Yesterday, I was privileged to hear Jim Collins speak on how companies go from Great to Irrelevance. One of the key factors for building a world class organization and keeping it great is the people.
Jim shared his key insights into what an A-Team needs. This is from his upcoming book (coming out in May), “How the Mighty Fall” and he gave me permission to share it with you.
1. You know the person is a great fit for your team when they fit with your core values walking in the door. You can train for skills. You can’t train for values.
2. They don’t need to be tightly managed. The moment you feel the need to micromanage an employee, you know you’ve made a hiring mistake.
3. The right people understand that they don’t have a job – they have responsibilities.
4. The right people do what they say they will do. They are accountable in every action.
5. The right people have window and mirror maturity. This means that when something goes wrong, they look in the mirror and say “I’m responsible. Here’s what I will do to grow and change.” When things are good, they point out the window and share the success and accolades with their team. They look outside of themselves to share the praise and recognition.
6. They think that what you do is really cool and believe it is a privilege to work for you.
Everything kept coming back to the people and the team you surround yourself with. Another nugget I really appreciated from his talk was this one. He ended his talk with something the great Peter Drucker told him: “Stop worrying about your survival, your success and start worrying about how to be useful.”
Looking forward to it. 🙂
SoapWish,I’d love to hear your comments on management! Any time you want to post a long thought on it, I’m all ears =)
Regina, I’m posting more about what some of the other speakers said – especially Mark Eaton – about leadership, selling and creating better teams. I just need to type up my notes, edit the phones and make it all happen =)
Drucker is a hero for the chick who studied quality along with industrial engineering…and what you say about values and skills hits home too. Thanks so much for sharing your seminar with us Anne-Marie. Your insight is inspiring.
~Regina
Fantastic info…thanks! I’ll be looking for his book when it comes out.
In the mean time, I’ll print off this post to share with my husband.
I truly believe in the mirror/window comment. I have heard before that there is no limit to the things you can do as long as you don’t mind who gets the credit. If more CEO’s stood up and said I am responsible, the US be a different country. We have to legislate responsibility because of irresponsible leaders. Thank you for the wonderful post!
Wow, very inspiring, and very much makes a person think! I am good at the mirror maturity, and now I know what to call it. I love to say, “Okay, here is a new problem, new challenge, and I am going to learn from it, bring it on!” I will definitely be looking for Jim’s book to hit the stands! Isn’t it great to learn?
oooops
i mess up from time to time
post too long messages
sorry!
my bad….
I agree completely
So true! If you can manage people skillfully and build cohesive teams, you can be successful in any business. It sounds simple but not that many people are good at it.
I stopped myself from writing out my management rules and posting the world’s longest comment!
Yes, that last comment was a
great one to end with.
at my church, our pastor teaches us leaders and any who will listen
the principles in his teachings.
i love the who’s on the bus example. it makes me look in
the mirror!
there is this new company that just did it’s build out in my town. i was returning books to my library the other day (soap books
🙂 and their back bay of receiving was wide open for public eye.
in big
i mean BIG bold letters they had inscribed on the inside of Bay 1:
W H A T E V E R I T T A K E S
i smiled and drove on
wow. words to live by!@
happy weekend, Anne Marie!
hope you enjoyed Phoenix
and had some
GREAT Mexican food!@
That last comment is really worth thinking about. If everyone did that (not just businesses) the world would be a much better place for all. Thanks for sharing!