows, it is the employee’s immediate manager who is the critical player in building an engaged, productive workplace – not pay, benefits, conditions, or even charismatic leadership

The best thing the business leader can do create a great company is to hold each line manager accountable for what their employees say to each of these 12 statements. 

 

The Difference between Leaders and Managers

The difference between managers and leaders is more profound than most people think

A leader is not a more advanced form of manager. Both roles are vitally important – they require 2 very different strengths. 

Great leaders look outward:

Key role = rally people to a better future

Great managers look inward:

Key role = find out what each individual’s strengths are and capitalise on them

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM	WHAT RESEARCH SHOWS
Management is not as important as leadership	Managers are the prime catalyst for superior employee performance
Management is a stepping stone to leadership	The core strengths of great leaders and great managers are very different
Hire staff based on experience, intelligence, and determination	Hire staff based on talents / strengths
Set expectations by defining the right steps	Set expectations by defining the right outcomes
Develop people through promotion – climbing the corporate ladder	Develop people by helping them find and specialise in roles that "fit" their core strengths
Provide more pay, perks and prestige the further one climbs the corporate ladder	Create heroes in every role. Provide more pay, perks and prestige for levels of achievement in each role
You can be anything you want if you work hard enough	You are naturally "wired" to be exceptional at certain things only. The key is to understand what your core strengths are
The key to success is to fix your weaknesses	The key to success is to play to your strengths
Treat people as you wish to be treated	Treat each person differently according to their needs
Spend time with struggling staff members	Invest most of your time with your most productive staff members
There is no "I" in team. Focus on team performance	Great teams are built around individual excellence and specialisation
Annual performance appraisal focused on "areas for improvement"	Performance appraisal every quarter focused on results and how best to leverage the employee’s strengths in the future
"Familiarity breeds contempt". Don’t get too close to your employees. Keep them at arms length	Managers must understand employees strengths, and be aware of the practicalities of their personal lives as they impact performance
Poor performance can be overcome with willpower and training	Tough love. Do not tolerate poor performance. Find them a role that matches their strengths or quickly terminate

 

The 4 Core Management Activities:

1. Select for Talent

Selecting for talent is the manager’s first and most important responsibility

Understand the 3 categories of talents / strengths:

1. Striving = the “why” of a person (what motivates them)
2. Thinking = the “how” of a person (how they make decisions)
3. Relating = the “who” of a person (how they relate to people)

• Study / interview your current top performers in each position - how they strive, think and relate
• For each role Identify at least 1 critical talent from each of the 3 talent categories
• Use this as the basis for recruiting and interviewing for each role
• Do not compromise on these talents – no matter how persuasive the candidate’s resume or personality  
• Talent trumps experience, intelligence & determination
• Ask questions that elicit past examples of specific behaviours
• Clues to talents / strengths = SIGN
  • S – Success – you are good at it
  • I – Instincts – you have the urge to do it
  • G – Growth – you love learning about it
  • N – Needs – it meets your needs - you feel a sense of fulfillment 
• Use profiling tools to provide objective measurement

2. Define the Right Outcomes

• Standardise the “ends” rather than the “means”
• Enforce only those steps that correlate with prescribed standards of performance
• The customer is the ultimate judge of what is a valuable outcome – ask them!
• Realise that employees will not do things exactly the way you would do them.
• Let employees leverage their own unique styles to meet measurable outcomes
• Select for talent / strengths in the 1st place and you will need fewer rules
• Create measures for all outcomes
• Hold people accountable for achieving measurable outcomes

 

3. Focus on Strengths

• Cultivate each individual’s strengths and manage around their weaknesses
• Manage around weaknesses by providing a support system, a complementary partnership, or change their role to match their strengths
• Don’t try to fix their weaknesses
• Everyone is different – and their strengths / talents are resistant to change
• Help them become more of who they already are
• Confront poor performance immediately
• Check - Is it a talent issue or a training issue?
• Check - Is the manager pushing the right buttons?
• Terminate the staff member early if you have made a hiring error

4. Find the Right Fit

• Help each person find roles that enable them to do more and more of what they are naturally wired to do
• Encourage world class performance in each role
• Promoting people can lead them to failure. Traditional career paths are traps
• Management / Leadership require specific core strengths
• Instead, create “heroes in every role” – i.e. alternative career paths
• Make every role, when performed excellently – a profession with associated prestige, pay and perks
• Create levels of achievement (ala lawyers – junior associate – associate – senior associate – junior partner – partner – senior partner)
• Broadband (overlapping) pay rates – i.e. senior salespeople earn more than junior sales managers
• Make specialization and excellence in a role more attractive in terms of pay, perks and prestige than seeking promotion 
• Celebrate individual successes

Customer Research – What customers really want:

The 4 Step Hierarchy to increase Customer Satisfaction

1. Accuracy 
   Did I get what I expected?
    
2. Availability
   Are you there when I need you?
    
3. Partnership
   Are you on my side?
    
4. Advice
   Can you help me to learn?

 

4 Keys for Effective Performance Appraisals

1. Simple   
2. Frequent
   • One on one manager meetings with direct reports
   • Minimum of 1 hour performance appraisal per employee per quarter 
   
    
3. Future focused
   • What “could be”, rather than focus on past mistakes 
    
    
4. Self Measurement  

• Staff track their own performance and learnings = self discovery
• Get them to prepare answers to the following questions prior to the meetingWhat results have you achieved? 
  • What have you learned?
  • What relationships have you built?
  • What do you think you are good at?  Why?
  • What parts of your current role do you enjoy?  Why?
  • What parts of your current role are you struggling with?  Why?
  • How can we manage around this?
  • What would be the perfect role for you?
  • What would you be doing?
  • Why would you like it so much?
  • What will be your main focus for the next 3 months?
  • What do you want to learn?
  • What relationships do you want to build? 
• During the appraisal, honestly tell them what you think about each of their answers to each question and add your comments to each of their answers.

Interviewing for Strengths:

• What made you want to apply for this role?
• What do you think you are good at?  Why?
• What parts of your current / previous role(s) do you enjoy?  Why?
• What parts of your current / previous role(s) do you struggle with?  Why?
• What would be the perfect role for you?
• What would you be doing?
• Why would you like it so much?
• How often do you like to meet with your manager to discuss progress?
• Do you tell people how you are feeling, or do they have to ask?
• What is the best praise you ever received?  What made it so good?
• Who was the best manager you’ve had & what made this relationship work well?
• Have you had any really productive work partnerships?
• What made these relationships work well for you?
• What are your future personal development goals?
• What skills would you like to learn
• What challenges would you like to experience?
• Is there anything else you want to talk about that might help us work well together?

 

 

Mastering the Rockefeller Habits -  Verne Harnish

 

 

Now Discover Your Strengths - Marcus Buckingham

 

Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times: If there's one thing that's certain in business, it's uncertainty - Stephen Covey, Bob Whitman

Stephen Covey, Bob Whitman
Publisher: Franklin Covey
ISBN: 1936111004

The Effective Executive

Peter F. Drucker
Publisher: New York: HarperBusiness, 1993.
ISBN: 0887306128   

This is a synopsis only.  RESULTS.com recommends you buy the original book.

Efficiency is doing things right.  Effectiveness is doing the right things.

Management is largely by example.  If you cannot manage yourself for effectiveness, you cannot expect to manage others.

Effectiveness can be learned - and it has to be learned - it is not something that comes naturally. There is no such thing as an "effective personality".  Intelligence, knowledge, and hard work are not enough.  Effectiveness requires learning certain practices until they become habits.

The external environment is beyond the control of the executive.  The truly important events on the outside are not the just the trends, rather they are the changes in the trends.  Changes in trends and how you respond to them will determine your success or failure.  The most common cause of executive failure is the inability or unwillingness to change to respond to new trends.

Increasing effectiveness may be the only area where we can hope to significantly raise performance.

There is no such thing as an ideal leader.  Effective executives differ widely in their temperaments and abilities: Some are extroverts - others are introverts, some are eccentric - others are conformists, some are drinkers - others abstainers, some have charm - others do not, some are educated - others are not, some rely on logic - others rely on intuition, some are generous - others are selfish etc.

The only thing great leaders have in common is the ability to get the right things done.

The 5 practices of effective executives:

1. Carefully manage where and how you spend your time
    
2. Focus on what results need to be achieved - not what work needs to be done nor the techniques and tools involved
    
3. Build on strengths - not weaknesses. Build on your strengths and those of your colleagues. Focus on what you can do - not what you can't do
    
4. Concentrate on the few things that will produce the greatest results.  Force yourself to set priorities.  Do first things first - and second things not at all
    
5. Make decisions by seeking dissenting opinions - not seeking consensus.  Know that to make many decisions and fast decisions means to make the wrong decisions.  Better to make fewer decisions - but make the right fundamental decisions.  Focus on the right strategy rather than razzle dazzle tactics

Know thy time

Time is the scarcest resource - unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.   Keep a time log to record where and how you really do spend your time.  Manage your time by reducing unproductive demands on your time:

• Learn to say no. What would happen if this were not done at all?
• Which of these activities could be better done by someone else?
• What am I doing that wastes other people's time?

Beware accepting too many invitations.  Reduce interruptions.  Reduce the number of meetings and make them more effective (focused on results).  Be aware that the more people are together, the more time is taken by human interactions - and the less time will be available for work and results.

Consolidate chunks of uninterrupted continuous time in your calendar to focus solely on your key priorities.  Little bits of time - 15 minutes here and there spent on a project are not effective.  Even one quarter of the day - if consolidated into a large uninterrupted time unit - is usually enough time for you to get the important things done.   Spending 1 day a week working from home can be an effective way of consolidating time.  Likewise - getting up earlier and using uninterrupted time in the mornings is an effective way of consolidating uninterrupted time.

Ensure you have accurate timely information on hand in a form that people can understand with which to make right decisions. 

Recurring crises must be dealt with by an effective system to prevent the pattern repeating in future.

You can tell a great business by how calm and boring it is.  A dramatic business full of heroic endeavors is invariably poorly managed.

What can I contribute?

Focus on results not effort

• What justifies you being on the payroll?
• What do you contribute?
• What can you and no one else do, that if done well, would make the most important difference to the company?

Every company needs performance in 3 major areas;

• Direct results
• Core values
• Developing people for tomorrow

4 requirements for effective human relations

1. Communication
2. Teamwork
3. Self development
4. The development of others

1. Communication

• What is the best use of your knowledge and ability?
• What contributions should I hold you accountable for?
• What do you need from me in order for you to be able to contribute fully?

2. Teamwork

• Who has to use my output in order for it to become effective?

3. Self development

• What knowledge or skills do I need to acquire to make the contribution I should be making?
• What strengths do I have to put to work?
• What standards do I have to set myself?

4. Development of others

• Set standards for excellence of contribution in all roles  

First things first.

Effective executives do first things first, and second things not at all.  Effective executives do first things first, and they one thing at a time. 

Juggling many balls is a circus stunt.  Concentrate on one thing at a time and keep a steady pace.

Decide in the light of changing events what really matters for you to be doing right now, and commit to doing that one task.  When that task is complete, review the situation, and pick the next one task that now comes first.

Be the master of time and events, instead of their whipping boy.  There are always more things to do than there is time available.  Switch from being busy, to achieving results.   Allow more time than you need. Nothing ever goes as planned.

Abandon yesterday.  Ask - If we did not already do this, would we go into it now?

Do not invest any more resources into no longer productive past activities.  Put your best people to work on the opportunities of tomorrow, not fixing the past.  Prune ruthlessly.  Yesterday's successes always linger long beyond their productive life.  Cut out activities that have ceased to promise future results.

Ask - Is this still worth doing?

Get rid of everything else and focus on the few activities that if done with excellence, will really make a difference.  Get rid of the old activity before you start a new one.  "Organizational weight control" - stay lean and muscular.  Systematically getting rid of the old, is the one and only way to force the new.

Everyone is already too busy working on the tasks of yesterday.  Put all activities and people regularly "on trial for their lives" and get rid of those activities and people that cannot prove their productivity.

Outside the firm is the only area where results occur and is where leaders need to focus their attention.  But pressures always drag you back inside the firm. They drag you into what has happened, over what will happen in the future - the crisis over the opportunity - the urgent over the important. 

Setting priorities is easy.  Setting posteriorities (what to stop doing) is hard and usually unpleasant. It takes courage to:

• Pick the future over the past
• Focus on opportunity, not the problem
• Choose your own direction, rather than follow
• Aim high for something that will make a difference, rather than playing it safe

Achievement is more about courage than ability.

Decision making

Effective executives do not make many decisions.  They concentrate on making a few important ones.

Make the big strategic decisions, rather than try to solve lots of little problems.  The executive who makes many decisions is ineffective. 

Do not make fast decisions.  Make the right decisions that have the biggest impact

The hardest part of any decision is not making it, it is implementing it.  Until a decision has degenerated into hard work, it is not a decision, it is just an intention.

If it is a generic or recurring situation – one needs to create a rule or policy for dealing with it when it recurs.   If it is a unique situation, look for the true problem beneath the symptom.  The symptom clamors for attention, but you need to look at it from the highest possible conceptual level.

Be clear about what it is that you want to accomplish before you make a decision.  What are the boundary conditions that need to be satisfied? 

Focus on what is right, rather than who is right. 

Do not ask, “What is acceptable?”  You will always need to compromise in the end, so don’t start with compromising until you specify what is right first.  Do not worry about what is acceptable.  Many things you worry about never happen.

A decision is not made until action commitments are put in place that becomes someone’s work assignment.  Until then there are only good intentions.

• Who has to know of this decision?
• What action has to be taken? 
• Who is to carry it out? 
• What does the action have to be so that people CAN actually carry it out?

This last question is very important when you want to change people’s behaviours.  Responsibility for the action must be clearly assigned, and the person needs to be capable of carrying it out.

Standards and measures for accomplishment, and incentives need to be changed simultaneously or the person will be caught in a paralyzing conflict.  People do what they are rewarded for.

Build feedback into the decision to test to see how it fares against actual events.  Even the best decision has a high probability of being wrong.  Even the most effective decision eventually becomes obsolete.

Generals learned long ago that they need to “go see” whether their orders have been carried out.  Reports are not enough.  Never rely on what one is told by subordinates.  To see for oneself is the only reliable feedback.

All assumptions become obsolete sooner or later.  Reality does not stand still for long.  Check to see if the assumptions on which a decision was made are still valid, or whether the decision needs to be thought through again.

Failure to ‘go see’ is the typical reason for persisting in a course of action long after it has ceased to be appropriate.  Yes one needs reports and figures.  But make sure you expose yourself directly to the reality

Effective Decisions

A decision is a judgment.  It is rarely a choice between right and wrong.  It is more a choice between different courses of action.

Most books on decision making say to start with the facts, and get consensus on the facts.  This is incorrect.  Effective decisions grow out of the clash and conflict of different opinions and competing alternatives.   People don’t start with facts.  They start with opinions. There is nothing wrong with this.  If you ask people to start with facts, they usually look for facts to fit the opinion they already have.

The effective executive encourages opinions, but insists that people who voice them support them with an appropriate measurement that will assess their effectiveness. 

Effective executives create dissension and disagreement rather than promote consensus.  The first rule of decision making is - Do not make a decision unless there is disagreement first.   If everyone agrees at the outset, tell them to go away and come back with some counter viewpoints.  The right decision requires adequate disagreement first. 

Disagreement helps generate fallback alternatives.  Disagreement stimulates the imagination.

The effective decision maker does not start out assuming they know the right course of action, and that all others must be wrong. They start by stimulating disagreement and alternative opinions.  Start by wanting to understand all the alternatives, not by thinking what is right or wrong, or who is right or wrong.  Most executives are ineffective because they start by thinking that their opinion is the only way

No matter how high emotions run, no matter how much you think the other person is wrong, the effective executive forces themselves to welcome opposition as a means to better think through the alternatives

One final question to ask: Is a decision really necessary?  What will happen if we do nothing? 

Like a surgeon you need to weigh the benefits of surgery with the costs.  Act or do not act; but do not hedge or compromise.  The surgeon does not take out half the tonsils.  You either operate or you don’t.  Do not take half actions.

Do not focus on popularity.  Decisions require courage as much as good judgment.  The most effective medicine usually tastes terrible, but it is the right thing to take.  Effective executives are not paid to do things they like to do.  They are paid to make effective decisions and get the right things done.

Computers

Do not let computers make decisions for you.  It does what its logic is programmed to do.  This makes it fast and precise.  It also makes the computer a moron, for logic is essentially stupid.

Humans are not logical.  They are perceptual.  They are slow and sloppy, but they also have insights and inferences that no computer can have.

Computers can free executives from dealing with routine, generic events inside the organization so they can focus on the strategic outside, which is the only area where results lie.

 

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni

 

 

The Five Temptations of a Ceo - Patrick Lencioni

 

 

The One Thing You Need to Know - Marcus Buckingham

 

Bradford D. Smart
Publisher: Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall Press
ISBN: 0735200491

This is a synopsis only.  RESULTS.com recommends you buy the original book.

Top-grading = filling every role in your company with “A” Players

“A” players are the top 10% of the people available for the position

“The toughest decisions in organisations are people decisions – hiring, firing, promotion etc. These are the decisions that usually receive the least attention and are the hardest to unmake” (Peter Drucker)

“The ability to make good decisions regarding people represents one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage, since very few organizations are good at it” (Peter Drucker)
 
“Nothing matters more in winning than getting the right people on the field.  All the clever strategies and advanced technologies in the world are not effective without great people to put them to work” (Jack Welch)
 
“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies” (Larry Bossidy)

The job no leader should delegate; having the right people in the right place (Larry Bossidy)
 
Research shows the difference in performance between top performers and average performers in salespeople is up to 250%, in knowledge workers it is 100%, in assembly line workers 20% (McKinsey)
 
What you pay for a role is not the prime consideration:

• You don’t save money by settling for low quality hiring and set pay scales
• Instead, focus on the value “A” Players can bring to your company in all roles
• Having a team of “A” Players makes your job easier and more fun
• Having a team of “A” Players helps your company succeed faster
• Consider the true cost of weak performance and having to replace a hiring failure
• The cost of a hiring failure is calculated at 15 x base salary (actual and opportunity cost)

Talent Review:

• Conduct a talent review and rank your current staff A / B / C
• Start with the company leadership team and get this right first
  • (cascade down through the organization later)
• Conduct a talent review and rank your current staff A / B / C
  • Have more than one person evaluate individual rankings to help reduce bias
    • People tend to rank people higher that:
      • They have personally hired
      • Are “like them” in appearance and behaviours
      • Are “on their team” (to make them look good as a manager)  
• Sub rankings
  • A1 – Senior Executive potential
  • A2 – Management potential – but only 1 or 2 levels above
  • A3 – “A” player but needs to stay in, and specialize in their current role
• Determine what actions you need to take to support and grow your “A” players
• Redeploy B and C players into other roles where they can become “A” players
• Low performers can consume most of your management time
• Instead you should be spending time with your “A” players
• You must have courage to remove low performers – fast
• Consider legal obligations and be humane with people

 

	Does not achieve performance standards	Achieves performance standards
Lives company values	“B” Player Train & support Change role to enable them to better play to their strengths Fire them (if you can’t raise performance within set timetable)	“A” player Recognise & reward Coach & develop Handcuff to business
Does not live company values	“C” player You have made a hiring error Fire as soon as possible	“B” Player Wrong “fit” Fire them Need to show you are serious about values behaviors It takes courage to build a great company

 
 

 "A" Players tend to hire other “A” Players:

• B’s hire C’s
• B’s tend to hire people who do not threaten them
• CEO needs to champion Top-grading in a company
• “A” players:
  • Make things work
  • Push for progress
  • Come up with solutions
  • Are magnets for other talent
  • Can exist at all roles / levels in the company
     
• B & C Players:
  • Impede organization performance
  • Resist change – encourage the status quo
  • Stifle creativity
  • Tend to hire people like themselves – further weakening the organization

Barriers to implementing top grading in a company:

• It takes time and discipline to implement top grading
• Managers take hiring short cuts to quickly fill a role with the first likely looking candidate
• Managers insecure in hiring people better than they are
• Managers think they can “fix” B & C players and spend too much time trying to do so
• Reluctant to get rid of B & C players because they are considered “loyal” to the company

Virtual Bench:

• Build your virtual bench of “A” Players to meet your future hiring needs
• Be on the lookout for “A” Players all the time – they are seldom unemployed
• Your “A” Players will likely know other “A” Players
• Build relationships and keep in touch

STEP 1 – Create Scorecards for each role / Design recruitment ads to attract “A” Players:

• Don’t use typical job descriptions
• Create scorecards which clearly describe accountabilities, KPI’s, and “fit” requirements
• Describe key accountabilities
• Quantify with numbers (KPI’s) what “A” Player performance looks like
• Clarify the strengths / talents that = a good “fit” with the position
• Clarify the values that = a good “fit” with the company
• Use these scorecards as the basis for your recruitment ads
• “A” Players want to know the score – they will be attracted to roles with accountability
• B & C players will deselect themselves from applying for roles described in this way

STEP 2 = Screening Interview:

• Get people to fill out a career history form first before you phone / or meet with them:
  • educational grades
  • employment for every year and month since they began working
  • compensation – base pay and bonuses for each role
  • name and title of each supervisor
  • what they liked most and least about each role
  • what they are good at and not so good at
  • what they are not interested in doing
  • what each boss would indicate they are good at and not so good at
• Clearly indicate that you will require full reference checks for the successful applicant
• Clearly indicate that you will choose the referees you wish to call
• Conduct 1 hour phone screening interviews to filter out B’s and C’s at the start
• Screening interview format:
  • What are your career goals?
  • What are you good at professionally
  • What are you not so good at professionally?
  • Tell me the names of your last 5 bosses. How would they rate your performance?
  • What questions do you have for me about the role?

STEP 3 = Top-grading Interviews

Conduct at least 2 interviews on separate occasions – 3 hours duration
Use different interviewers from your team (working in tandem) – one asking the questions – the other taking notes:

• Allow 3 hours for a top grading interview.  By 3 hours you start to get the truth.
• CIDS format:
  • Chronological
  • In
  • Depth
  • Structured
• For every job they have had in the past ask:
  • What were you hired to do?
  • What were your specific accomplishments?
  • What failures or mistakes were made and what did you learn from them?
  • What calibre of staff did you inherit?
  • What calibre of staff did you end up with?
  • What was your boss like and how would they rate you?
  • Why did you leave?
• Ask questions to elicit the desired competencies for the role as outlined on scorecard
  • Past performance is the best predictor of future performance
  • Ask for specific examples of where they exhibited the desired competencies in the past for their previous roles
• What do you want and need from your next job?
• What do you want 5 and 10 years from now?

Do not sell the position to the candidate at this point.  The purpose of the face to face interviews is to get enough data, and to compare the candidate’s answers the different interviewers obtained to see if candidate is a good fit.  After completing the 3rd interview - the “right fit” is your selling point to the candidate
 
STEP 4 = Reference Check Interview:  (TORC – Threat of Reference Check)

• You choose the references you want to check – not the ones the candidate supplies
• Ask candidate to make the reference interview phone appointments for you
• No references – no job offer!
• “A” Players will not be put off by this
• Ask the referees the same Top-grading questions you asked candidate to cross check
  • In what context did you work with this person?
  • What was their role and responsibilities?
  • What were their strengths in your opinion?
  • What were their areas for improvement?
    • (When I spoke to XX, they said you would mention YY as an area they need to improve.  Tell me more about that?)
  • How would you rate their overall performance?
  • (Outline your scorecard criteria for the position being applied for)
    • How well do you think they would fit these criteria?

Coach and keep your “A” Players:

• They are valuable and liable to be poached
• You need to keep them engaged
• Spend your time supporting and growing your “A” players
  • (not trying to “fix” B and C players)
• A players want attention, appreciation and to be surrounded by other “A” Players
• Keep in touch with how they are feeling regularly
• Assist them with their personal and professional development
• Help them play to their strengths and manage their weaknesses & blind spots

 
You need to market your company and its vision to potential employees with the same vigor you use to attract potential customers.  The best firms attract the best applicants.