One great person can replace three good people. Fewer people, paid more and given lots of training and development. Hiring-Selling the Vision Remember, "A" people tend to surround themselves with "A" people, so go only to your "A" network of friends You need to market your firm to potential employees with the same vigor you use to attract potential customers. The Selection Process behavior-based structured interview is the only one type of effective interview Testing is considerably more accurate and objective than inter- Viewing the number one reason an otherwise-qualified candidate just won't make it in your organization is his or her misalignment with your core values. A close second is whether they have a positive or negative outlook, which can be discerned primarily through testing. Also, positive outlook, Testing for emotional maturity also ranks high.
Right Things Model
The key questions on the Right Things side of the model
- Do you have a viable economic model?
- Can you ever make real money doing what you're doing?
- Do you have a product or service that enough customers value to make a Viable business?
- have you determined the X factor that you can control that differen- tiates you from the competition, matters to customers and provides you an advantage in the marketplace?
- Can you be the best in your chosen sandbox? The key questions on the Things Right side of the model
- Do you have the management practices and processes to take advantage of the market opportunity you're pursuing?
- Do you have the habits and disciplines in place to maintain your competitive advantage?
- Is your organization structured properly to maximize the productivity of the employees?
- Can you deliver a consistent service or product offering? you lead people and manage their activities-you don't manage people Le. "son, you're good, what you did is bad" versus "son, you're bad."
Putting the Model to Work
Rockefeller Habit #1-Priorities
As an example, this quarter the top priority might be "increase by 25 percent (grow) the business we're doing with our top four cus- tomers" (choosing the Customers circle on the left) and "reduce the time by 50 percent (faster) it takes to properly bill our clients" (choosing the Keep Good Records circle on the right). Even though your firm may have issues within all six areas, you can only advance one of the areas on each side at a time.
Two visual analogies are helpful. First, think of the six circles as spinning plates on sticks, like you might have seen on an old Ed Sullivan re- run. At anyone time, one of the plates of the three on either side is spinning slower than the other two and needs your attention. Another way to think of the six circles is as balls being juggled in the air. As a juggler moves the balls higher and higher, he or she does it one ball at a time. The same situation applies to growing a business.
In addition, it's very important to be clear about who is account- able for each circle in the model.
To monitor the progress of the business daily and weekly, and to accurately predict how the next few months are likely to turn out, you need metrics about all six areas of the business. For mid-market firms, the weakness on the left side of the model is having the same kind of accurate and timely feedback from customers that you demand from accounting. On the right side of the model, mid-mar- ket firms tend to be weak in having accurate sales funnel data, pri- marily because the sales side of the organization tends to resist mea- surement, except for the top line.
In figUring out with whom you need to have various weekly meet- ings, the six circles provide guidance.