Before a good company can take its performance to the next level and become truly great, it needs to have the right staff in place, author Jim Collins told attendees at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies convention in San Diego last week.
Many companies think that a cunning strategy or great performance will attract the right applicants but that’s backward, Collins said. People must come first.
“You can’t start off by asking which direction you’re headed in … First you figure out if you’ve got all the right people on the bus, then you figure out where to drive,” said the author of such business classics as “Good to Great” and “How the Mighty Fall.”
Collins argued that making a clear-eyed assessment of key staff within an organization is one of the “brutal facts” leaders need to be willing to address as they look to set their company on the right path. Sometimes more people need to be brought on board — and sometimes a longtime traveling companion needs to step off the bus before it can move forward, he noted.
When thinking about the important positions within their organizations, leaders shouldn’t get hung up on formal titles, he added. Instead, they should think about the necessary roles in the organization and the duties that go along with them. “People don’t have jobs. They have responsibilities,” he said.
Business leaders should figure out how many key positions their organizations holds, he suggested, and then ask themselves what percentage of those spots are currently filled by the right people. “Now ask yourself, ‘What do I have to do to get to 100%?’” he said. Collins encouraged the audience to make “filling the bus” one of their goals for the coming year.
Image credit, RedBarnStudio, iStock Photo
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Thanks for sharing Jim Collins "Good to Great" concepts. I've found so many small business leaders really fail to invest a lot of time and energy in this area. If they struggle with their key employees they avoid and tolerate their situation and lament the decisions they've made to get into the situation and rarely do anything about it until it is absolutely necessary.
I always advise my clients to take the approach of a professional sports team that is coming up on its season's "trading deadline" and wants to make a push for the playoffs to win the Championship. Teams committed to becoming champions have no trouble pulling the trigger to make the necessary changes.
Small business leaders must develop a "champion" mindset and do the same if their organizations are going to thrive. If anyone is interested in reading more about the "trading deadline" concept, I've included it in my most recent white paper, "The 3 Strategies Champion Organizations Master That Too Many Leaders Take for Granted!" – it's available in written and audio as a free download at: <a href="http://www.ChampionBusinessLeaders.com” target=”_blank”>www.ChampionBusinessLeaders.com
In addition to Jim Collins' great concept, the StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a great tool to help you put those people on the right seat based on their strengths. A lot of times we don't have bad worker, just workers in the wrong positions.
http://growingforward.net
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