At Topgrading, Inc. our main business is interviewing — interviewing candidates for hire or promotion to senior jobs, where the costs of bad hires/promotions are what you know to be HUGE! One bad mis-hire of a CFO or COO in a small company can push it to bankruptcy. Learn our most revealing hiring question.
Most A Player executives exercise regularly because they believe:
No Pain, YOU Gain!
In my practice of interviewing candidates for executive jobs, I have asked more than 2,000 high performers about the exercise they get. Years ago I started taking careful note of executives who were “on again, off again” fitness buffs, but who finally managed to stick with an exercise program.
If you’re a CEO/President/COO or Head of HR, you’ve been partially mis-lead with the non-stop advice on how to retain employees. You know all about The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting. You’ve read Wall Street Journal’s “research” (hearsay) that suggests you suck as a leader – “78% of people quit because they dislike their manager.” You’re not “every manager” but as CEO those “every managers” report to you, so you’re to blame. You raised pay to keep people while being scolded, “Raising pay will not convert employees who don’t like you or your organization “culture” into loyal, motivated team players.”
Harvard Business Review published a widely read and controversial article based on a study of 20 leading companies. The article highlights how success was snatched from the jaws of defeat with geniuses stimulating competition on their teams for creative “ideas,” not just the performance of tasks like producing results.
Topgrading supporter and Scaling Up coach, Kevin Lawrence, sent us an interview he did with a CEO who, with pandemic challenges mounting, discussed how he was able to transition through the lowest of mental health lows successfully.