In his recent book Good to Great, Jim Collins articulates the common traits of companies that have gone from good to great, significantly outperforming all competitors and the market as a whole. It turns out that most of the similarities have to do with people. We think his observations have never been more relevant.
“The ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets or technology or competition or products. It is the one thing above others; the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.”
“The key point is to get the right people on the bus before you decide where to drive it. The 2nd key point is the degree of sheer rigor needed in people decisions in order to take a company from good to great.”
“The ‘who’ question comes before the ‘what’ decisions, before vision, before strategy, before organizational structure, before tactics. First ‘who’, then ‘what’—as a rigorous discipline, consistently applied.”
On the positive side, how much opportunity and benefit lies in bringing on someone who turns out to be not just average or fairly good, but very good or great? We have found, for example, that in the average company, 20% of salespeople—2 out of 10—perform very well. Just imagine the opportunity of having 3 or 4 or 5 out of 10 performing at this high level instead of 2.
Finding the “Natural”
What essentially makes someone “very” or “extemely” good at selling, managing, or almost any endeavour is something underlying personality, surface skills, education and experience. This most difficult-to-appraise something is a set of dispositions that enables him or her to be a “natural” in a particular role.
If you can find the “natural”, you dramatically increase your likelihood of success and at the same time decrease your exposure to the staggering costs of less-than-good performance and resultant turnover.
We take you beyond the current state-of-the-art methods of appraising people to identify to what degree someone will be a natural in your particular role. With the sophistication of the ADVANCED ANALYSIS (C), you’re able to pinpoint and select someone not just fairly well-suited or well-suited, but very well-suited; someone who will not just likely be fairly good or good—but great.
So, if you are serious about your success and the importance of putting the right people in the right positions, can you afford not to use the most advanced and effective tools available?