Leadership Imperative: The Right Person in the Right Job

How do you create a consistent system to get the right people in the right jobs?

Consider this paradigm: If senior managers spent as much time on defining and benchmarking the job, measuring performance gaps and developing solutions for superior performance as they do on budgeting and administration, the payback would be the differentiator in competitive advantage.

Selection and recruitment is a leadership imperative and will account for 80% of your team or business success. Key appointments cannot be delegated or outsourced. Some fundamentals need to be in place as follows:

Leadership Description

• Lead By Example

The leader(s) need to exhibit some essential behaviours and attitudes such as: being hands on, living their business and knowing their people, focusing on the execution of three to four key result areas, following through on commitments, rewarding the achievers, coaching and mentoring on real business problems, showing strength of character and emotional fortitude

• Align Culture & Strategy

Changing the culture to be in line with the strategy. How do you do this? Make it easy for people to do their jobs and display their talents. Get everyone clear and focused on how they can help achieve real results for the business. Outcomes are unclear in most organisations, so make them crystal clear. Coach and help people achieve the results, then reward them for execution only

• Recruitment Excellence

Why are the right people not in the right jobs? Control is quite difficult in business with regard to markets and outside influence. However, matching the right people to the right jobs is something you can control. Executive recruitment and development needs to be a core competency.

The Competency Model can be applied to the full circle – cradle to grave – of human performance improvement initiatives. How it applies to recruitment is most relevant. Hiring the wrong people is very costly. A formal induction process is non-existent in many businesses. Ongoing coaching is an essential, yet most managers do it reluctantly, or haphazardly.

Consider this Competency Integration Model:

Competency Integration:  A Strategic Human Performance Improvement System