Building High-Performing Teams: Ensuring the Right People in the Right Seats

Commitment beyond capital from a private equity partner

Will the team that got you here get you where you want to go? Recruiting, training, and motivating a winning team is essential for businesses looking to move to the next phase of success. But many companies lack the introspection necessary to ensure the talent and potential of all employees is optimized for growth and performance.

In this blog post, we review the concept of putting the right person in the right seat at work to maximize business performance. We also explain how the external perspective of advisors, such as private equity partners, can provide the guidance and structure necessary to build and develop a winning team.

The importance of ‘right person, right seat’

The concept behind right person, right seat might sound like common sense, but it wasn’t until 2012 when Gino Wickman expanded on the idea through his Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) that the two-stage process was finally recognized as a pillar of long-term business success. In essence, the process involves finding employees that closely align with the company culture and values, then taking steps to ensure they are always in a role that aligns with their abilities, interests, and company objectives. The latter part of this equation comes down to three key attributes:

• Ability: Has the ability to understand the role and perform well.
• Energy: Is highly motivated and energized to take on the role.
• Capacity: Has the necessary bandwidth to do the job effectively.

Despite the improved productivity, job satisfaction, and employee retention that come from placing employees into positions that align with their goals and interests, many companies (often unknowingly) continue to force fit employees, utilizing what could be called a right person, any seat approach.

Avoiding short-sightedness

One common cause of this disconnect is a short-sighted commitment to employee development that discounts the changing goals and interests of workers (and the organization) over time. Labor shortages in high-demand professions also make it difficult to part with top performers looking for new or different challenges within the organization. Building a winning team, optimizing retention, and improving morale are worthwhile business goals that call for a more strategic approach.

Tools like personnel evaluators used to strategically put the right people in the right seats should begin at the executive level and flow down to every position in the organization. This approach ensures the key company initiatives used to spearhead the growth strategy are converted into performance goals, with KPIs tailored to each department and individual contributor.

Navigating the complexity of right person, right seat

On the surface, right person, right seat might sound like common sense, but the processes that lead to successful outcomes are more complex than many companies realize. Recruiting and hiring practices are where it all begins, so clear job definitions, streamlined application processes, and behavioral interviewing techniques that align with core company values are essential for attracting top talent.

In a highly competitive job market, retaining and motivating top talent is at least as important as recruiting. The “right seat” half of the equation should include job rotations, mentoring, and training programs that allow employees to find their niche and maximize their contributions, while keeping their eyes on the next exciting opportunity within (rather than outside) company walls.

Benefits of talent alignment

Aligning talent is all about finding the best ways to utilize the unique skills, capabilities, and career aspirations of each employee for the greater good of the organization, without discounting individual goals and motivations. This requires a system that shows each employee how their efforts contribute to company success and the development of others. Additional benefits of talent alignment include:

• Improved collaboration and team dynamics.
• Accelerated career growth and advancement opportunities.
• Maximized return on investment in human capital.
• Business resilience in the face of organizational changes.

Getting an outside perspective

Businesses that have successfully attracted and developed employees for many years might be prone to biases that prevent them from getting the best possible team in place. Entrenched management can sometimes be too familiar with the business structure and top performers to make personnel decisions that optimize business growth and morale. Aligning yourself with an experienced value-added partner to gain a fresh perspective allows you to make adjustments that support your long-term goals. Additional benefits brought by value-added partners like Valesco include:

• Experience: The underlying principles behind right person, right seat are backed by a set of analytical tools and experience that vastly improve human resource decision-making. Training current employees on these practices is always advisable, but partnering with experts in these methods is often the best way to fast-track implementation and optimize results.
• Capital: To realize the full potential of human capital, ready access to financial, social, and natural capital is also necessary. External partners can provide the connections and resources necessary to make businesses more attractive to top candidates while helping to establish a more dynamic and stimulating workplace.
• Risk-reducing solutions: Recruiting and talent management processes are high stakes endeavors, with the cost of replacing a single top performer running as high as 200% of their annual salary. Established practices for vetting, personality matching, and development minimize these business and financial risks.
• Talent alignment: Finding and developing talent in alignment with company objectives is essential for optimizing business performance. Value-added partners understand how to make stability and job fit in key positions a catalyst for growth.

How private equity partners can help

The best resources to help you establish and maintain a high-performance team are those with a vested interest in the long-term success of your business. Valesco created the Actio performance program with the benefit of three decades of progressive experience driving operational efficiency, team development, and predictable growth for our portfolio organizations.

It is no coincidence that the principles behind right person, right seat form one of the pillars of our Value Blueprint diagnostic tool. Employee execution strategies woven into the Actio program include:

• Internal and external mentoring and training to energize and cultivate talent.
• Succession planning to ensure the business has a pipeline of motivated leaders.
• Targeted operational improvements with a positive impact on both employee morale and profitability.
• Assessment tools to evaluate the big-picture alignment between talent and objectives.

By leveraging the Actio program to optimize team-building practices, our partners have seen their employee base grow an average of 34% during the hold period. Our proprietary Personnel Evaluator tool helps to identify important gaps and opportunities that can only be addressed with the right combination of talent in place.

Conclusion

Putting the right person in the right seat is much more than a cliché. Organizations can only reach their full potential when employees from senior management on down are qualified, motivated, and effective, and continue to develop their skills and relationships over time, but this doesn’t happen by accident. Valesco developed the proven Actio performance program with this important fact in mind. Team building, recruiting, and employee development strategies guided by a methodical approach and decades of experience increase the chances of long-term business growth and success.