management and leadership

This book represents the mentality we should all be in if we want to succeed as leaders. All too often we settle for someone to "fill the position" rather than using effective tools to interview and hire the best employees. Mr. Smart provides us with a new perspective on how we should approach hiring people to work for us, this includes CEO's. The cost of mis-hires is staggering. Look around your own workplace and see if you can separate the A players from the C players. One thing stands out in my mind, C players don't hire A players. So if you have C player management you will have to settle with mediocrity until something drastic happens--topgrading!

Based on solid research, this book introduces the concept of topgrading-filling every position in the organization with a top candidate at the appropriate pay level. Topgrading is a process involving: seeking out, hiring and retaining top people; using the best assessment methods to make less than 10% mistakes in hiring and promoting; improving current staff through coaching; redeploying employees who are not performing at highest level to a position in which they can excel; and achieving inclusivity goals without lower performance standards. A chapter devoted to self development focuses on fifty management competencies and is of particular usefulness. Other guides and aids are presented for interviewing and self appraisal. This is an extremely useful volume.

... with the neither malice nor pity. That's the gist of this excellent book, and it's not offensive to the concept of human dignity. To the contrary, Dr. Smart notes that "A players" can (and should) exist at every level. Every CEO, every acountant, every sales rep, and every Wal-Mart greeter should be best in class -- and they should be required to stay competitive in their skills. That's not ruthless. That's natural. But this book goes one step farther, making the compelling case that -- left to their own devices -- the "C players" in any organization will destroy value over time, whether they intend to or not. Accordingly, Topgrading is essential.