In his classic book, Good to Great, Jim Collins refers to the importance of getting the “right people on the bus” and then getting them all in the “right seats.” Get this wrong and you will spend your time dealing with people issues.
This is key because who we attract and hire to our organization takes precedence over what they do. You simply can’t achieve consistent results until you get the right people in place.
As you move forward, you’ll be faced with two types of issues regarding your people.
The first is having the right person in the wrong seat. The second is having the wrong person in the right seat.
In order to gain momentum and build your business, you will need to address both.
Most owners find that one of these two people issues is far more common in their business than the other, and it is worth being honest with yourself about which one it is. Once you can name the problem, you can decide whether the answer is moving someone, developing them, or letting them go. If you want to look at how to build capability in your management team, have a read of how to build management capability beneath the owner. And if you have not read it, Good to Great is where the idea of the right people in the right seats comes from.
