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What’s the Point of Behavioral Assessments?

We can have the best business model—i.e., value proposition, profit formula, conversion process, technology, etc.—but if we don’t have qualified people suited to the jobs they hold, it all falls apart. Is this the sort of risk you are willing to take? Shouldn’t you give as much thought to hiring decisions as you do to equipment and software decisions?

Thursday, December 12, 2019

What’s your batting average on successful people decisions? Could you name your best hiring decision ever? Do you remember your best promotional decision? When is the last time you actually “tapped” some young person in your company on the shoulder and started grooming them to be your heir apparent?

I don’t mean for these to be hypothetical questions. These are four questions that merit serious thought. Take a moment and write down the best answer you have for each of them…including the first question about your batting average with people decisions.

Now, think back over the years and compare these great people to the “average” person you hired, promoted, or chose to develop. Take your time. What are the key differences between the really good performers and everybody else? Can you put a finger on those key differences and give them a name? Can you come up with three key differences? Five? Ten? Knowing that none of us are perfect, can you think of one or two behavioral factors from each of these people that occasionally got in their way and threatened their success?


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About Wayne Lynn

Wayne Lynn is an advocate of the adage that "you can't manage what you can't measure".  Combining his considerable strengths in leadership, economics, and strategy with broad experience in both public and private companies, he brings focus and discipline to the task of creating and sustaining success in today's chaotic environment.

Wayne has managed businesses ranging in size from $5 million to $500million in annual sales.  He has guided those organizations through a number of diverse market sectors including magazines, catalogs, inserts, direct mail, and general commercial printing.

A student as well as a practitioner of the fine art of business, Wayne's latest focus is on helping business leaders make their companies more viable economically, more relevant in the market place, more adaptive to constant change, and more durable in the long haul.  It's about people, what they know, and how well they execute on what they know.

Wayne can be reached at 704-516-7787 or at [email protected].

Recent Articles from Wayne Lynn

Double-Digit Growth

Double-Digit Growth

First, we pushed the constraint keeping a company from growing out the front door and into the market, the domain of our sales departments. This article will explore how lack of a true priority on customer creation may be the real issue. It might not be as much of a talent issue or lack of motivation as most of us think but, instead, a leadership issue where the true priorities that create growth are not managed. Read More

The Biggest Constraint of All

The Biggest Constraint of All

Outside of competent people, the biggest constraint on the long-term success of your business is the lifetime value of the commercial relationships contained in your customer base. In the article, Wayne Lynn explores how to drive growth when the only constraint you have left is found in the sales department. Read More

Six Keys to Better Leadership Performance

Six Keys to Better Leadership Performance

Wayne Lynn looks at The Six Leadership Actions, which derive from a philosophy that the key to improvement in a business usually comes from the efforts of leadership to drive fear out of the organization, as fear inhibits open, honest, and willing feedback about what the real problems are that are holding a company back from success. Read More

Give Your People Good Leadership

Give Your People Good Leadership

If you want a thriving culture where people are engaged and productive, give them leaders who fit the role. Wayne Lynn describes what good leadership looks like. Read More

Two Keys to Better Employee Performance

Two Keys to Better Employee Performance

Even if automation and AI transform your business into a much lower headcount situation, the employees you are left with will need a couple of key things: good leaders and the assurance their higher-level needs can be met working for your company. Read on to find out why. Read More