116: Geoff Smart Discusses Finding the Right ‘Who’ for the Job

Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher

People are certainly the hardest part about scaling up a business. Finding the right people is crucial to helping you grow. So, how can you improve your odds from 50% to 90% or better? Through smart recruiting methods!

Geoff Smart is the Chairman & Founder of ghSMART, which was founded in 1995 to help Fortune 500 CEOs and entrepreneurs achieve their goals through hiring, developing and leading talented teams. Geoff is also the bestselling author of Who, Leadocracy, and Power Score.

As a freshman at college, Geoff was fortunate enough to get an internship at a venture capitalist firm and he noticed that large sums of money were either gained or lost due to who the investors invested in. Geoff wondered if there was a way to hack the system to help investors make better bets on people, and so his company was born.

The topic of how to get the right people on your team is one of the most popular concerns for people in business. If you get this aspect right, you are going to have the most solid improvement in your revenue and profitability and in your own enjoyment in your work.

A lot of entrepreneurs/hiring managers use their gut feelings to hire, but this could possibly be the worst mistake you can make. The reality is, you can’t judge a person based instantly on gut feel. You’re going to make a mistake and it’s going to cost you a lot of money.

Leave the emotional hiring methods behind! The average success rate for hiring is about 50%. Recruiters only get it right 50% of the time, which means people regret every 1 in 2 hires! That’s horrible! A bad hire can cost you 15 times that employee’s annual salary.

However, you can improve your 50% into 90% by focusing on these four things really well: Scorecard, Source, Select, and Sell. Geoff explains each section in depth inside the podcast episode! Listen in for more wisdom!

Interview Links:

Geoffsmart.com

Geoff on LinkedIn

Resources:

Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops.

Scaling Up Website

Gazelles Website

Bill on YouTube

Growthinstitute.com/scalingcoach

TWEETABLES:

“If you look at global surveys on what’s on the minds of entrepreneurs, talent is number one or two out of 30 different topics.”

“If you get [talent] right, you’re going to have the most solid improvement in your revenue and profitability.”

“Ever since I started my company, I realized that managing is easy… except for the people part.”

Did you enjoy today’s episode? If so, then head over to iTunes, and leave a review. It helps other entrepreneurs discover the Scaling Up Business Podcast, so they can also benefit from the knowledge shared in these podcasts.

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...And Why the Rest Don’t, is the best-selling book by Verne Harnish and the team at Gazelles, on how the fastest growing companies succeed, where so many others fail. My name is Bill Gallagher, host of the Scaling Up Business Podcast and a leading business coach with Gazelles.

We help leadership teams to get the 4 Decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash right so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth success. Our 4 Decisions are all part of the Rockefeller Habits 2.0 (from the original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits).