Topgrading Tips (Vol 5, No. 12) Topgrading is NOT “Common Sense”
August 5th, 2010 . by Brad SmartTopgraders frequently tell non-Topgraders that the far superior results hiring and promoting people come from the rather obvious, not-particularly creative, “common sense” Topgrading methods. I’ve even been guilty of downplaying its revolutionary components.
At the end of a typical 2-day Topgrading workshop managers frequently say, “Yeah, Brad – it’s all common sense.” But after decades of witnessing how managers struggle with making the changes required of Topgrading, I truly believe most of the Topgrading methods are far from “common sense” until you know they work!
IT’S NOT COMMON SENSE TO
1. Use two interviewers, using a 4-hour chronological interview, as the major practice in hiring, promoting, and auditing talent.
After all three applications are part of a company’s culture, with up to 90% of those hired and promoted turning out to be high performers; of course such rigor seems “obvious.” And when managers want to do a talent inventory, an audit to figure out who are their A, B, and C players, and who has the greatest potentials, it seems “obvious” to use the same technique as used for hiring and promoting! (The only difference between hiring and promoting or auditing is that external references are checked for hiring, but the Topgrading interviewers actually talk with internal bosses, peers, and subordinates when using Topgrading for promoting or auditing.)
These methods require rigor – 90% hiring and promoting success has only been achieved when the interviewers are trained and follow the Topgrading interview guides.
2. Measure percent high performers hired and promoted, or measure costs of mis-hires and mis-promotions.
Although business people say, “If it’s important, we have to measure it,” and “talent is our most important asset,” no company we have ever seen, surveyed, or heard of systematically measured how successful they were at hiring and promoting people. In a meeting of Global 100 heads of HR, only Topgrading companies disclosed rigorous methods for measuring success. And when asked, the Global 100 heads of HR admitted that 75%+ of the people they hired or promoted into managements jobs were mistakes.
3. Expect candidates to arrange personal reference calls with former bosses (and others).
After all, most companies prohibit their people from even taking reference calls. But the simple truth is A players do get their former associates to accept those reference calls. Why does it work? Former bosses of A players are not at all worried that because they might say something negative about their former A player, that A player won’t get a job and sue. Fact: in 30 years and hundreds of companies performing this step, 40+ Topgrading professionals have never heard of any legal issue. None!
4. Expect managerial candidates for hire or promotion to sit through a 4-hour Topgrading Interview.
High performers love the chronological interview, the walk down memory lane in which they are asked to describe all their wonderful successes and triumphs. In addition to the ego trip, they understand that by participating in the thorough Topgrading hiring or promoting steps, there is a very good chance they will succeed in the job (if offered, obviously), and with the huge amount of information about them their new boss will be able to coach them to a) assimilate smoothly into the job, b) perform well, and c) continue a career development process right now – within weeks of joining the company.
5. Be able to keep in mind and rate candidates accurately on 50 competencies.
If you’re not a Topgrader, you know you wouldn’t be able to track 50 competencies, right? But in 2-day Topgrading workshops every manager actually does it.
How can this be possible? Because in the Topgrading Interview there are thousands of data points. For example, when the person describes a success 10 years ago, more than a dozen competencies are revealed. “I got the President’s award for pulling off the project,” and in explaining how she did it, she shows teamwork, intelligence, drive, dedication, analysis skills, leadership, stress management, etc., etc.
6. Learn enough from a competed Topgrading Career History Form to screen out most weak candidates for hire and screen in only the best.
In our Topgrading workshops people analyze the completed form of a real person (names have been changed). They then guess at how the fellow’s real boss rated him on all 50 competencies. People amaze themselves because most are “off” only an average of 2 points on a 10-point scale and some, without even seeing the candidate, were off by only 1 point.
This fun little exercise convinces everyone that a) they can track and rate 50 competencies, and b) this Topgrading Career History Form is the best pre-selection tool on the planet.
7. (saving the best for last) Achieve 90% high performers hired and promoted.
About 15 years ago, thanks to the work I did with Jack Welch at GE, we proved that managers like you can be almost as good as Topgrading professionals when hiring and promoting people.
Since my profession for 3 decades had been interviewing candidates for hire or promotion, I effectively put myself out the screening business (and into the training business).
How can managers like you do almost as well as professionals with the Ph.D. and 30 years of experience? Jack Welch asked me that, I suggested we use two interviewers who could cover for each other, he agreed, and the rest is history. GE shot up to 90%+ success picking high performers, and since then, hundreds of companies have embraced Topgrading.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Wow, do we have a recommended resource for you today! It truly is the best product ever to teach the Topgrading methods that are the world’s best practices not just for hiring, but for auditing your talent and promoting with terrific success. It’s 7 1/2 hours of high definition DVDs with all the latest Topgrading methods explained by me, with great graphics. But also there is a real life case study so you learn the job scorecard for a real job, study the career history form of a real candidate named Erik, see me and Erik in split screen as I conduct a telephone screening interview with him, observe a tandem Topgrading Interview with him, watch and listen to a real reference call with Erik’s boss, and watch me coach him in a real life setting.
So, whether you are an individual manager wanting to master Topgrading, or you have a team needing thorough training, or you are interested in train-the-trainer, this is the total, total package with the DVDs, Topgrading Workbook, other books and guides, a 3-month license, on-line resources, and quarterly conference calls with Topgraders and me.
Click here to see the basic material, but you’ll want to click on where it says to learn more.


