Access FIT

Sometimes you’ve got to choose

I was talking to a local health club owner recently when he revealed that he was advertising for a new manager.  After some further discussion I asked if I could see his ad.  It was fairly standard; there were a list of duties ranging from performing assessments, writing exercise prescriptions, sales, supervising staff… and business development.

While I applauded his inclusion of a business development function (which I have been recommending for years) the problem is these are two (at least two) separate people. 

The person who is highly competent at the technical skills (assessments, exercise prescription, exercise demonstration and supervision) is rarely highly competent at the business skills (sales, marketing, and business development)… these are two very different animals.

Of course, it would be good (especially for small businesses) if one person could fulfil all of these functions but it is rarely the case.

I suspect that the candidate that gets hired will be a serious compromise and the owners will be stuck with a mediocre technician with mediocre business skills… sometimes you’ve got to choose.

Is your management style “head-up” or “head-down”?

In a recent discussion I had with a local club manager and CEO about their hiring practices I asked the question, “Is the club profitable?” The manager and CEO were somewhat taken aback and, rather unconvincingly, assured me that the club was profitable after several years of mismanagement, high staff and management turnover, and a raft of “turn around” tactics.

They went on to explain that the business was now focused on profitability and that the previous club manager had been let go because of her operations focus and apparent lack of revenue generating ideas.

Fair enough… however, after examining their “job description” for the new club manager position it was almost exactly like the old club manager position. In fact, given the job description, the old club manager would have been the best candidate for the position… it was completely operations focused with no mention of business development at all.

The reason club profitability is an issue is because an unprofitable club (or a club focused on serious revenue or profit growth) and a profitable club require two completely management styles.

A head-down management style is characterized by an operations focus, is very command and control, top-down, hands on, in the trenches, and process driven. Think of head-down as someone with a jig saw puzzle industriously sorting and assembling the pieces in front of them… no need to look up because everything they need is right in front of them.

A head-up management style is characterized by a strategic focus, is more collaborative, bottom-up, arms length, and business development driven. Think of head-up as a coach watching a football game from the sidelines, calling plays according to how the game is unfolding, substituting players based on their individual performance, team needs, and opposition tactics, and reviewing important statistics on the run… if they look down for too long they will miss something critical.

A head-down manager is best for a profitable club because they are across all the issues that keep the business running successfully. However, head-down managers will miss opportunities to improve the business because of their process-centric focus.

Alternatively, a head-up manager is best for an unprofitable (or growth seeking) club because they are actively looking for opportunities to create a successful business. Of course, head-up managers aren’t across all the issues that keep the business running successfully (relying instead on others) because of their business development focus.

The lesson… don’t send a head-down manager to do a head-up manager’s job.

A team of superstars?

I‘ve heard a couple of consultants recently providing advice on how to develop a team of superstars. All of the advice made perfect sense of course… provide feedback, reinforce positive behaviours by catching staff doing things right, nip negative behaviours in the bud before they become entrenched, providing comprehensive inductions, providing ongoing customer service and sales training, use scripts… all the usual suspects.

This is fairly typical of the kind of advice you’ll get from most consultants today and, ostensibly, it is good counsel.

My advice is a bit different… rather than developing a team of superstars develop a business that doesn’t require superstars. Develop a superstar business that mere mortals can thrive in.

The problem with superstars is that there is so few of them and creating them takes time, resources, and money… why not idiot proof your business instead.

Paradoxically, all of the systems, processes, protocols, and procedures that you have introduced to make your business run more smoothly have, in fact, added layer upon layer of complexity for your employees to deal with in order to do their jobs.

The result of this overwhelming complexity is clubs full of employees focusing on their “jobs” and not their members.

Idiot proofing your business can create opportunities for your staff to focus on your members and not on the minutiae of their “jobs”… so stop waiting for Superman and improve your employee’s experience so that they can focus on improving your member’s experience.

Add the value you can

The other day when I left my health club the young girl who was busy searching for something behind the front desk looked up, saw me leaving (actually made eye contact), looked down and went back to her search.

It was an extremely odd interaction.

Personally I don’t care but it’s bad business practice because the next person probably will.

I have seen her in the club before both training (she actually trains pretty hard) and working. Without being rude I don’t go out of my way to interact with her because I’m not sure what value she can add to my experience. I talk to some of the guys about the football, local events, industry trends… it’s mostly just small talk but it’s something.

However, I think that she’s arrived at the conclusion that if I don’t interact with her she won’t interact with me… one less thing to worry about. I can see how she would arrive at that conclusion but she’s not helping her employer with thinking like that. It’s a downward spiral… the less interested I am in her, the less interested she is in me, the less interested I am in her, the less interested she is in me… (you get the idea).

Of course it’s a lot to expect an inexperienced, young, female instructor to have the confidence to interact with older, more experienced, male members. However, it should be made clear to staff members that they aren’t expected to be everything to every member… but they are expected to add the value they can to every member.

For example, a young, inexperienced, staff member would not be expected to advise experienced powerlifters on deadlift technique but they can be interested, friendly, inquisitive, engaging.

That’s the value they can add.

It’s every employee’s responsibility to add value… but that can range from a smile to a comprehensive training program depending on the employee and the member.

However, not adding value is not an option.

Compliance vs. commitment

Most people have heard the story about the chicken and the pig. The punch line is that the chicken is involved in producing a bacon and egg breakfast (by laying the egg)… but pig is committed (by laying down its life).

Of course business consultants have used this story ad nauseam to describe the kind of employees businesses need (committed) versus the kinds of employees they probably have (involved).

I have a slightly different take.

I’d prefer to use the word compliant rather than involved to describe the kinds of employees most businesses have. The reason is that most employees are usually doing the job you gave them and therefore complying with their job description, specific work roles, incentives, and company culture… more or less.

Most employees will comply with what they are supposed to do.

Most employers get compliance because that’s what they require of their employees.

Compliance is relatively easy for employers to require and compliance is relatively easy for employees to deliver. And that is precisely why so many businesses get it.

Commitment on the other hand is more difficult for employers to get because it requires them to require more from themselves.

You can’t get commitment to just anything... it requires a cause. People won’t commit to mediocrity… people won’t commit to so-so… people won’t commit to me-too… people won’t commit to the same old tired platitudes…

Compliance is easy but if you want commitment from your people you have to earn it.

Better the devil you know...

‘Better the devil you know’ is a rationalization we use to maintain the status quo. Unfortunately it requires us to ignore the fact that the devil we know… is still a DEVIL.

It’s not my problem

I wrote recently that owners and managers need to make their retention efforts everyone’s problem. But the sentiment applies equally to other responsibilities/roles/functions.

Job descriptions are a necessary, but on their own not sufficient, precondition to superior job performance. All too often, however, once the job description is created it becomes the driving force behind job performance. Obviously once everyone knows what is required of them they know what, and what not, to do. In fact, job descriptions are often an excuse for staff to say ‘it’s not my problem’.

‘I’m an instructor… selling memberships is not my problem’.

‘I’m a group fitness instructor… showing exercise technique on the floor is not my problem’.

‘I’m the manager… emptying the trash is not my problem’.

‘I’m on the front desk… marketing is not my problem’.

‘I’m in the back office… customer service is not my problem’.

I’m not suggesting that everyone does everything but I am suggesting that everyone can, and should, make a contribution outside of their designated job description… customers don’t care whose job it is they just want their problem solved.

Make retention everyone’s problem

Retention continues to be an issue for most owners and managers. Interestingly, the rank and file staff rarely view retention as such an issue.

Not because they aren’t affected by it but because owners and managers choose not to share their retention strategies with the staff. Sure they do routinely role out the usual tactics, broad directions, and platitudes… ‘we need to improve our customer service’… ‘this place is a mess lets review the cleaning roster’… ‘our competitors have a 20% discount deal, lets do 30%’…

However, most staff members don’t know the details of the retention strategy du jour … the who, how, why, where and when. Most staff members don’t even know the retention rate of their health club.

In fact, I am often surprised to discover that many owners and managers don’t even know their own retention rate.

Many retention efforts fail precisely because owners and managers don’t share the full details of their retention strategies with the rank and file staff who are ultimately responsible for their implementation and execution.

It’s the blind leading the blind.

Retention will continue to be a significant issue for owners and managers who don’t put the appropriate accountabilities in place to make it everyone’s problem.

The brain drain

The term ‘brain drain’ was originally used to describe the migration of post-war European scientists to America. It denotes the economic and opportunity cost resulting from the systemic loss of intellectual capital.

One of the structural challenges that I identified for the industry was an inability to attract and retain truly world-class talent across all business functions. It is as true on the front lines as it is at the executive level.

I had a front row seat to the brain drain phenomenon during and immediately after university. Before I had even graduated several of my peers had already opted to change courses from exercise science to other science and education based courses such as pharmacology, podiatry, physiotherapy, teaching… that had better structured career paths.

The trend continued soon after graduation. For example, a good friend of mine, who was one of the best performers academically, quickly become a manager at a small health club chain only to leave the industry disappointed with the pay and conditions.

After 5 or 6 years the majority of my university friends had moved into other industries that offered better pay, better conditions and more clearly defined career paths.

Another school friend of mine studied accounting (mostly at the behest of his parents) and I loved to make fun of him for being an accounting ‘nerd’.

When we graduated we were on similar pay rates but within a year he was ahead of me (he received periodic pay rises in line with his experience and expertise). Within a couple of years he was receiving 50% more than me and a couple of years after that he had double my salary. He eventually went on to earn 3-4 times what I was earning.

I guess it is true what they say… he who laughs last does laugh best!

Don’t get me wrong it is not just a money issue… it is a career issue.

Staff turnover is a huge issue for our industry and it is compounded by the fact that it is the best and brightest that tend to leave simply because they are smart enough to realize that they can do better in other industries.

The result is a dedicated, enthusiastic and committed workforce… of average I.Q.… lots of good soldiers with too few good generals to effectively lead them.

Owners and managers need to find a way to keep their smartest talent… not just the ones who turn up, give good customer service and know the basics but the ones who can transform their businesses.

None of us is as smart as all of us

I have worked for a number of different businesses (non-profit, corporate, university, commercial – large and small) as an instructor or manager. Some were good, some were bad, some were very bad… none were great.

But they all had one thing in common… management styles were always very proprietary, top-down, and command and control.

In my view this is one of the major issues that actually prevented them from being great. I fully understand that owners and managers have a lot to deal with day to day. Operational issues tend to dominate day to day, hour to hour and minute to minute. Owners and managers spend a lot of time putting out fires, but as a wise man once said, when you spend all your time putting out fires… you are always on fire.

Obviously the problem with always being on fire is that it is difficult to think about anything else.

The solution is to find better, more permanent, solutions.

There are numerous sources for solutions… trade shows, industry associations, industry publications, consultants etc. But the one that is most often over-looked is your own staff.

In my experience owners and managers seldom get the most out of their staff because they like to consider themselves the smartest person in the room… and behave accordingly. They create an adversarial atmosphere where they have all the answers (even if they are the same old answers) they are always right (even if they are obviously wrong) and where they are not really open to anything other than the status quo.

Not really conducive to finding better, more permanent, solutions.

In fact, I have spoken to many staff members who have confided in me that they have solutions for the businesses they work for but, after a long history of having their views ignored, they had chosen to withhold them to spite the owners or managers. Obviously this is bad for business in terms of staff relations, corporate culture and productivity.

Owners and managers, no matter how proficient, intelligent, confident or self-reliant would do well to remember the Japanese proverb… none of us is as smart as all of us.

Emergency breakdown

Recently when I left my local health club I discovered, much to my annoyance, that my car wouldn’t start. I am not a great mechanic so I checked the things that I thought might be wrong but I was very quickly out of ideas. Luckily I am with an emergency breakdown service. I gave them a call and in about 15 or 20 minutes I was on my way. I will need to get to the mechanics soon to get my fuel pump replaced but I was extremely grateful to get the assistance I did to get me on the road again.

It got me wondering how many of you have the same sort of emergency breakdown service for your members. I wonder how many lapsed or cancelled memberships could have been saved if that member’s ‘emergency’ was dealt with quickly, efficiently and effectively in the moment.

Loyalty experts often refer to these moments as ‘moments of truth’.

Let me give you a recent example. A couple of weeks ago I was checking in at my local health club. At the front desk a young man, perhaps 16 years old, was asking the front desk person a question about how to correctly fill out his exercise program card. He asked several specific questions and the front desk person could not give a definitive answer to any of them. He asked several times trying to restate and clarify for her but she could not give conclusive answers. I am sure she tried her hardest and to be fair to her I think she was just filling in behind the front desk. The guy walked away frustrated, confused and still not sure exactly what to do.

Now this single interaction will probably not result in a cancelled membership. On its own it may not even result in the member not renewing his membership but it is a moment of truth where the business could have demonstrated its customer focus, expertise, commitment and professionalism.

Instead the ineptitude of the front desk person reflected poorly on the entire business.

Ideally, when this member’s experience broke down during his workout an instructor should have been available on the floor to provide a complete answer and get him right back into his session.

Emergency averted and the member comes away thinking positively of the experience and the business.

Breakdowns do occur but it is how you deal with them in that critical moment of truth that has the capacity to create a loyal member or a disenchanted malcontent.

Share the weight!

According to Greek mythology Atlas was condemned by Zeus to hold up the sky on his shoulders (originally depicted as a celestial sphere and later as a globe) as punishment for attempting to overthrow the gods. In western culture Atlas has come to symbolize stoicism and strength.

During these difficult economic times I am seeing a lot of owners and managers stoically soldiering on trying to make their numbers. They are making cutbacks where necessary, putting in more hours personally, discounting prices… just like Atlas they are shouldering the weight of the world.

Interestingly, what I am not seeing is a corresponding increase in urgency, commitment, effort or dedication from most staff members. As a former manager myself I find it extremely disappointing to think that an organization can not come together during times of difficulty.

Owners and managers are quick to criticize their staff for their inaction but the reality is owners and managers only have themselves to blame. Most staff members are not actively encouraged to contribute beyond their fairly limited prescribed work roles, functions and duties.

The exception usually is when there is a business crisis and the call goes out for ‘all hands on deck’. However, the call usually falls on deaf ears because the rank and file has developed a clock-in clock-out mentality. The crisis is ‘your’ problem not ‘their’ problem so they are content to keep clocking-in and clocking-out. They probably even have a contingency plan in place so if your business does fail they simply move on to plan B.

They are not engaged because they have not been allowed to be engaged and when it comes to the crunch they don’t know how to, and/or, are not interested in contributing beyond their established responsibilities.

If you expect your employees to shoulder their share of the weight during difficult times you need to hire for the right expertise and actively encourage them to engage with your business in line with their expertise.

You also need to keep them apprized periodically of how the business is performing (in good times and in bad) and where, and to what extent, you expect them to contribute. And it goes without saying that you need to recognize and incentivise their involvement in both financial and non-financial ways.

Layers of expertise

I really believe in the power of expertise. Far too few business leverage the expertise they have in their staff to differentiate themselves from their competition. Unfortunately, it is usually because they have no expertise to leverage.

If I had my choice I would only ever deal with experts. Unfortunately, I very rarely encounter expertise… which makes me wonder what criteria these businesses are hiring people on.

I know there is a widespread belief that you should hire for attitude and train the rest.
I disagree.

I would rather have the most competent mechanic available fix the brakes on my car not the friendliest, I would rather have the most preeminent brain surgeon perform my surgery not the one with the best bedside manner and I would rather have an instructor who can improve my training outcomes then one with a terrific attitude who is friendly, energetic, and willing to help… but has no idea.

My advice is to only ever hire experts… then leverage that expertise extensively.

Of course expertise is context specific. I don’t want my expert mechanic performing my brain surgery.

Here is my criteria for hiring experts:

• They must have technical expertise. Technical expertise is specific to their job functions e.g. an instructor must be able to take blood pressure and heart rate readings, perform body fat analysis, write safe and effective exercise programs, demonstrate exercise technique etc.
• They must have operational expertise. Operational expertise is their ability to effectively contribute to the functioning of the business. This include duties as commonplace as computer, cash register and credit card transactions right up to sales, running profit centers and developing new products, services and programs.
• They must have market expertise. Market expertise is a comprehensive understanding and practical knowledge (preferably first-hand) of a particular market or markets e.g. bodybuilders, baby boomers, athletes, injury rehabilitation, weight loss etc.

The next time you hire make sure your interview process allows you to identify your potential employee’s technical, operational and market expertise.

Go with your strengths

When I was young and reckless my buddies and I were always up for a good time and that usually meant drinking copious amounts of alcohol. To keep things interesting we had a couple of drinking games.

One of my favorite games was a quite simple one. The participating drinkers were required to only consume drinks using their non-dominant hand i.e. if you were right-handed you could only use your left hand to consumer your beverages and vice versa. The penalty for consuming drinks using your dominant hand was that, if observed breaching the rule, you had to pay for the next round.

To be successful you had to continuously think about your drinking arm… even when you were telling an engrossing story, even when you were chatting up an attractive young lady, even when you were busting a move or even when you were belting out the words to Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a prayer’ at the top of your voice.

And the more you drank the harder it was to think about your drinking arm.

I was never very successful but the good news for me was that nobody else was ever very successful either.

The point is that it is difficult to go against your natural inclinations for very long especially when you are under stress.

How does this affect your business?

You might have underperforming staff members who are simply in the wrong roles and struggling against their true nature.

Not everyone can be great at sales… sure most can fake it for a while but they are struggling against their true nature. They take the constant rejection too personally, they don’t truly believe in the product, they don’t have a strategy, they simply go through the motions. They make a few sales but they are never invested in it.

They may have been a great instructor but in sales they suck. It’s not their fault. All the training, support and mentoring will not make them a great salesperson. They don’t have the attitude or aptitude for it. It is just not in their nature. You can invest a lot of time, recourses and energy into them only to achieve a mediocre result.

On the other hand I have known outstanding instructors who in the middle of a conversation, during a workout, on their day off, running late for a personal appointment would take the time to correct the exercise technique of a member they have never met before to ensure they get the most out of their workout session.

They can’t not help when it is necessary, even if the boss isn’t watching, even if there is no personal training fee to collect, even if there is no ‘thank you’ from the member. It’s just in their nature

It is your job to determine what your staff’s strengths are and help them succeed in the roles where they can reach their fullest potential and contribute most profitably to your business.

The smartest person in the room

I have mentioned before that one of the issues the industry generally, and your business specifically, will have to overcome to be most successful is the proprietary, top-down, command and control, management styles and organizational structures.

I personally have seen many businesses who have hired top-class, highly credentialed, staff with passion and drive for improving the business only to completely ignore their considerable knowledge, dismiss their input and eventually either beat them into submission or drive them out all together.

I find it bizarre.

If you want a mindless, unoriginal, yes-man why not hire for that in the first place?

It’s like hiring De Niro to read the weather on your local cable news broadcast.

My feeling is that most (not all) owners and managers like to consider themselves the smartest person in the room.

It’s definitely good for the ego to think of yourself as the smartest person in the room but it is bad for your business. Very bad. Think about it. Everything that happens when you are not there is being done to a lesser standard.

Sure that’s what policies, procedures and protocols are for but policies, procedures and protocols can not adapt to novel situations, develop new opportunities or innovate new products and services.

Wouldn’t you rather have superstars on board who are capable of exceeding your expectations across the board?

Most truly intelligent people that I know surround themselves with more intelligent people and learn everything they can from them. Most mediocre people I know surround themselves with less intelligent people to feel superior.

I heard it described this way recently.

A people hire A people. B people hire C people.

Think about the people you have around you. Do they always agree with your point of view, are they less well credentialed (and not actively encouraged to develop their education and training), are they discouraged from contributing, are they afraid to speak up and is your word always the final word.

Congratulations you are the smartest person in the room. Good luck with that!

Are you doing just what’s expected or what is necessary?

Recently I had an opportunity to observe two of my neighbours as they prepared for their respective Christmas festivities. The weather forecast was for rain so they were both out feverishly completing their yard work (mowing lawns, pruning trees, removing rubbish, trimming edges etc) before the predicted rain set in and prevented them from doing so before the arrival of their guests.

However, I noticed that although both seemed equally committed to their tasks there was an undeniable difference in their output.

One neighbour (let’s call him Fred to preserve his anonymity) was hurriedly mowing his lawn not stopping to pick up litter but instead mowing over paper bags and food wrappers effectively shredding it onto his lawn. He trimmed his edges but left the edges outside his house on the footpath untrimmed (I guess he thought it was not his property so it was not his responsibility). His lawn and tree clippings were piled neatly at the rear of his house. Overall he did a reasonable job.

The other neighbour (lets call him Bill) took care to remove all rubbish from his yard stopping to collect any pieces that he had missed or that had appeared as he was mowing. He trimmed all the edges including those on the footpath and some on an adjacent neighbours’ property that looked untidy. At the end of the day he removed all his lawn and tree clippings to the tip and even put his, usually prominently displayed, bins out of sight. His lawn looked immaculate.

Fred was a man on a mission. But his mission was to cross a number of jobs off his list that needed to be done by a certain time because that is what was expected. And he achieved precisely that.

Bill was also a man on a mission. But his mission was to present his property as positively as he could to his visitors and guests so that they could all enjoy it because that is what he thought was necessary for the occasion. And he achieved precisely that.

Who would you hire for your business? The guy checking the boxes or the guy set on producing the best possible outcome.

Now look at your own staff are they just doing what is expected of them or are they doing what is necessary for your customers?

The power of expertise

I have a swimming pool. I have to admit I have been fairly busy in the last few months and it has been quite neglected. Slowly its condition has gotten worse and worse. But now summer is here and it’s been an unusually hot one so early in the season.

Because of my neglect the pool was in no condition to swim in.

I’ll be the first to admit that my expertise is not what it should be when it comes to maintaining the pool. So I have been consulting with my local pool shop and they have been advising me of the appropriate course of action to treat the pool to return it to its former glory.

They are OK – within limits.

Unfortunately, the condition of the pool was so bad that their advice didn’t seem to be improving it. I was buying all the chemicals applying them to the pool as directed and there was only perhaps a 10% improvement over a 7 – 10 day period.

Then I remembered I knew a pool guy. He is a guy with a van who goes to your house and does his thing. He was a big help when I first bought the house and the tenants had let the pool get into an atrocious condition before they moved out.

So after a week or more of frustration and wasted money I called him up.

After 5 minutes of conversation he had pin pointed where I was going wrong; given me a step by step solution that was far less complicated, and less expensive, then the one provided to me by the pool shop; was quicker to implement and he even invited me to call him back if I needed any more assistance.

After doing what he told me my pool is now sparkling clean and perfectly balanced.

When you think about it the pool shop is a retail store. Sure they can help you with your pool; they analyze your water sample, they have a certain amount of knowledge but their business model is to sell pools, pool chemicals and pool accessories. That’s where they make their money. If it takes three tries and $300 to get your pool to where it should be that’s a great outcome for them.

The pool guy on the other hand is in the business of fixing problems. This guy brings pools back from the brink for a living, day-in day-out, and the quicker and more efficiently he does it the more money he makes because he can see more clients. He knows his stuff – he has to.

Of the two only one offers solutions.

Of the two who do you think I’ll be doing more business with in the future and recommending to my friends when they experience pool problems?

The power of expertise... ignore it at your own risk.

P.S. Have a Safe and Happy Holiday Season

Getting the right balance in your team

Having the right people is critical. Having them in the right positions is equally critical. Management guru Jim Collins described it as ‘getting the right people in the right seats on the bus’.

If I were to extend Mr Collins’ metaphor to accommodate my model I would say that the ‘Big Thinker’ would be the planner/navigator; deciding where to go, why it is important to be there and finding the best way to get there. The ‘Doer’ would be the bus driver; hands firmly on the wheel and eyes intently on the road. The ‘Stickler for Details’ would be the maintenance person; making sure the tank is full, oil and water topped up and ensuring services are conducted routinely.

Recognition of these differences is a dimension that is missing in many recruitment and training initiatives and it can have a substantial impact on your productivity, revenue growth and staff and member retention.

The ‘Big Thinker’:

The Upside – Big Thinkers are always looking for opportunities whether at work, at home, on the bus, in the supermarket, it doesn’t matter. They can’t not think about the next big thing (apologies for the double negative but you know what I mean).

When I say big I mean developing potential new markets, innovative business models, new technologies and not just following the latest trends, copying a competitors marketing offer or tinkering with an existing product or service.

They are entrepreneurs. They thrive on the challenge of creating the next big thing. They are integrative thinkers and they can combine disparate (even seemingly incompatible) propositions to develop novel solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

They can operate, and even excel, in the absence of all the information. In short they can connect the dots to reveal a masterpiece where Doers and Sticklers only see dots. They take in a lot of information in a lot of different forms i.e. observation, books, formal qualifications, blogs, magazines, pod casts, you name it.

The Downside – Genuine Big Thinkers are rare, very rare. Everyone likes to consider themselves capable of thinking big so they are often also very difficult to identify. They are sometimes unfocused often having several big ideas in development at any given time.

They are calculated risk takers willing to back themselves in order to win big – recognizing that it may result in losing big. They require a lot of downtime to consolidate all the information they consume. While the quality of their thinking is often very high the quality of their communication can suffer because what seems obvious to them requires detailed often laborious explanation to others.

The Big Thinker can be stalled or derailed by relatively small execution or administration details that ‘Doers’ and ‘Sticklers’ take in stride.

The ‘Doer’:

The Upside – The Doer gets things done. They can’t sit still. They are high energy individuals with a passion for making things happen (please resist the urge to break into ‘What a feeling’ the theme from flash dance here).

They seek out information but the scope is generally limited to the task at hand. They are very task oriented and not generally interested in learning for the sake of learning. They are very pragmatic and outcome oriented.

The Downside – The Doer will get things done even if they are the wrong things. Their mercurial nature, outcome oriented approach and narrow focus means that while they are likely to deliver on their own responsibilities they lack the necessary ‘big picture’ view to see how things ‘fit’ together.

They often view success in terms of their own responsibilities even if it is at the expense of broader organizational success.

While they have the capacity for learning they tend to compartmentalize their knowledge rather then integrating it to produce novel or innovative solutions.

They can contribute to broader strategic discussions but are reluctant to take the lead unless it is in their relatively narrow field of expertise. When they do contribute they will, consciously or not, tend to exaggerate the importance of their own project/field of expertise to the success of the broader initiative.

The ‘Stickler for Details’:

The Upside – The Stickler is the check all the boxes, cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s type. Their attention to detail is legendary. They are compliance freaks. They are all about protocols, policies and procedures.

They can recite, verbatim, every relevant section, subsection and clause. They are extremely data driven.

The Downside – The Stickler needs a stable framework to operate within. They need to have all the information to be most productive. They will get stuck when there are loose ends. They have a limited ability to extrapolate or ‘fill in the blanks’.

When you next hire be certain to consider thoroughly whether you need a Big Thinker, a Doer or a Stickler for Details. They are not interchangeable; they each bring something unique to the table.

A great staff member in the wrong position will always, at best, under-perform and at worst destabilize the entire organization.