{"id":730,"date":"2016-06-01T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T10:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/?p=730"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:20:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:20:23","slug":"hire-best-fire-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/hire-best-fire-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"“Hire the best, fire the rest”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brad Smart isn\u2019t a household name . . . at least, not in my household. But he holds a PhD in management psychology and is the author of \u201cTopgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People.\u201d <\/em>In that book, Dr. Smart advocates a system whereby a company identifies its \u201cA-Players\u201d (top performers) as well as those who have the potential to become A-Players.\u00a0 B- and C-Players who do not show the potential to become A-Players are either re-assigned to roles where they could become A-Players, or they are asked to leave the company.\u00a0 Legendary CEOs\u00a0 Jack Welch (General Electric) and Larry Bossidy (Honeywell) were early adopters of Dr. Smart\u2019s \u201cTopgrading\u201d concepts.\u00a0 What did such titans of American business see in these concepts?\u00a0 For the answer, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n

\u201cHire the best, fire the rest\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t find whoever coined that phrase, but it does capture the essence of Dr. Smart\u2019s concepts for hiring and promoting people.<\/p>\n

The thing most people don\u2019t understand about \u201cTopgrading\u201d is that it applies equally to everyone in the organization, not just to the key management spots. That is, you not only want A-Players in the executive suite, you also want them on the loading dock.\u00a0 Easier said than done, right?\u00a0 Especially when you consider that an \u201cA-Player\u201d is generally defined as someone who is in the top 10 percent of the talent available for that position.\u00a0 That means they\u2019re hard to find, and because they\u2019re in demand,\u00a0 they will expect to be paid at, or even above, the top of the pay scale for their position.\u00a0 But if, compared to B- and C- Players, they work more efficiently and effectively, show more initiative and resourcefulness, innovate more, and display better leadership qualities, they\u2019re worth what you pay for them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Among the companies he studied. Dr. Smart found that only one-fourth of people hired or promoted turned out to be A-Players. Or, to put it another way, they had to go through three mis-hires before they got a good one.\u00a0 And as we know, a staffing mistake can be very costly.\u00a0 Just how costly is open to debate because data on this is sketchy at best.\u00a0 At a minimum, the company is out-of-pocket whatever the mis-hire was paid in salary and benefits, plus recruiting costs for the mis-hire as well as recruiting costs for the mis-hire\u2019s replacement.\u00a0 Now, if\u00a0 Dr. Smart\u2019s 1 in 4 is to be believed, multiply this bundle of costs times three.\u00a0 But beyond that, the costs of staffing mistakes can get spectacular.\u00a0 Consider, for instance, the cost of \u00a0\u201c lost opportunity.\u201d\u00a0 Or worse, ask any manufacturer the cost of a product recall.\u00a0 So while hiring A-Players may be difficult and expensive, mis-hires can cause situations that are orders of magnitude more difficult and more expensive.<\/p>\n

Consider one other thing. A-Players don\u2019t like to play with B- and C-Players.\u00a0 They want to play with other A-Players.\u00a0 Genuine A-Players are always trying to improve their game.\u00a0 B- and C-Players can\u2019t help them do that.\u00a0 A-Players can.\u00a0 So if you have A-Players on your team, they may be at risk of leaving if they find themselves surrounded by Bs and Cs.<\/p>\n

OK, so if there are strong arguments, financial and otherwise, to becoming a topgrading company, how exactly do we do that? Where do we start?\u00a0 For the answers to those, and other compelling questions, please read our next post, \u201cHire the best, fire the rest\u201d, (Part 2) on June 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brad Smart isn\u2019t a household name . . . at least, not in my household. But he holds a PhD in management psychology and is the author of \u201cTopgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People.\u201d In that book, Dr. Smart advocates a system whereby a company identifies its \u201cA-Players\u201d<\/p>\n

Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,33,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":731,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions\/731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}