Finding The Right People
(From Jesus & Co., page 155)

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Five Traits of Great people:
• Gets things done
• Warmly Assertive
• Listens to learn
• Analyze Effectively
• Develops others

 

FINDING THE RIGHT PEOPLE

When I first got to Foot Locker, I needed to find friends quickly who had these same five characteristics. But I had to be careful in my approach. It’s easy to come into a tough situation and announce you’re going to change everything; easy to be disparaging of the past, your employees, and your predecessors; easy to think you know the answers without the full set of facts at your disposal. But that’s the wrong approach.

I discovered it was easier to find out what was already working and look for current employees who could help, on the theory that it’s easier to make progress with allies than with enemies. Joe Bongiorno, Peter Brown, Peter Cupps, and Mike Zawosky had all had consider-able careers at Foot Locker before I arrived, but all had been largely overlooked by their superiors. When I talked to them, I found they had the five qualities of good employees. I merged them with people I knew from my own past, like Lauren, Kevin, and Marc, and we developed a team that promoted the message of the company and avoided self-interest. When we found employees who exhibited these shared traits, we labeled them with a term we developed, “profile employee,” meaning they had the requisite five characteristics. They worked for the company, not themselves. Everyone we thought of hiring or bringing into our circle was evaluated. If the candidate was a “profile employee,” we brought that person in. If a candidate didn’t possess the five traits, he or she was ruled out.

Our circle soon expanded to form a powerful group that could work on its own, for our values became the culture. The culture worked because we weren’t trapped by tradition or hemmed in by our personal status or power. For Foot Locker this group became the team that held the goal line when things looked the bleakest. We survived because of these common values.

Jesus knew that in building teams, success depended not only on hiring the right people, but on training those people to live up to their God-given talents.

He recognized that all people have blind spots to go along with their gifts. Jesus concentrated on maximizing people’s strengths, while minimizing their weaknesses. Sometimes the effort was simple, other times intense. The aim was always to help the team become more effective and live into their mission.

Blessings, until next time,
Bruce L. Hartman