#1 Leadership Skill; 4 More; Cheating System; 3rd Edition Topgrading

HEADLINES:

#1 Leadership Skill — hiring, period. You hire the right person and life is great for many, many years; you hire the wrong person (or not the best person) and life is less great – I'll just leave it at that! And the key is Topgrading. But what if a "C" player reads Topgrading – can they cheat the system? More below, but first…

5 Best Leadership Books — in the spirit of "it takes a village of gurus", I'm going to highlight two of the five most important leadership books ever written this week and next – precisely because they've stood the test of time and have been significantly updated. Here's a link to my summary of these five books – you master the skills in these books and you're in the top 5% of leaders.

Dramatically Updated/Improved — the first book to be extensively updated is Brad Smart's Topgrading (3rd Edition): The Proven Hiring and Promoting Method that Turbo charges Company Performance. This former doorstop of a guide has been totally rewritten and shortened by Brad, the man behind Topgrading for 35+ years. It's now truly a definitive "how to" guide for hiring which also includes 40 case studies of named companies, both large and small, who have implemented Topgrading.

Triple Hiring Success Rate — for the 40 companies highlighted, hiring performance more than tripled. Pre-Topgrading, these firms averaged just 26% high performers; after Topgrading it soared to 85% high performers. Brad has done an excellent job refining the Topgrading process and streamlining it for growth firms. As Brad notes "mis-hires are far more devastating to growth firms than to mega companies (though we'll see if Yahoo! finally made the right CEO decisions)."

Additional How-To Implementation Manual — if you go to a special link this week to order copies for your leadership team (they'll want one to refer to often) you'll also get Brad's How-To Implementation Manual and a 30-minute video summarizing his latest and most practical Topgrading tools – worth showing at a weekly or monthly management meeting.

Can "C" Players Cheat the System — Brad addresses this specific situation in one of his blog posts entitled "How A Players vs. C Players Answer Topgrading Questions. He also includes a handy chart that compares the specific responses for various questions. He also wrote an excellent piece, including a chart, that compares the competencies of high performing leaders vs. B and C leaders.

Complete Online Course— in addition, Brad has a full 12 step online course that teaches each step; links to forms you can use (like the time-saving Pre-screening Interview form); and examples of interviews. This is must training for all leaders and managers with hiring responsibilities.