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How Do I Know If I Have The Right People?

Guest post by: Adam Sonnhalter

Article Overview: One of the most vital roles of any small business owner is to make sure you have the right people in your organization. The vast majority of the small business owners we meet, spend too much of their time mired in people situations. There are lots of "how" questions on the people front. How do I: i) find them, ii) hire them, iii) train them, iv) motivate them, v) pay them, vi) get them to take ownership, vii) fire them? All of these questions will eventually boil down to one big question, "How do I know if I have the right people in my organization?" If you've ever read the book Good to Great by Jim Collins, then you know there are two questions to ask to help you figure out whether or not you have the right people:

How Do I Know If I Have The Right People?

One of the most vital roles of any small business owner is to make sure you have the right people in your organization. The vast majority of the small business owners we meet, spend too much of their time mired in people situations. There are lots of "how" questions on the people front. How do I:

- find them?

- hire them?

- train them?

- motivate them?

- pay them?

- get them to take ownership?

- fire them?

- etc.

All of these questions will eventually boil down to one big question, "How do I know if I have the right people in my organization?"

If you've ever read the book Good to Great by Jim Collins, then you know there are two questions to ask to help you figure out whether or not you have the right people:

1. Would you hire this person again (knowing what you know today)? AND

2. If the person came to tell you that he or she is leaving to pursue an exciting new opportunity, would you feel terribly disappointed or secretly relieved?

The first question is pretty easy and perhaps you've heard it before, but the second question really cuts to the heart of the issue. If your answer is "secretly relieved" with any of your people, my question to you is, why are you continuing to employ this person and what are you doing to get them off your bus (to use the Good to Great term)?

Terminating an employee is one of the most difficult and emotionally-charged duties of any small business owner. No matter how much experience you have, it's never easy. We have found that by keeping things as simple as the two questions highlighted above, many owners can justify to themselves as well as the remaining team, why someone needs to be kicked off the bus.

One of the findings of the Good to Great research was that there wasn't a difference in the amount of employee turnover between the good and great companies. What they did find was that the great companies got rid of the people who didn't fit faster than the good companies. In other words, the great companies were more rigorous when deciding which people to retain and which people to let go.

Nearly every small business owner we come into contact with has people who fit into the "terribly disappointed" and "secretly relieved" buckets. Quite often, the owners are surprised to find out how many folks fall into the "secretly relieved" bucket. And those people have been in those buckets for years. Usually almost since day one when they joined the company.

So let's make sure I'm communicating effectively. I'm not suggesting that you finish reading this article, pull out a list of your employees and begin chopping heads. What I am suggesting is that you sit down with your current roster of employees and put them into "terribly disappointed" and "secretly relieved" buckets.

If you are having trouble classifying your people, ask one of your "terribly disappointed" people to help you out. Chances are they will have a pretty good feel for who fits where. The next step is to prioritize which of the "secretly relieved" folks you want to address first. Start by asking yourself the question, "If this person were no longer here, how would their duties be divided up by the current staff?"

Quite often we have found that there is often an "addition by subtraction" that happens in many small businesses when it comes to these "secretly relieved" folks. Many of the "terribly disappointed" folks will pick up the slack left and many times they are more efficient without the "secretly relieved" folks around.

If you are having trouble addressing the "secretly relieved" folks, how about giving some thought to the "terribly disappointed" folks and what you are going to do when they leave you for a better opportunity. It's just a matter of time when you hold on to the "secretly relieved" folks too long. It becomes a big de-motivator for the "terribly disappointed" folks.

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Article Tags: evaluate employees, finding and keeping good people, hiring employees, small business owners



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