Good to Great-First 'Who'

The second common thread that unites great companies is that they first get the right people on the bus,and then figure out where to drive it. What it essentially means is that in a dynamic world, where things are changing every minute, and to stay stationary is to perish, you got to have people that can drive and accept  change.Vision and strategy can come later.First you should get the right people in your team, wrong people off your bus and put the right people in the right seats. Then and only then should you try to figure out where to drive the bus.With such people in your team, it is easier to change direction if the need so arises, and secondly great people are self driven and need no external motivation. They have an inner drive to excel and nothing which is not exceptional is acceptable to them.Good to great companies place more emphasis on character traits in their recruitment decisions as they feel that skills and competencies can always be taught,but what cannot be taught or changed is the inner fibre of a person.

It is but natural that great companies are tough places to work,and rightly so. They are not ruthless,but they are rigorous.Being ruthless is akin to cutting down on manower just because you have to.On the contrary, being rigorous means to have exacting standards, and to show the door to anyone who doesn't match up .If you continue to have laggards in your team, then in a way you are ruthless to your high performers, as they are forced to carry the load of these laggards.Three practical principles as advocated by Jim Collins for being rigorous in making people decision are:

• When in doubt, do not hire. Keep looking
• When you need to make a people change, act and do it fast.
• Put you best people on your biggest opportunities, rather than on the problems.

Have people in your team who debate vigorously in search of best answers,and talk without  fear or favour,but once a decision is taken,then they unify behind that decision ,regardless of their parochial interest or previous opinions.