Decision #1 — The Right People; It All Starts Here!

So, you’ve got four decisions to make (and a fifth – I’ll write about that later).  Here are the four:

People
Strategy
Execution
Cash

I introduced these four in this blog post – and you can read about them from the Gazelle’s Coaches website here.

It sounds simple, doesn’t it?

Hire the right people;
make sure they are doing the right things — make sure they are doing all of those right things (strategy);
to the standard of excellence you set (execution);
and make sure you’ve got enough cash to feed your growth without going broke.

Sounds simple.   If only…

Here’s the latest – somewhere around 18% of the people hired turn out to be “good enough” that folks are genuinely and ultimately pleased with their hiring decision.  18% — you know, 18 out of 100.  That means that 82 out of 100 are less than what was hoped for.

Most hires do not work out that well.  And, most employees are not all that engaged.  The vast majority = the wrong hires, and unengaged employees.  We’ve got a problem on our hands!

And, in group after group, team after team, there are struggles with lack of chemistry, or bad chemistry, or out-and-out conflict, or slackers not pulling their weight, or uncooperative team members objecting to decisions overtly, or with that energy draining “passive aggression” that we are all so familiar with.…

And, if you ever think your company, your organization, your industry, is the only one having trouble finding the right people, well…  just check your own sports pages.  Do you have a football team (or a baseball team) where your fans are complaining?:  we need a different coach/quarterback/pitcher!!!  (I live in Dallas.  Yes, we have more than our share of such complaints).

In other words, I hate to break this to you – there may not be enough of the very best to go around. 

And when there aren’t enough of the very best to go around, then folks charged with hiring decisions have to “settle” for less than the best far too often.

And then, they complain when their hiring decisions are disappointing.

We all know all of this, but knowing it does not change the fact:  the wrong people have little chance of coming up with and implementing (executing) a right, brilliant strategy… and then, the cash can be hard to find, and what little there is can dry up in a hurry.

What to do?

#1 – Hire a better people hirer.  You’ve got to make better decisions on the front end.  Find/identify better people; hire better people.  To do that, you’ve got to have somebody who knows how to identify such people, and then you’ve got to find the right incentives to entice those people to work for you/with you.  That includes money, working conditions, growth opportunities.  If company A pays more, trains more, challenges more, rewards more, “appreciates” more, you’re pretty much going to end up with choices B, C, and D…

Maybe you need to hire a company that is good at hiring.  (Yes, I know one to recommend).  But, do not put someone in charge of hiring who does not do it well.  You’re not crazy, are you?

#2 – Be on the look for people problems, and address them, and fix them – fast.  Real fast.  Like right now.  (And, I hate to tell you this – you will have some of these problems).

Is there conflict?  Inject someone into the situation for some serious conflict management and resolution.

Is there a shortage of needed skills?  Then free up money for the right kind of training and coaching and people development.

You probably only have two options:  either hire perfect people, or help the people you do hire get better at what they do.  I can’t come up with a third option – can you?

#3 – Get rid of toxic folks.  You simply cannot let the wrong people stay on the job to keep making things worse.  If you can’t fix them, or train them, then replace them…

Now, there is so much more to say…  like, look for both head smarts as well as people smarts and heart smarts.  (IQ, and EQ – Emotional Intelligence;  Hard Skills and Soft Skills).  Don’t keep cutting your training budget and expect people to get better at what they do.  You may have a bad training plan – get rid of that; fix it!  But, the solution is better training, not no training.

So, hire well, train well, cultivate well – and then, look around and marvel at this great team you’ve put together.

Now you can get ready to come up with and refine your strategy!