i need a summary please!!!

There are no more important decisions within an organization than people deci-sions: staffing a job, placing people into jobs and into assignments, promotingpeople, letting them go, and so on.No matter how carefully organizations

hire people,

they wont perform if put intothe jobs that are the wrong ones for them. No matter how brilliant and clever top-management decisions are regarding a companys business or its strategy, its prod-ucts, or its services, they will not produce results

if the companys people decisions do notwork out.

Alfred Sloan, the man who built GM into the worlds largest and most profit-able manufacturing enterprise, once said to me, If the assistant plant manager ofa minor division doesnt perform, all our clever top-management decisions wontproduce results.Thats obvious, everybody will say, yet the batting average in most organiza-tionsand the batting average of most managers making people decisionsis justplain

dismal

. Results of people decisionswhether in a business, large or small; in anonprofit; in a government agencyfall into three categories:1. Those that actually work out2. Those that are outright failures3. Those that are

non-failures and non-successes

Category three is like a nagging backache. You dont die of it, but it dragsdown the entire organizations performance capacity, it is a burden on all the otherpeople who have to support the almost-performer, and it demoralizes the entireorganization. Unfortunately these non-failures and non-successes are a significant por-tion of the results of the people decisions in an organization.

309How to Make People Decisions

It is sheer nonsense to explain away that dismal record with such slogans asEverybody reaches the level of his or her incompetence. Thats a copout. In noother area would we tolerate a record as poor as that of most organizations andmost managers in making people decisions. And by the way, the worst record isthat of people who pride themselves on being good judges of people.This horrible record is totally unnecessary. There is no excuse for it at all. We knowhow to make people decisions with an overwhelming probability of success. We haveloads of examples of managersin business, in nonbusiness, in governmentwhosepeople decisions are perfect or nearly so. It isnt even terribly difficult.To start with, it just means taking people decisions seriously. And then it re-quires a few fairly simple and, indeed, practically obvious steps. It requires observ-ing a few equally clear ground rules. There is probably no other area in businessand in the work of a manager where performance and success can be raised fasterthan learning how to make people decisions so that they are successful practicallyevery time.In this chapter we explain the

five decision steps

in making people decisions the

five ground rules

in making people decisions how to raise your

batting average

in making successful people decisionsBefore we begin with the five decision steps, lets look at two examples of suc-cessful people decisions. The first successful example was how the United StatesArmy achieved success in making people decisions during World War II; and thesecond example, how Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., built General Motors into what was theworlds largest manufacturing company and, for fifty years, also its most profit-able one.When the United States entered World War II, in 1941, virtually every singleone of its senior officers was beyond retirement age and no longer fit for command.Yet when the war was over, four years later, its army had the worlds largest evergroup of competent and successful general officers, six or seven hundred of them,and there wasnt a single dud among them.Yet only one of them, Douglas MacArthur, had had any previous experiencecommanding troops in combat. All the others had only been junior officers untilthe war broke out. The army was able to achieve such a major turnaround in itscommanding officer corps because General George C. Marshall, the army chief ofstaff and himself already beyond retirement age, picked every single one of thenew commanders himself.

310 MANAGERIAL SKILLS

MAKING PEOPLE DECISIONS

In making these people decisions, Marshall followed

five simple decision steps

.

The Five Decision Steps

First, Marshall carefully thought through the assignment.

Job descriptions may last along time, but job assignments change all the time, often unpredictably. The jobdescription for a general commanding a division has not changed since the time ofNapoleon. But the assignment may be to train a division of raw recruits or it maybe to command a division in combat.Similarly, the job description for Catholic bishops has stayed virtually the samesince the thirteenth century; yet the typical bishops job assignment changes alongwith the changing needs of his churches and parishioners.

Different assignments re-quire different types of people

. Thinking through the assignment allows you to matchthe needs of a specific assignment to the strengths of the right people.

Second, Marshall always looked at several qualified people

. Formal qualificationssuch as those listed in a rsum, in a personnel file, on a job posting, or in a news-paper adare no more than a starting point. Their absence disqualifies a candidate.However, the most important qualification is that the person and the assignmentfit each other. To find the best fit, you must consider at least three to five candi-dates.

Third, Marshall studied the performance records of all three to five candidates to findwhat each did well.

He looked for the candidates strengths. The things a personcannot do are of little importance; instead, you must concentrate on the thingsthey can do and determine whether they are the right strengths for this particularassignment.Weaknesses are only limitations, and like the absence of formal qualifications,they can rule a candidate out. But performance can be built only on strengths.What matters most is the ability to do the assignment.

Fourth, Marshall discussed the candidates with others who had worked with them. One persons judgment is not enough.

By asking for additional opinions, you can learnabout strengths that impressed others yet were not noticed by you. But you alsoare likely to discover weaknesses and limitations you havent noticed. The best in-formation often comes through informal discussions with a candidates formerbosses and colleagues.This was the approach used by General Marshall when evaluating candidatesfor command posts. If he found out that a soldier was the best one at the specifictask that needed to be filled, he got the job.

And fifth, once the decision was made, Marshall made sure the appointee understood the assignment.

Perhaps the best way to do this is to ask the new person to carefully

311How to Make People Decisions

think over what they have to do to be a success, and then, ninety days or so intothe job, have him or her commit it to writing.Although this is the last step in making people decisions, it may be the mostimportant. If you fail to accept this responsibility of making sure that the appoin-tee understands his or her new job, do not blame the new person if he or she ulti-mately fails. Blame yourself, for you have failed to do your duty as a manager.Like General Marshall, Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., achieved a near perfect record inmaking people decisions over his thirty-year tenure as chairman and CEO of Gen-eral Motors.In a career that spanned from 1916 to 1956, Alfred Sloan helped make Gen-eral Motors the worlds largest and most profitable business by carefully defin-ing each job assignment and handpicking each manager. He knew that peopledecisions were the most important decisions a manager makes and was willingto spend whatever time and effort necessary to find the right fit. He followed, inother words, exactly the same decision process General Marshall followed duringWorld War II.For example, at a meeting of General Motors Executive Committee, the entirethree hours was taken up by discussing the appointment of a fairly low-level man-ager, the assistant manufacturing manager of one of the smaller appliance divi-sions. After the meeting, Sloan was asked by a participant, How can you justifyspending three hours of the time of a dozen important and busy people on such alow-level people decision?The company pays me a very good salary, said Sloan, and it pays that salaryto me to make the important decisions. And what decision could be more impor-tant than how to fill a low-level management job? If that assistant manufacturingmanager turns out to be incompetent, then it doesnt matter that we at the top arebrilliant and clever. Results are achieved at

his

level and not at ours. And, by theway, if he turns out to be incompetent, it will take a great deal more than threehours to undo our mistake.

THE FIVE GROUND RULES

Although General Marshall and Alfred Sloan approached perfection, there is nosuch thing as a perfect record in making people decisions. Yet, managers who taketheir people decisions seriously and work hard at getting them right can comeclose to perfection.A successful manager also follows

the five ground rules

for making people deci-sions. First, the manager must

accept responsibility

for any placement that fails. Toblame the nonperformer is a cop-out. The manager made a mistake in selectingthat particular person. Second, the manager has the responsibility to remove peo-

312 MANAGERIAL SKILLS

ple who do not perform. There is an old military saying, The soldier has a right tocompetent command. The incompetent or poor performer, when left in his or herjob, penalizes all others and demoralizes the entire organization. And it is also nofavor to nonperformers to be allowed to stay in a job they are not right for. Theyknow that they are not performing.Third, just because a person doesnt perform in the job he or she was put indoesnt mean that that person is a bad worker whom the company should let go. Itonly means that he or she is in the wrong job.What, then, is the right job for them? Of the people who get a second chancein a job that fits their strengthsthe job they should have been put into in thefirst placea very high percentage perform well.Few managers believe that. So, here are some examples.

CARE

In each country in which CARE (Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere)works, it has a country representativeusually a young man or woman only acouple of years out of college. They are carefully trained and prepared, and yet theyare on their own in that foreign countrysay, Cambodia or Kenyaand so thefailure rate was very high.For many years, when they came across a nonperformer, CARE brought him orher back home, said thank you, and then let him or her go. But they simplydidnt get enough new people to fill all the country slots. And so, with tremendousmisgivings and with a great deal of opposition from within the organization,

CARE put some of these first-rate failures into a second job as a country representative

. Andto everybodys tremendous surprise, the great majority of these people succeededindeed, quite a few became star performers.The success rate of the second chance is amazingly high, but one caveat: onlyone second chance. The person who does not perform twice in a row better go towork for your competition!Now lets continue with the fourth ground rule.

The manager must try to makethe right people decisions for every position.

An organization can perform only to thecapacity of its individual workers; thus people decisions must be right. There aredead-end jobs. But there are no unimportant jobs.And fifth,

newcomers are best put into an established position

where the expecta-tions are known and help is available. New major assignments should mainlygo to people whose behaviors and habits are well known and who have alreadyearned trust and credibility. The common practice of hiring somebody from theoutside to fill a new job is much too risky. It has an extraordinarily high failurerate.When placements fail in their new positions, successful managers follow the