Fastest Way to Fail – Keep the Wrong People
What’s the one thing all leaders know but few leaders can implement?
The fastest way to fail is to keep the wrong people on your team.
Think about any team you’ve ever been on or seen (it could be an athletic team, could be a work team, or a volunteer committee). Think about all the ones that failed to accomplish their objective – what’s the one thing they all had in common? I’m willing to bet it’s that you didn’t have the right people on the team.
Business leaders will recall the adage from Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” – you have to get the right people on the bus and then get them in the right seats to have a successful organization. I think this concept is the most important concept in any organization. It’s easy to say. However, it’s very difficult to implement.
Over the long run you will be caused more pain as a leader and your team will be doomed to fail if you don’t find the right people to put on your bus. That also means getting the wrong people off the bus. As leaders we sometimes try to rationalize keeping the wrong people for various reasons. We cannot do that if we want our team to succeed.
In the easier said than done category, here is my recommendation: Build a hiring system that helps you find the right people for your team most often AND as soon as you recognize you’ve hired someone that isn’t right for the team, make a change.
