Michele Harmon
This month I want to address the idea of getting the Right People in the Right Seat on the Bus.
However, before I get started, and my reader may drift off, I will begin by highlighting a new resource to assist your organization with Human Resources (HR).
I want to tell you about a fantastic group of HR professionals. Occasionally I have given you free or low-cost sources to assist your organization with HR. This month, I want to highlight a new and exciting HR consulting group. It is owned and operated by local talent. I am so excited to tell you about The Energy People Consulting Group and what they do to assist organizations. The group is owned and operated by two previous Concho HR staff, Melissa Hooper and Theresa Rodriguez. I admit to being impressed and a little partial to both ladies. Melissa’s mom is a retired Midland ISD teacher, currently teaching at Trinity, and Theresa is a graduate of UTPB who holds both an undergraduate and MBA from there.
I sat down with them for the first time in April. They passed my knowledge test without a flicker of doubt and they are passionate about HR. The group does all things HR. What is so great about these ladies and their team: they listen. Let me say that again. They listen. They assist their clients with those HR activities that organizations most dread: compliance, policy management, employee disputes, recruiting, onboarding, annual compensation reviews (inflation is almost 9 percent), professional development, corrective action, and terminations, to name just a few areas of assistance. Their website is www.energypeoplegroup.com.
Now, as for our “assigned seating”…
How do you get the right person in the right seat?
Jim Collins, the writer of Good to Great, published originally in 2001, shares this tidbit: The right people are those employees who share your company’s core values and help to support a culture based on those values. The right seat means that an employee is operating within their area of greatest skill and passion within an organization.
Collins uses the metaphor of comparing business to a bus and the leader as a bus driver. I was not too fond of that metaphor when I first heard it, for many reasons, but I get it. If you have the right people in the right places, they are happy about it and have the correct skill set. And your organization has a good chance of succeeding.
I suggest you read the book, and if you just read Chapter 3, you will see why I recommend this.
Here are some key points from Chapter 3, First Who, Then What.
Executives need to find the right people first and then determine where to drive the bus. They need to get the right people on the bus and the wrong ones off and then figure out where to go.
Good to Great leaders must understand that this is dealing with the “who” and not the “what” so the company can better adapt to change.
Who survived the Pandemic the best? Did Peloton see it coming? Did companies with lots of cash buy up as much equipment as possible, foreseeing a supply chain shortage that reminds me of stories about WWII?
If you have the right people on the bus, the problem of motivating them may go away for the most part. The best people do not need to be tightly managed or fired up. An inner drive will inspire them.
Lastly, great vision will not push you to the top with the wrong people.
In contrast, many organizations hire what Collins calls a Genius with a Thousand Helpers. These are charismatic, not transformation, leaders. The company will move forward until the genius departs and everyone leaves. These leaders came up with great ideas and delegated them to their followers to implement. The team did what they were told.
I often think of Apple and the loss of Steve Jobs, but it turned out that Apple was more than just one man. Thank goodness for my few shares of Apple stock.
Watching the Elizabeth Holmes series on HULU gave me pause as I reflected on the difference between a cheerleader approach and a knowledgeable leader approach. If you watch the series, you may see some other leadership (or lack of) characteristics cited in Good to Great.
What about how to compensate employees? Jim Collins’ research found no link between increased compensation and the leader taking a company from good to great.
However, the study did demonstrate that the company’s moral standards made the team strive to be the best.
Lastly, great leaders need to be rigorous but not ruthless. How do you do that? Collins has several premises that I agree with 100 percent and that I repeatedly tell my readers.
- 1. When in doubt, don’t hire and keep looking.
- When you know you need to make a people change, do it.
- Put your best people on the biggest opportunities, not the biggest problems.
In my consulting, I see various good, bad, and ugly levels of leadership.
Sadly, the memories of ineffective leaders stay with me. Employers often find the right team repeatedly but must hire a new leadership team every year or two because the employer cannot self-evaluate and sees making money as the only objective. This type of employer does not understand that they are the problem, not those who work for them.
It may be too late for Elizabeth Holmes, but it is not too late for you.
Next month, I will talk about Tackling the Brutal Facts from Good to Great. When I do mediations, I have to honor, then eliminate, the perceived and emotional issues to get down to Just the Facts. Identifying the facts is critical to resolving concerns and moving forward for the organization to be Great.
“Your employees are the heart of your organization.” Dr. Michele Harmon is a Human Resource professional, supporting clients in Texas and New Mexico that range in size from five to more than 3,000 employees. Email: micheleharmon1@gmail.com