Chapter One | First People, Then Vision
Revised and updated | Hire Train Monitor Motivate: Build an Organization, Team, or Career of Distinction in the Transformational Workplace
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Chapter One
First People, Then Vision
Organizations, teams, and individuals of distinction that have mastered the art of workplace effectiveness share a common characteristic: prioritizing people, thereby empowering a collective understanding of the group's mission, vision, and values.
In his seminal book, Good to Great,1 Jim Collins offers a classic illustration of prioritizing people over vision. Collins and his research team studied organizations that transformed from mere good companies to great, legendary enterprises. The team identified several commonalities among the companies studied, and many of the shared traits were counterintuitive to conventional wisdom.
His book’s initial concept is perhaps the most contradictory of Collins’s conclusions. He found that great organizations first hired the best talent each could find and afford and then allowed those individuals to determine the organization's vision and mission. In other words, let capable people shape the company's culture. Collins translated his notion into a believable concept by asking, “First, who, then what?”
People Drive the Culture
One may find it difficult to argue against Collins’s academic theory, supported by empirical evidence that suggests teams of collaborative individuals drive an organization's culture.
Nonetheless, it is rare to find such a compelling and counterintuitive paradigm in today’s workplace. More often, a small group of owners or executives at the top sets the vision and then seeks talent to fit into a culture defined by those values. But does this conventional wisdom of placing vision before people work?
To test the typical strategy of prioritizing culture over people, found in many organizations today, ask a well-regarded employee or coworker what they think of your organization’s mission and culture. Political correctness notwithstanding, you may expect a flattering, albeit brief, and to-the-point answer. Then ask what they would add or delete from the published vision, mission, and values statements. I guarantee that the time they spend answering your follow-up question far exceeds the time they spent on the former. The concept of people first is manifested as motivated employees prefer to be a harbinger of the vision instead of a mere follower.
But how do you find outstanding, self-disciplined staff, or become one yourself?
Interview for Greatness
I have long observed that the second you need to micromanage someone, you have made a hiring mistake.
Overcome this common workplace dilemma by hiring, referring, or becoming a disciplined, talented, and committed individual of distinction. Treat any required credentials as secondary to first screening candidates, or your performance, for self-discipline, demonstrated capability, and an unyielding commitment to workplace excellence.
To illustrate a real-world example of prioritizing discipline, talent, and commitment over credentials, I once ran a postsecondary career college where I had stopped counting the number of students who expressed to me that a particular faculty member was their best teacher ever, dating back to kindergarten. This esteemed instructor was a disciplinarian who maintained classroom control while teaching in a kind, dedicated, and thoughtful manner. Students respected her for her consistency. She was a born teacher, yet never took her natural talent for granted, working hard and going above and beyond for her students without letting any off the hook. In the eyes of students, peers, and administrators, she was the best.
Nevertheless, while pursuing the more desirable regional accreditation to replace our national certification, and although the instructor had a bachelor’s degree from an Ivy League university in the subject matter taught, the accreditation visiting team determined that she was not eligible to teach specific courses. Her master’s degree was not in the field as required by the standards. The best teacher ever yet lacked the proper credentials. I wanted to give a copy of Good to Great to each member of the accreditation team.
Four Common Traits of Successful Team Members
Although this is no surprise, the same great instructor displayed four personality traits that I, as a hiring manager, often find predict the success or failure of individuals in an organizational or team setting.
Assertive: a values-driven communicator.
Self-directed: performs with limited or no supervision.
Other-directed: demonstrates a genuine customer focus.
Work ethic: exhibits dedication and character.
Two immutable facts about the four traits of a successful team member are: 1) the employee must possess all four traits with significance, and 2) the qualities must be discovered during the hiring process, as the four traits, for the most part, are not trainable.
Assertive does not mean aggressive. Ethical and confident associates demonstrate a substantial capacity for effective communication, with a focus on values and problem-solving. During the formal interview, ask the candidate to share how they identified and solved a pressing problem in the workplace. The answer may demonstrate appropriate assertiveness or a lack thereof.
Next, take the applicant on a tour of the store, shop, factory, warehouse, school, clinic, or office suite as an opportunity to observe their interactions with staff, customers, and vendors. Thriving businesses or nonprofit organizations—including those operating in challenging and competitive markets—require employees with ethical assertiveness.
Self-directed, also referred to as self-motivated, refers to a team member's discipline when left with limited supervision. Please do not ask the candidate direct questions about self-motivation because skillful interviewees, not guaranteed to be good employees, may have prepared answers that they assume you want to hear. Instead, challenge the candidate with questions about specific projects or job duties they were forced to complete independently. Listen to how confident they were in tackling and completing tasks at work, including those that were unpopular.
Other-directed, often described as customer service, has become a dinosaur in commerce today. Nevertheless, avoid confusing this trait with outgoing personalities, as a majority of individuals in society, and therefore, in workplaces, are extroverted. It's best to have a caring and motivated team that includes introverts, who are genuinely committed to taking care of stakeholders, whether they are customers, coworkers, owners, donors, managers, vendors, competitors, or regulators.
During the hiring process, ask the candidate about their perception of serving customers and other stakeholders. The answer should equate to: “I love doing this so much that getting paid a fair wage for it is a bonus!”
Work ethic is perhaps the trait most associated with the expression, “You cannot teach that.” However, it involves more than just showing up on time, putting in the necessary effort to complete the job at hand, and being responsible for the workload. Work ethic is more about character and self-discipline.
Being responsible, avoiding impulsive behavior, and taking the high road are common traits among those with a strong work ethic. Interview questions are simple: “Take me through a typical workday from arrival to departure. Tell me about the last time you were in an unexpected confrontation with a customer or coworker. How did you handle it?” Get to the character of the candidate.
Confident, dynamic, customer-centered employees who demonstrate self-discipline often prevail in successful organizations or teams that embrace performance-driven cultures.
Interview for greatness by screening your candidates for the four traits of successful team members, i.e., assertive, self-directed, other-directed, and possessing a strong work ethic. And remember to present all four with confidence when you are the interviewee.
The Transformational Workplace
Imagine an office, institution, shop, call center, data center, factory, warehouse, clinic, or store with a culture that encourages employees to question and improve processes? An organization that takes responsibility when things do not go as planned? Leadership that is devoid of having all the answers but engages in questioning to empower, rather than stymy? A team that facilitates open dialogue in problem-solving and investigates issues for resolution instead of culpability?
What if there were no written warnings, no annual performance reviews other than equitable pay increases? No Bible-long rules of conduct. No wrenching restructuring, cost-cutting, or other repressive tactics that paralyze more than stimulate an organization?
Try envisioning department managers or team leaders running the organization instead of the well-intentioned, although sometimes detrimental, legal and human resource departments. Organizations and teams of distinction are magnificent because they first hire and nurture disciplined, talented, committed professionals. It then allows those individuals to shape the group's culture by establishing its mission, vision, and values.
Drive Your Economic Engine
During my three decades in the formal workplace, it became apparent how organizations get sidetracked from the economic mission, often the enterprise's founding purpose.
For any organization, whether for-profit, nonprofit, or in the public service, driving its economic engine is as simple as:
Adequate new business procurement + quality products or services + ethical practices + high customer satisfaction = a profitable or solvent enterprise.
Regardless of the chosen formula for success, there is no room for predatory sales, devalued cost structures, unethical practices, or minimal standards. On the contrary, it requires a disciplined and caring work environment that focuses on doing the right thing by hiring and retaining employees who solicit, service, support, and re-engage qualified customers to the direct advantage of each stakeholder. Constituents that benefit include the customer, employee, shareholder, donor, taxpayer, vendor, regulator, and public.
Understanding and driving your organization or team’s economic engine is a fundamental requirement of a successful enterprise. Ignore or compromise your engine, and it may seize.
What is Your Organization or Team the Best At?
A question that was a central theme for the great companies in Jim Collins’s research was, “What is your organization the best in the world at?”
Successful companies want to know the one big, audacious thing the organization can understand and be committed to. What does the team use as its core solution to address competitive threats and industry changes? What must you be passionate about, best in the world, and make a profit or surplus by doing?
I challenge readers to engage their colleagues by asking the question, “What are or can we be the best in the world at?” You may be amazed by the passionate contributions to this exercise.
For example, at a postsecondary school that I led as campus president, we were committed to hiring top talent and often asked our new and veteran employees the best in the world question. The consensus was evident in event management, as demonstrated by the willing participation of faculty, staff, and administration.
The improvements in student enrollment, retention, and job placement, culminating in a spectacular graduation ceremony, were significant. We became known as the company's preeminent campus for event management expertise and were soon contacted by other locations nationwide for our best practices.
First, people, then vision, put great players on the team bus that lead it on a successful journey, determined to benefit customers and other interested stakeholders. Emphasis is placed on the journey instead of the destination, as a voyage of greatness may endure far beyond any finite endpoint.
You, your team, and your organization deserve to be on a journey of distinction. Be committed first to hire—or refer—and then retain the best personnel possible, i.e., employees or coworkers that are assertive, self-directed, customer-focused, and have a strong work ethic.
Drive a culture of discipline, talent, and commitment in a caring and supportive manner. Be a champion of organizational, team, and individual transformation in your workplace. Remain forever focused on your economic engine. Discover what you, your coworkers, and your organization do well, and then be the best in the world at it.
Hire Train Monitor Motivate is copyright 2016 and 2025 by David J. Waldron. All rights reserved worldwide.
Next in Hire Train Monitor Motivate | Chapter Two: Build an Organization, Team or Career of Distinction
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