Staffing and Personnel - People

People make the organization succeed or fail.

People make the organization succeed or fail. Because of this we will put a limit on tolerance of moderate or poor producers. Experience tells that we kid ourselves into thinking that allowing the individuals to continue things will change. That's usually wrong. Basic character or personality faults and skill deficiencies most often don't get correct with time. However, fairness and compassion are necessary. Management should help the person preserve both dignity and employ ability.

All managers should have backup people who are potentially better qualified for their jobs than they are themselves. Not manager has the right to feel he or she has done a good job if a logical successor is not being trained and nurtured.

Every manager in the organization must make certain that individuals know what is expected of them, how their assignments fit into the whole, and how their performance will be measured. Each individual should have a set of goals and deadlines to meet. We believe strong organizations have strong goals. Once the goal is achieved, we always set the next goal higher.

Our system of rewards and penalties must be consistent. The payoff should always be for achieving results, not for making the effort. Those who perform well should get recognition and rewards. Those who don't must learn to expect limited reward, lesser responsibilities, and even dismissal.

We must be alert to misfits. Not matter how carefully people are screened or evaluated, misfits will show up. Quick decisive action is needed to weed them out. People always know who they are and draw negative conclusions about their managers who permit them to remain. Three types of misfits that are especially damaging to the organization are:

• those who don't have integrity or honesty to win trust, who don't give recognition to subordinates for ideas and accomplishments.
• those politicians who always have their finger in the air to see which way the wind blows, and who are interested more in who's watching then in just plain hard work.
• bullies who are just plain bastards to their subordinates.

ACTION POINT: Invest time and energy into the people.