Understanding the Bus?

Are The Right People On Your Bus?

If you think that your initial step as leader or manager is to cast a vision, set a new direction and strategy for your team, then hire people to help you fulfill your vision, think again. Most business book authors tell us to do it this way. In his original research book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins produces evidence from his research that the great companies reverse the process. As Collins puts it: “The executives who ignited the transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it.” Collins’ bus metaphor is very appropriate to our purposes. Getting great people on your staff becomes your primary duty. Great people are self-motivated, creative, and are great problem-solvers, among many attributes. You may be asking yourself: How do I find great people like this?

Getting the right people on your bus can be challenging, but it can become a manageable and rewarding process if you break it down into some actionable steps.  While not an exhaustive list, here are nine tips on getting the right people on your bus:

1. Keep your eyes wide open for talented people at all times. Just because you have all your bus seats filled, that doesn’t mean to quit looking for talent.

2. Use pre-employment assessments to discover profile matches. Know what your success profile looks like, then hire to that profile.

3. Conduct team interviews. Who says the boss is the only one smart enough to hire?

4. Focus your interview scrutiny on “who the person is”, more than on “what the person has done.”

5. Agree as a team before making a hiring decision. Obviously the boss breaks the tie.

6. When in doubt on a candidate, don’t panic. Keep looking. Finding gold is not a quick process.

7. Develop a recruiting culture. Great teams take team-building seriously.

8. Develop a referral culture – great companies have great people searching for great people for them. The price of a referral fee is well worth it. Take a look at your advertising budget if you don’t believe me.

9. Develop a “We find you” principle, not a “You find us” principle. 

How Do You Get The Wrong People Off Your Bus?

Now that you have hired some really great people, the next problem to tackle is what to do with the not-so-really-great people. These folks are like thorns in the sock to your great people, who only want to surround themselves with talented folks like themselves. The most common mistake that leaders make is to allow low or non-performers to hang on, believing that their own superior management and leadership skills will bring them around. Some can be salvaged, but others are to your organization what a governor is to a motor. They simply limit the speed of the momentum you are trying to build. The task of getting some folks off your bus is never pleasant, but it is necessary. There are some steps you can take to pave the way to improve your team, and create more room for great people.

Here are some tips to help in the process of removing the wrong people:

1. Don’t delay in making the removal decision. Give the person time to make a transition, so that you are not stealing their time. Quick action on your part will signal to your troops that you are serious about improving the team.
2. Be rigorous in your assessment of your people. Apply exacting standards evenly across the board at all times. Your great people will respond positively. Others won’t and will leave a rigorous workplace.
3. Don’t be ruthless when letting people go. Your talent pool of great people may soon begin to dwindle. Great people don’t like to work for tyrants.
4. Commit to all the training, coaching, mentoring and evaluation a person needs to become great. If that does not work, you know what you need to know to make a removal decision.
5. Make absolutely sure, at the outset, that your people understand the rules, goals, and performance standards. Review them regularly, and measure often. Just as carpenters measure twice and cut once, so should be your performance measurement system.

How Do You Get The Right People in the Right Seats On Your Bus?

You may not be old enough to remember the T.V. show “The A-Team”, but if you are, you have to admit they were a well oiled machine! Hannibal, Face, B.A. (Mr. T), and “Howling Mad” Murdock each had a unique role on the team. They were in the right seats on the bus. Hannibal could not fly a plane like Murdock, and B.A. did not have the leadership skills of Hannibal. Each member of the A-Team complemented the others. So should it be on your corporate team. Obviously, some positions on the team require specific knowledge, skill, education and certification, such as an accountant or CFO. But for many positions, you can choose where they best fit. The task of the leader to put the right person in the right seat on the bus can be challenging and time-consuming, but very rewarding.

Here are some ideas to consider when you are trying to figure out where your great people can best serve your organization. In bus language, this means you want to know which seat on the bus they should occupy. Consider these ideas:

1. Coach, coach, coach. Always know your talent thoroughly, and where they best fit in the organization. In retail, the success mantra is location, location, location. In leadership, the success mantra is coach, coach, coach.
2. Conduct employee profile assessments on a regular basis. Try a variety of profile types over a range of time. There are many versions on the market that will give you varying degrees of success indicators.
3. Utilize one-minute goal-setting to determine if the person is succeeding in their respective position. If not, a switch of position may be in the forecast.
4. As a general rule, put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems. Your great people will maximize the big opportunity so that the organization will generate long-term benefits.

How Do You Drive Your Bus to its Destination?

Do you like to take road trips? They can be a lot of fun, but if you stay behind the wheel for too long, they can wear you down. Being a leader in your department, branch, franchise or company is a lot like being the bus driver on a long road trip. You encounter many different scenarios and issues along the way, and you have to navigate carefully through traffic and difficulty. The job of leader can wear you down if you keep too tight a grip on the wheel. Leadership is critical, however, and since you are driving the bus down the road, filled with the right people sitting in the right seats, it is your job to lead the team to a successful destination. As leading leadership guru John Maxwell says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”

One aspect of leadership is the development of other leaders. Leaders need to be able to hand the driving duties over to others at times, and eventually hand them over for good. Great leaders develop future leaders. So for our purposes, we will discuss some key ideas to help you grow new leaders, and allow others to take the wheel. Here are a few ideas for you to consider as you work toward developing your team’s leadership abilities:

1. Build your talent bench. The Super Bowl and World Series winners each year are usually the teams with the best bench. Make it a goal to always have a couple of people trained, mentored and ready to promote to the next level.
2. Develop a leadership pipeline. Carve out an easy-to-understand promotion roadmap for your team. Everyone should know the steps to take to rise to the next level. A great book on this subject is simply called The Leadership Pipeline, by Ram Charan, Stephen Drotter and James Noel.
3. As leader, demonstrate what high level performance look like. Then set the bar high, the expectations of performance, for each person on your team. Great people want high standards and high expectations.
4. Develop a coaching culture. Adopt a development plan for each person on your team. This plan should include a personal life plan as well as a business plan. More on that subject can be found in an excellent book on coaching called Becoming a Coaching Leader by Daniel Harkavy.