Timmy Chang, Graham Harrell, Colt
Brennan, Dan LeFevour. If you don’t
recognize these names, you are probably not alone. If you don’t recognize them, you probably don’t
know what they have in common: All four
are in the top 15 all time in NCAA College (2nd, 4th, 6th
and 13th respectively) for career passing yards by a
quarterback. All played their college football
at DIV I schools and all were on an active NFL roster at one point in their
career. What they also have in common is
the fact that they weren’t successful at the highest level.
Of the thousands of college
athletes that have gone into the professional football since 1963 only 287 have
made it to the hall of fame. There are
many more names that can be added to that original list of players that were
very successful in college, but didn’t make it to the next level. This natural attrition is a by-product of the
NFL’s ability to successful determine the performance quality of the potential
incomers. It is also determined by
fit. Some players can continue to
develop based on the system they are brought into.
Not everyone is capable of
improving on their own. As a matter of
fact, I would go out on a limb and estimate that over 90% of the people out
there need a proactive and disciplined system around them in order to reach
their potential. Of the remaining 10%,
I would go out on the same limb to say that 9-9.5% of them are more than
capable of implementing strategic plans and ensuring that the other 90% follow
them. That leaves us with .5-1% of the
employees that are capable of coming up with strategic plans, determining the
steps that need to be made, and ensuring that the rest of them are able to
comprehend and follow the tasks that are handed down. Based on these percentages, for every 1000
employees a company may have, only five people in that group even have the
potential of being performers. Of those
five, how many of them are in a position to affect change?
Now, take out the section of the
employee populous that is made of entrepreneurs, self-employed, consultants
(not that all consultants are in that group, but the percentages would be
higher) and other high-performance based groups and those five employees may
dwindle down to just one or two.
This brings up the question: “Is it better to have a great system or have
great performers?” Now the obvious
answer would be to have both.
Unfortunately, like the NFL, there is some Darwinism going on. Not everyone coming into the business world
has what it takes be a great performer.
In fact, I would hazard a guess that percentage wise, there are fewer
All-Stars available in the business world than there are in the professional
sports world. If the success of your
organization depends solely on the ability to draft or sign a Peyton Manning,
you might be in trouble.
Performers are those that can go
anywhere and make it better. Performers
are people that are capable of reading the business and being able to come up
with profitable completions non-dependent on the effective skill level of the
rest of the team. That isn’t to say that
a performer can be successful alone, just that a top performer by nature makes
the team better. The downside to a top
performer is that when they leave, a lot of the performance goes with it.
Systems, if implemented correctly
and led through disciplined processes create an effective team that makes all
of the individual members better. These
systems are the infrastructure of a successful organization. People inside the system are interchangeable. This provides the ability to increase
productivity, growth and engagement from everyone working within the
system. The other benefit of an
effective system is the ability to accurately rate your employees. Every day becomes that pre-season game where
you can effectively ascertain your talent level. If you know exactly what the expectation of
each person is, you have a way to measure it.
When you measure it, you can see what is working and what is not.
If your business can’t be
successful without the All-Star performer, you need to take a harder look at
the infrastructure you have in place.
Good systems and structure give you a lot more agility and
strength. If you are lucky enough to get
an All-Star performer on top of that, that’s when the discussion of dynasty can
happen.
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