Bottom 10% Uncovered

[from the desk of Klark Brown]

It is possible you have heard the famous theory about the long-time president of GE- Jack Welsh and what he is accused of (in today’s soft society) and his sturdy drive to build a top team. That was his JOB. To dominate market share and create more jobs and profit for the 10’s or 1000’s that GE employed. I will explain:

Jack had an automatic process that annually, he required every manager he employed to look deeply at their team and see which category they fit in. He had the famous 20-70-10 theory.
 

• A players were the 20%. These are your staff that are filled with passion, intelligent, work well with others and are generally requested by peers and customers alike. These are certainly future leaders
• B players are the 70%. The Vital 70 as they were lovingly considered. These are the heart of the company, they hold the front line, account for most of the actual delivery production and hold the operations together. Our B players, with a little coaching and encouragement have all the potential to become A players in good fashion.
• C players are the staff that simply can’t get the job done, occupy much of the 70%’s time to correct or manage, and bring the metrics and the morale down. These staffers suck energy instead of contributing or exuding energy. They procrastinate and literally absorb company resources. 

In scheduled intervals, the manager had to ask the C players to be on their way elsewhere (everyone fits somewhere), but they could not stay here. They bring everyone down.

Now you will have a new bottom 10% that was previously safe in the 70%.
We can argue with the method, but the 410 billion revenue says that something was going right.

Here is the final gift. When you cut the bottom 10%, the rest of the average and top performers are relieved and actually easily step in as a team to take up the missing personnel. They often perform better.
Will you look at a process to ensure you have only the staff that help you grow or will you continue to hurt your culture and brand? Is is hard to find new people? Yes…but that's another article. 

Cheers

PS. Maybe you would like the short video. Check it out here.