How to Know If You Have the Right People in Your Organization

One of the most common questions I get when I’m on the road is: “Matt, I’ve got this person in a role and I’m just not sure about them. Should I keep them or let them go, and how do I know if I’ve got the right person?”

I love this question because I think it’s critical that we regularly evaluate our team and then either develop people to become better at their role or, when that fails, replace laggards or lower performers with others who can produce better results or be a better fit within the company culture.

It’s not surprising to me that I get this question so often, yet what might be surprising is that I almost always give the exact same response, even before asking for any more clarity about their particular situation.

Here’s the truth: If you start asking whether someone is a good fit for a role, either from the perspective of their performance or their cultural fit, then guess what… They aren’t. Period. (At least 99% of the time.)

Think of it like this… If you have a team member who is nailing the results and is an amazing culture fit, are you ever asking that question about them? Of course not! It’s easily obvious that they are exactly who you want in your organization!

The reality is, we only ask if someone is the right person when they are showing clear signs that they aren’t.

We’d never ask that question about someone who is great, and quite frankly, we’d never ask that question about someone who is clearly failing in performance or cultural fit. So really, we only ask this question about our team members who are average, or even simply, perhaps they are merely good. Remember though, that Good is the enemy of Great.

Dealing with “good” people is the challenge. They certainly aren’t bad, yet we also have a strong suspicion that “great” is out there, and unfortunately, we can usually wait months, or even years, dealing with “good,” and never replacing them because we know they certainly aren’t the worst and they are even able to perform at a fairly decent level. The problem though, is that “good” always leads to a lower achievement ceiling. And because they aren’t bad, we become slow to act, and we wind up tolerating “not great” for a really, really long time.

Do yourself a favor. If you aren’t sure if you have the right person, you almost definitely do not. Again, they may not be bad, yet they certainly aren’t great. Cut your losses and make the move. Commit to finding and hiring great, and guess what… if they truly are great, you certainly won’t have to keep asking that question moving forward, because the results will speak for themselves!