Quote for thought "The Right People"

Comment

Comment by Stewart Liff on October 7, 2011 at 7:08pm

Great people will follow great leaders. Poor leaders will drive out great people. Great people will attract top notch folks. It's all part of one big puzzle.

Comment by Carol Davison on October 7, 2011 at 2:12pm

I believe Good to Great says right peple, in right seats with right skills and then steering the bus. 

 

This Training Officer believes that technical skills are easy to develop.  Integrity, collaboration and results production much harder to acquire.

 

Comment by Nateria Dickey on October 7, 2011 at 2:05pm

Agreed, Andrew! You need to also eventually have a direction you want to take the bus, especially if the bus is a government bus! I think Jim Collins, in Good to Great was talking more about it from a company stand point. If you have the right people, for instance Steve Jobs of Apple, those people will lead a company in the right direction. From a company concept I see the direction as more of an idea. From the government side, the ideas are decided for us by congress, and our administators. Therefore, you are absolutely right the government needs the right people AND clear direction.

Comment by Paul Alberti on October 7, 2011 at 1:58pm

Presuming the bus is actually working, and the right people have been given some sort of guidance on what is expected or what problem they are supposed to resolve - then you can possibly get to someplace great.

As for attracting the "right people" to government today - not likely when Congress and the White House are talking about balancing the deficit on the backs of Federal employees and the constant vilifying and denigrating Executive Branch employees. No COLA adjustments, no raises, hiring freeze in 2013, establishing budgets back to 2009 levels. There are even talks about RIFs possible in the near future with some agencies and early outs in others. How do we bring in the best and brightest with that kind of future?

Comment by Andrew Krzmarzick on October 7, 2011 at 1:44pm

Mmmm...big fan of Good to Great and talk about it all the time...but I'd suggest that you need BOTH the right people and a clear direction...or even the best people will start getting frustrated and bumping into each other.

Comment by Mark Hammer on October 6, 2011 at 1:41pm

The perpetual challenge is to know what it is that the organization, and your little corner of it, needs.  In some cases, the manager is lucky and it's a no-brainer; particularly if the organization, and the role within it, are reasonably static.  If the organization is one regularly undergoing flux, the challenge becomes that much more difficult.  If the flux entails new incoming managers who are unfamiliar or less familiar with how the various components of the organization interface, the level of difficulty is upped even more.

It's not impossible, but ask yourself when was the last time that a) a thorough job analysis was done prior to a hire, and b) when was the last time that job analysis incorporated what stakeholders in other sectors of the organization need from someone in that role?

The "vision thing" is VERY important, but great hires consider not only the vision but the concrete aspects too.

Oh, and having the right people is a wonderful thing...assuming they stick around long enough to get the job done.  Re-filling those positions every 18 months is often a recipe for getting your wheels stuck in the mud.  Top-notch mud, perhaps, but mud all the same.

Comment by T. Jay Johnson on October 6, 2011 at 12:52pm

Thanks, I loved reading Good to Great.

Comment by Scott Kearby on October 6, 2011 at 10:36am

Another quote by Jim Collins --- “People are not your most important asset.  The right people are.” 

Comment by Tamara Lamb-Ghenee on October 6, 2011 at 9:03am

While we have to look for a certain skill set in hiring, the mind set is equally important.  Hire the right people with the right motiviation and trust them to do their job -recipe for success.