What makes a company great? Jim Collins, author of the book “Good to Great“, sums it up by saying that great companies “first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.” The right people are those individuals who fit into your organization and help you to accomplish your future goals.
So, who are the “right” people and how do you get them on your bus? Like most issues to address in business, a bit of planning will help make the outcome more successful. That involves getting the foundations right first and then making your hiring, induction and training practices fit into your longer-term vision.
The first thing to consider when getting the right people on your bus is team design – picking the right people and placing them in the right seats on the bus. All of us can adapt to situations that aren’t a perfect fit, but 99% of the time we will resort back to our normal way of doing something (i.e. once a disorganized person, always a disorganized person). Decide what your overall company CULTURE is and make sure you pick people who match this, even if they aren’t a perfect fit in terms of skills. Skills can be taught – attitude and underlying personality traits can’t. Also, don’t simply promote employees into manager roles because they have been with you a while and you think they might leave. Place them in manager roles only if they possess the great manager qualities and will be a good leader.
Once you have the foundations sorted: your VISION for the company and a way to impart this to your team, your CULTURE defined and actually implemented on a daily basis, you can then put hiring, induction, training and performance management systems in place to do the heavy lifting for you. Managing staff is often one of the most frustrating parts of business ownership, but I see less frustration with owners who take the time to plan for their staffing needs and put systems in place to manage the nuts-and-bolts processes, on an objective basis.
For help in building a great team and installing systems to help you manage the process, email me at andy@tradescoach.co.nz and we can discuss your needs.
Andy Burrows – My website: The Trades Coach