Identifying High Performers Before Hiring

“A play­er who makes a team great is more valu­able than a great play­er.” – John Wood­en, record-break­ing wins bas­ket­ball coach

In high-lev­el sports it is very obvi­ous who are the high­est per­form­ers. Not only are they phys­i­cal­ly tal­ent­ed, the best of the best hold them­selves (and their team­mates) to a high­er stan­dard. They know how to deal with pres­sure and deliv­er under tight dead­lines. They are com­mit­ted to excel­lence and visu­al­ize suc­cess and peak per­for­mance. They devel­op pre-per­for­mance rou­tines to stay focused and increase per­ceived self-con­trol. They learn from mis­takes and apply the lessons quick­ly. They are the ulti­mate team player.

Ath­letes receive men­tor­ship and direc­tion from coach­es, but the high­est per­form­ers cap­i­tal­ize on the oppor­tu­ni­ties to have a com­pet­i­tive advan­tage. They pay atten­tion to every lit­tle detail to per­form at a high­er lev­el. This isn’t exact­ly rock­et sci­ence but, when you add in 10 things that make a 1% dif­fer­ence, there’s a notice­able dif­fer­ence in pat­terns of performance.

In busi­ness, high-per­form­ing A Play­ers are essen­tial­ly the same: They con­sis­tent­ly deliv­er results, are incred­i­bly well pre­pared, intel­li­gent, resource­ful, ask the tough ques­tions, and are dili­gent in improv­ing their game. They go above and beyond expec­ta­tions, always put the team first, have a very high stan­dard of excel­lence and are a true plea­sure to work with.

These are the peo­ple you want to recruit for your team. The chal­lenge is know­ing how to iden­ti­fy these high per­form­ers before you make a hir­ing decision.

I recent­ly con­duct­ed a Top­grad­ing™ inter­view, for one of our clients, of an extreme­ly per­son­able can­di­date who had already been screened using tra­di­tion­al meth­ods. The can­di­date had made a great first impres­sion and had already met some of the mem­bers of the team. Although an offer of employ­ment was being draft­ed, the COO want­ed to con­duct a Top­grad­ing inter­view, just to be sure. As we dug deep­er, it became clear that the can­di­date did not have the per­for­mance pat­terns nor the skill sets required to per­form well in the role — the rig­or, dis­ci­pline or dri­ve. If the offer had been pre­sent­ed and accept­ed, it would have result­ed in a cost­ly mis-hire.

Tra­di­tion­al hir­ing inter­view method­olo­gies – with only a 25% suc­cess rate of hir­ing high per­form­ers – are sim­ply not designed to reveal the pat­terns of per­for­mance that dis­tin­guish a true high per­former from the rest of the pack, and their fit with your culture.

That’s why Top­grad­ing is so pow­er­ful. This tried-and-test­ed method­ol­o­gy gets you into the lock­er room — or board­room, pre- and post-game — to exca­vate not just the facts, but to reveal how a can­di­date real­ly thinks, acts and per­forms in real-world sce­nar­ios – not just how they say they perform.

It’s how you build the MVP A‑Team your busi­ness deserves.

The Chal­lenge

• Mea­sure how suc­cess­ful you are at iden­ti­fy­ing A Play­ers in your job interviews
• Use the Top­grad­ing method­ol­o­gy to dig deep, and to ensure greater hir­ing suc­cess build­ing your A‑Team.

If we can help you to make bet­ter hir­ing deci­sions by teach­ing you Top­grad­ing skills – or do it for you — please let us know.

Kristin Haz­zard, an Exec­u­tive & Lead­er­ship Coach at Lawrence & Co. Growth Advi­sors, was an elite hock­ey play­er who com­pet­ed at the nation­al cham­pi­onship lev­el and in the semi-pro­fes­sion­al Women’s Hock­ey League.