By Joel Ruiz Herrera

It’s been seven years since Jim Collins published his bestselling book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t” (2001). By now, most readers of ACSA’s Leadership magazine know what is meant by the words “getting the right people on the bus.” We can look to Collins’ best-seller for lessons related to human resources and the all-important people decisions — such as getting the right people on the bus — made by public school leaders.

The concepts and principles related to human resources that Collins espouses can be viewed from an educational leadership perspective. His research can also be used as the basis for assessing our own performance, or as a way of evaluating those we supervise. As educational leaders, we should be capable of assessing ourselves and creating and implementing our own improvement plan.

First who, then what

A key finding of the Good to Great research project was the idea of first paying attention to and being rigorous about who was going to join the team, and then deciding where the team was going to go. Of course, it is not a new idea to recruit the best team possible. As educational leaders, that is at the top of our minds whenever we make a personnel decision.

Good to Great leaders understand three important truths about focusing on the “first who” part of this finding, Collins says: 1. If you begin with “who” rather than “what,” you can more easily adapt to a changing world. 2. If you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and manage people largely goes away. 3. If you have the wrong people, it doesn’t matter whether you’re going in the right direction. You still won’t have a great company.

In education, we see constant changes in many different areas, so it makes a lot of sense to have people who can adapt to change. In addition, many leadership job descriptions have some reference to being self-motivated and/or working with little to no supervision. Reflect on the meaning of these truths as a way to personalize them. In your world of educational leadership, in what ways do the above three truths apply?

Being rigorous about people decisions

A corollary principle to getting the right people on the bus is to be rigorous in people decisions. When it comes to people, Collins makes a distinction between being ruthless and being rigorous. “To be ruthless means hacking and cutting, especially in difficult times, or wantonly firing people without any thoughtful consideration. To be rigorous means consistently applying exacting standards at all times and at all levels, especially in upper management.”

Collins then goes on to share three “practical disciplines” for how to be rigorous rather than ruthless, emphasizing what he calls the “sheer rigor” needed in people decisions to take a company from good to great. So how do you become rigorous in people decisions? Collins shares three practical disciplines:

1. When in doubt, don’t hire — keep looking. Human resource teams who “bite the bullet” and work shorthanded while they continue to search for the “right person” prevail in the end. One Good to Great executive, asked to name the top five factors that led to excellence, responded, “One would be people. Two would be people. Three would be people. Four would be people. And five would be people.”

2. When you know you need to make a people change, act. According to Collins, when we know we need to make a people change and we don’t act, we’re being unfair to the person and to the person’s colleagues. We are unfair to the person because they could be finding a better place to grow and flourish, and we are unfair to the person’s colleagues because they will have to compensate for any job underperformance.

3. Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems. Good to Great companies follow this strategy, Collins said. In contrast, the comparison companies “had a penchant for doing just the opposite, failing to grasp the fact that managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great.”

Of course, educational leaders are in the “social sector,” not the corporate sector, and have a different set of circumstances in dealing with people decisions, including such issues as tenure. Still, Collins’ research can be applied to public education.

Acting on the need to make a change

“The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake. The best people don’t need to be managed. Guided, taught, led — yes. But not tightly managed,” Collins writes.

Part of acting on a needed change is to consider whether the person in question is “in the right seat on the bus.” One executive shared how he would move “honest and able people who are not performing well” at least once, and sometimes two or three times, to find a position where they could blossom. As an educational leader, how many times have you been in hiring-related discussions about whether the candidate was “the right fit”?

We can paraphrase Collins’ research to say that those who build great school districts understand that the ultimate throttle on improvement for any great school district is not technological resources, or what other districts can do better, or the instructional products and services used. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.

Not acting when you know you need to make a people change drives the right people away, because they will have to shoulder the additional burden due to someone else’s underperformance. “Letting the wrong people hang around is unfair to all the right people, as they inevitably find themselves compensating for the inadequacies of the wrong people. Worse, it can drive away the best people,” Collins writes.

When we know we need to make a people change and don’t act, we are also unfair to the person in question. Why? “For every minute you allow a person to continue holding a seat when you know that person will not make it in the end, you’re stealing a portion of his life, time that he could spend finding a better place where he could flourish,” Collins writes.

How do you know when you need to make a people change? First, if you had the opportunity to hire the same person again, would you? Second, if the person in question came to tell you he was leaving your organization for another opportunity, would you feel very disappointed or very relieved?

Your responses to these two questions may not totally clarify your decision. It takes time to consider all the circumstances and factors involved. The questions are intended as an aid. Collins writes, “It might take time to know for certain if someone is simply in the wrong seat or whether he needs to get off the bus altogether. Nonetheless, when the Good to Great leaders knew they had to make a people change, they would act.”

Evaluating ourselves or others

All educational leaders should occasionally evaluate themselves — it is a necessary strategy for growing and for continuing to be the right person for your organization. Ask these questions of yourself as a way to assess your own performance. Do I need to be tightly managed? If my supervisor had to decide whether to hire me again, would she do so? If I were to go to my supervisor to tell her that I was leaving the organization, would she feel disappointed or relieved?

True leaders — and the best people in your organization — do not wait for an annual or bi-annual evaluation to consider how they are performing in a position. They use some form of self-assessment and then make adjustments accordingly. Now, let us assume you are thinking about people you supervise. Ask the same three questions, but from the supervisor perspective.

It is important to be willing to work with your people, to believe in your people, and to work to help them find their “right seats on the bus.” But remember, when you know you need to make a people change, act.

References

Collins, Jim. 2001. Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.: New York

Joel Ruiz Herrera is director of personnel in the Oak Grove School District in San Jose and a member of ACSA’s Board of Directors. He can be  reached at jherrera@ogsd.k12.ca.us.