Great People Decisions Summary

Great teams are no accident; they are the result of deliberate, thoughtful people decisions. But how well do you really know how to choose the right people?

1. People decisions shape career and organizational success

The ability to choose the right people for specific roles is a cornerstone for professional and business success. While education, personality, and choices matter, managing people decisions well becomes more critical as one advances in their career. As managers take on more responsibility, their ability to evaluate and select the right individuals directly influences outcomes.

Marcus Buckingham emphasizes that no one person has unlimited potential. Success largely depends on surrounding yourself with people who complement your skills and support your vision. However, many individuals wrongly assume people decisions rely on gut feelings, when in reality, it’s a skill that can and must be learned.

For managers, making better people decisions consistently leads to stronger teams, more balanced workloads, and the achievement of complex goals. Understanding and prioritizing this skill provides immense returns both for the individual leader and their organization.

Examples

• A company leader hires a skilled operations manager to complement their strategic focus, doubling productivity.
• A CEO learns to seek advice on hiring from trusted peers rather than relying on intuition.
• An organization prioritizes training managers in talent assessment, improving their hiring success rate over time.

2. The right people in the right places drive business success

Whether you're running a small business or influencing a multinational firm, having the right team members in the right roles is indispensable. Jim Collins argues that until 90% of an organization’s key roles are filled with exceptional people, this task should remain the top priority.

Modern businesses, especially those in industries like biotech and software, thrive less on physical assets and more on talent. Executives’ success rates in hiring remain alarmingly low, with notable figures like Peter Drucker stating that managers only succeed with one-third of their hiring choices.

By focusing on high-functioning teams, organizations not only ensure efficiency but create lasting competitive advantages. Strong hiring decisions also make companies adaptable in changing environments.

Examples

• Netflix’s use of industry-leading technologists led to its dominance in streaming despite stiff competition.
• Start-ups with strong founding teams often attract better funding and experienced employees.
• Missteps in hiring by a retail giant led to a poorly executed e-commerce platform, costing millions.

3. Assessing roles and finding candidates is harder than it looks

Two significant challenges make effective hiring daunting. First, exceptional candidates are rare compared to average applicants. The sheer abundance of “adequate” candidates makes it easy for hiring managers to settle for mediocrity rather than wait for the best fit.

Second, roles often demand soft skills like emotional intelligence or conflict resolution, which are difficult to screen on paper. These skills matter deeply for leadership positions but leave recruiters guessing during evaluations. Complicating matters further, business roles evolve, meaning a perfect candidate today may not be well-suited in the future.

Organizations that rigorously map out role requirements and look beyond resumes are more likely to hire individuals who can adapt and grow with the company.

Examples

• A software company struggles when a hire skilled at scaling businesses becomes ineffective after market competition shifts priorities.
• A managerial candidate’s resume shines but reveals gaps in interpersonal skill once they're on the job.
• A focus on soft skills boosts an NGO's team dynamic and leadership success.

4. Bias and hidden influences derail sound hiring judgment

Even skilled recruiters can fall prey to procrastination, herding, and personal incentives. Delaying important hiring or letting go of underperforming employees stems from psychological avoidance and fear of backlash. Herding, or relying too heavily on group consensus, prioritizes comfort over independent analysis.

Candidates also contribute to poor hiring outcomes by exaggerating credentials or misrepresenting their abilities. Alarmingly, surveys reveal that a majority are willing to lie in interviews to secure jobs. Likewise, nepotism or politics within organizations skews candidate selection, leaving high-performing external applicants overlooked.

These barriers highlight the importance of structured, objective hiring processes to eliminate bias and distractions.

Examples

• A political hire causes stagnation in a tech team’s innovation.
• A management decision delayed for months leads to plummeting morale company-wide.
• Candidates embellishing achievements go unnoticed until their deficiencies emerge in critical situations.

5. Timing people decisions is half the battle

Acting promptly when change is needed is vital. Procrastination in replacing or repositioning team members leads to significant losses, often compounding problems until they’re unavoidable. For example, tolerating poorly performing managers during a business’s critical growth stages can halt momentum.

Organizations benefit from regular evaluations of team needs, both in the present and for the future. This habit helps businesses remain proactive, identifying gaps before they create roadblocks. Forward-thinking leaders routinely assess their team’s readiness for upcoming challenges to avoid future crises.

Examples

• A successful sports team benefits from rotating fresh players to fit evolving strategies.
• An R&D department disrupts its own hierarchy to meet new technology demands.
• A stagnant senior leadership team faces disruption when proactive reviews aren’t conducted.

6. Focus on the right attributes in candidates

The ideal hire balances emotional intelligence, IQ, technical skills, and motivation. Emotional intelligence frequently outweighs IQ because the ability to navigate emotions—personally and interpersonally—defines long-term success.

Rather than searching for perfection, recruiters should prioritize candidates who complement team weaknesses. For executives, a history of experience carries more weight than raw potential, whereas for junior roles, ambition and adaptive learning are key.

Without intentionally narrowing competencies before recruiting, hiring becomes haphazard and reactive. Organizations focusing systematically on these elements attract skilled employees while reducing costly mistakes.

Examples

• A candidate with strong EI turned around a dysfunctional team culture within months.
• Defining success metrics for roles before beginning hiring saved a media company from repeated senior role turnovers.
• Applicants with high adaptability were instrumental during a manufacturing firm’s digital transformation.

7. Sourcing candidates beats passive job postings

Passive methods like generic job boards fail at reaching the most desirable candidates, especially top talent who may not actively look for jobs. Networking, referrals, and sourcing through colleagues can identify strong prospects often overlooked.

Building a talent pipeline from within the organization also ensures a ready pool of skilled candidates. Alongside external sourcing, benchmarking using tailored criteria helps reduce large candidate pools into manageable shortlists.

Companies that actively seek diverse sources consistently find stronger pools of qualified hires, giving them an edge over competitors relying solely on traditional methods.

Examples

• A company filled a senior position by tapping alumni networks for recommendations.
• A manager promoted an internal candidate based on long-term potential over external applicants.
• Benchmarking against ideal profiles helped shortlist the top five executives out of 50 contenders.

8. Conduct structured interviews to assess core traits

Interviews often fail when approached without structure. Thoughtfully defined questions target a role’s core competencies and avoid unreliable generalities. Behavioral questions, such as asking about past challenges, extract concrete examples of a candidate’s abilities.

Since humans are naturally bad at judging others, professional interview training sharpens hiring teams’ abilities. Structured processes reduce snap judgments based on presentation or charm, resulting in more accurate hiring.

Examples

• Switching to structured interviews helped a startup reduce turnover by identifying better cultural fits.
• Behavioral questions uncovered a manager’s leadership missteps, saving a large firm from potential setbacks.
• Rigorous interviewer training equipped HR teams to screen high-stake roles effectively.

9. Recruitment ends with attraction and integration

Winning over top candidates requires more than securing an initial “yes.” Competitive offers, exciting opportunities, and tangible commitment from leadership all encourage candidates to accept. Beyond hiring, successful integration ensures their long-term success in the role.

Support systems, onboarding programs, and ongoing guidance minimize early employee challenges. Without follow-through, even impressive hires struggle and businesses suffer repeated churn.

Examples

• A CEO personally pitched their company vision to convince a hesitant but qualified contender.
• Mentorship from department leads eased the transition for new executives at a global NGO.
• A major corporation lost key talent after neglecting onboarding processes entirely.

Takeaways

1. Evaluate the skills and emotional intelligence needs for roles before beginning to hire.
2. Use structured interviews and sourcing networks to find diverse, qualified candidates.
3. Actively support and onboard new employees for a seamless transition when they start.