Hire Only Eagles – 5 Steps to Find, Hire and Keep Only the Best People – the 20% that Generates 80% of Your Results Part One:
In his book “A Little Bit At A Time”, Russell Wright showed that this concept was introduced as early as 1911 by an author named Frederick Taylor who wrote a book titled “The Principles of Scientific Management” where he state four principles.
Here they are paraphrased a bit:
- Get and Keep the Right People
- Make clear what needs to be done.
- Make appropriate training, resources and support available.
- Remove the obstacles from their path and let them do what needs to be done.
In his book “Good to Great”, autghor Jim Collins found a similar thing with all Great companies:
1st: It starts with having the right leader/leadership skills.
2nd: They then got the “right” people on the “bus” and just as importantly, they got the wrong ones off.
3rd: They had the ability to be honest about current reality.
4th: They kept it simple by adhering to the 80/20 Principle.
5th: They created a culture of discipline.
6th: They understood the concepts of the Principle of Compounding. A little bit at at time, all the time, has the greatest chance of success.
Then in the 1950’s W. Edward Demings and J.M. Juran, American consultants, were invited to Japan to help them rebuild their economy.
It must be noted that American industrialists dismissed their ideas. I’m sure Deming and Juran would have preferred to stay home and help American industry take it to the next level.
This is the Acres of Diamonds syndrome or as Jesus stated “But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown” – Luke 4:24
For whatever reason, we tend to look outside our own backyard for answers.
I’m telling you, you have everything you need to get everything you want already available to you.
To find, hire and keep only the best there is a five step process to follow. [similar to the pattern we follow to help you find, get and keep only the best customers]
- Be the best employer in town. Be the kind of person/business top performers want to be associated with.
- Know your Market– Know who your target audience is. What do the best people look like?
- Create your Message– What is your unique story? What makes you appealing to the best people?
- Choose your Media– Where do these top performers hang out? Where is the best place to reach them?
- Keep them.
In Part Two I will go into more detail as a precursor to my upcoming book of the same title.