How to Setup Your Team for Success
Getting The Right People in The Right Seats (and a tool to do it)
3 decades ago, Jim Collins wrote Good to Great, one of the most referenced business strategy and leadership books of the past few decades. Jim’s research was all about finding who were the truly great companies and what separated the great ones from just the good ones.
In the book, one of the most poignant and referenced concepts was this idea of getting the right people on the bus. The idea here was that, you can have the best strategy, idea, concept, or goal, but if you have the wrong people, it won’t be successful.
Here is what he wrote:
“When we began the research project, we expected to find that the first step in taking a company from good to great would be to set a new direction, a new vision and strategy for the company, and then to get people committed and aligned behind that new direction.
We found something quite the opposite.
The executives who ignited the transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get people to take it there. No, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it. They said, in essence, “Look, I don’t really know where we should take this bus. But I know this much: If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we’ll figure out how to take it someplace great.”
Getting the right people on the bus is both a great, and helpful metaphor. But for everyday leaders and managers, we have to go a step further. It’s not just about getting the right people on the bus, but making sure that people on the bus are in the right seats.
Having the right people on your team (aka getting the right people on the bus) gives you the confidence to pursue a strategy. Making sure that the right people are in the right seats ensures you can execute against it. This means that each of your employees on your team is in the right role, and working on the projects that matter and that they can confidently complete in order for the team to be successful.
This sounds simple and intuitive but you’d be surprised at how overlooked this can be. A simple thought exercise for you is to consider if you’ve ever been on a team where you didn’t feel like you were in the right seat - chances are, if you answered yes, there is a decent likelihood that someone on your team might be feeling the same way.
Getting The Right People in The Right Seats Starts With You
To make the metaphor a bit more real, think of this like a sports team. In American football, there are people who play offense or defense. On offense, there are quarterbacks, wide receivers, running backs and lineman. In soccer, there are defenders, midfielders and forwards. In each sport, all of these roles are important to achieving the overall success of the team (winning) but each role has a different way it contributes to making the team successful in achieving its goals.
Your team has the equivalent of that. So part of your job as the manager and leader is identifying how to put the right people in the right seats on the bus.
There are a couple key criteria that you can look for, and information about each of your employees that can give you the insight that you need to make sure that each of your employees is in the right seat:
Strengths - As specific strength or skill that employees have that they can use to contribute to the team
Interests - A specific interest or curiosity that a team member has demonstrated that is of intrinsic interest
Experience - Drawing on a specific past experience or exposure to something that would benefit the group
Goals - A career goal, or aspiration that an employee wants to work toward.
As a rule of thumb, if someone can be in a role where they have at least 1-2 of these buckets highlighted in the role they are in, that is a good sign. While it’s rare to have 3 or more, it certainly can happen (and if it does, that is great) and it’s not a great sign if you are operating between 0-1.
Considerations: When to Evaluate Putting The RIght People in The Right Seats
Typically, there are a number of times throughout the course of the employee lifecycle where it makes sense to double check to make sure that you have the right people in the right seats. Here are a few examples
Strategy and goal planning - As you think about the goals and key priorities for the quarter or year, this insight can feed how you structure priorities and projects. Being able to align employees to projects that match these ensures they are working on things they are suited for, but also, that they feel interested in and excited about.
Role scoping - Periodically, you might be checking the priorities and workloads of your employees. Being able to align roles/responsibilities of people on your team against these ensures that the right people are not only on the bus, but also, in the right seats.
Career development and growth - These are great inputs to understanding how you can partner with your employees to support them in identifying and progressing toward their own unique career goals.
New Hires or taking over a new team - When you hire a new employee, you can use this time early on after they join to get this information. This helps you start to strengthen the bond and connection with the employee, but also helps you identify how they can be most effective.
How to do this
If you want to start to do this, where do you begin? Chances are, you may already have an idea about some of this information about your employees, but you may not have the entire picture. Finding out the rest of this information can be done in a number of ways.
The easiest way to do this is to go have a 1:1 conversation with your employees.You can use this in your existing 1:1’s or find another time to ask them questions that relate to each of these four things. I’m sharing a few examples in the image above, but use the questions that feel right for you
Reminder: Helping Your Employees “See the Bigger Picture”
Getting the right people in the right seats is critical to the success of your team. But one last final piece of advice: Make sure you communicate and remind your employees about their efforts.
Being able to communicate and remind them of how their specific strengths, experiences, interests or goals are being highlighted in their day to day work, and also contributing to the objectives of the team is a great way to make them feel confident that A) they are contributing and B) that they are working on something that is helping them develop and grow. Being able to share this and to “connect the dots” for how their work is making a difference can help you drive both engagement and overall effectiveness of your team.
If you’re looking for some help for your learning and development, leadership development or professional development for this year, I’d love to work with you: Here is how I might be able to assist:
Team Trainings & Professional Development: Happy to facilitate training or professional development opportunity for your team & organization - common topics include: influence without authority, navigating change, hybrid working, and others.
Consulting & Advisory Work - Are you looking to improve the ways of working of your team or organization or looking for guidance on remote/hybrid work? Let’s chat about how we can work together
Leadership & Learning Programs: Formal training and leadership development in your company, such as new manager or new leader training, or skill-based programs.
Feel free to contact me directly for more details!
Have a great week!