It’s no secret. Managing people well is one of the more challenging jobs of a business leader. Human beings are inherently unpredictable, relationships require proper care and feeding – which sometimes means having difficult, what many would say are very unpleasant conversations.
BuildDirect.com is a mid-market company that’s put together a great Growth Strategy over the past few years that’s taken them to over $150M in revenues. A student of “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits”, Jeff Booth, their CEO, has done an amazing job of developing and refining their Strategy using the tools from “Scaling Up” with his team, in particular the Seven Strata (Chapter 7 for those of you with the “Scaling Up” book) but has also created an empowered and engaged workforce in the process.
You’ve just spent valuable time, energy and money over the last 90 days looking for the RIGHT Talent to fill a critical seat in your company – AND you’ve found an amazing A Player who fits the bill perfectly for what you need to grow the company. But now that you’ve made a great hire, how do you keep them? (HINT: It’s not about the money.)
What do you do when you’re fighting from the trenches every day to find and attract the right people to your team? How are you competing with the “big guys” when it comes to offering the right opportunities to A players who can help you grow? More importantly, how do you find the time to FIND the right players and not WASTE your time with the wrong ones?
Holding people accountable can be one of the most time-consuming and thankless jobs out there. Maybe that’s why many leaders struggle to do it – or don’t do it as consistently and relentlessly as they should. The payback isn’t always immediate or apparent, the conversations can be difficult and there’s way too many other priorities.
It’s just as important to follow the money as follow your passion. And, contrary to popular belief, you’re better off doing only a very few things that you do exceptionally well - and finding others to do the rest.
