I had the chance to Listen to “Good to Great” again by Jim Collins. It was such a powerful reminder of the fundamentals things that Great Companies do. In the chapter “First Who, Then What” Collins reminds us that hiring the “best people” is the only road that will take you from Good to Great! It is very interesting to realize that when we hire truly great people our management skill is not as important. Great people do not need a lot of managing.
I consider myself to have some of that “great people” gifting in me. When I work for you, I need a little direction, what we are trying to achieve, and what outcome we are looking for, and I am off to the races. I have had more than one company owner or division president call me in to the office and ask me, “what were you thinking?” “Why did you do that? You are moving too fast.” When I assured them that I would try to slow down they responded, “No, don’t slow down, just try to think before hitting send.”
Great managers/ Great companies, hire great people and allow them to thrive. It is clearly spelling out the responsibilities and outcomes and then supporting and serving our top performer to knock it out of the park. REMINDER: as managers and leaders, our job is to create and maintain great environments where our team can crush it every day! If we have crappy environments, crappy processes, crappy communication, crappy teamwork, we will get crappy results from even our great people. Very frustrating!
Hire great people. Give them clear responsibilities and outcomes. Create and maintain environments where they can rock. Notice and celebrate good work and progress daily!
You got this! Start your journey from Good to Great this week.