Who

Picture this: You're sitting in your office, dealing with yet another crisis caused by a poor hiring decision. Maybe it's the sales manager who promised big numbers but consistently underdelivers, or the team lead who creates more problems than they solve. Sound familiar? If you're nodding your head, you're not alone. Studies show that hiring mistakes cost companies an average of fifteen times an employee's base salary in hard costs and lost productivity. That single $100,000 hire who doesn't work out? They just cost your organization $1.5 million.

Here's the truth that successful leaders understand: your biggest business challenge isn't what you do, it's who you hire to do it. The most important decisions that businesspeople make are not what decisions, but who decisions. When you shift your focus from chasing endless operational fixes to building the right team, everything changes. The right people don't just fill positions—they solve problems, drive innovation, and create the momentum that transforms struggling departments into high-performing powerhouses. Today, you'll discover a proven system that top CEOs and billionaire entrepreneurs use to identify, attract, and hire A Players with a 90 percent success rate.

The foundation of exceptional hiring lies in crystal-clear expectations. A scorecard is your blueprint for success—a document that describes exactly what you want a person to accomplish in a role. It's not a job description filled with generic activities, but rather a precise definition of outcomes and competencies that define excellence.

Consider the story of Neville Isdell, former CEO of Coca-Cola. When he needed a new head of human resources, the HR function was ranked dead last in employee respect and regard. Isdell knew exactly what type of leader the situation demanded. "I needed somebody who could bring about change by building coalitions, but who could still do it with energy, drive, and speed. That meant I needed somebody with high emotional intelligence, really strong knowledge of the business, really good interpersonal skills, and the ability to build bridges." This clarity enabled him to hire Cynthia McCague, who succeeded for exactly the reasons Isdell had anticipated.

Your scorecard consists of three essential elements. The mission captures the job's core purpose in plain language—why this role exists and what it must accomplish. Outcomes define three to eight specific, measurable results the person must achieve, ranked by importance. Competencies outline the behavioral traits and skills required both for the role and your company culture. For example, instead of writing "manage sales team," your outcome might read "grow revenue from $25 million to $50 million by end of year three while maintaining 45 percent gross margins."

This approach transforms how you think about talent. You're no longer hiring generalists who seem impressive but lack focus. You're seeking specialists whose skills perfectly match your specific needs. When you have a clear scorecard, A Players recognize the opportunity to excel, while B and C Players often remove themselves from consideration. Your blueprint becomes both a magnet for top talent and a filter that saves you from costly hiring mistakes.

Great hiring doesn't happen by accident—it requires a systematic approach to finding exceptional candidates before you need them. The most successful executives don't wait for openings to appear; they continuously build relationships with top performers, creating a pipeline of talent ready when opportunities arise.

Patrick Ryan, who grew Aon Corporation from a startup to a $13 billion company, perfected this approach through relentless networking. He set a personal goal of recruiting thirty people per year and asked every manager to do the same. His secret weapon was a simple but powerful question: "Who are the most talented people you know that I should hire?" Whenever Ryan met someone new, whether at business meetings or social events, he would learn about their work and then pose this question. The response always opened doors to new networks and potential A Players.

Ryan's method worked because he understood a fundamental truth—talented people know other talented people. When you ask your ten most capable contacts for referrals, you can easily generate fifty to one hundred names. But Ryan didn't stop there. He systematically nurtured these relationships, maintaining a list of potential candidates and scheduling thirty minutes each week to connect with high-potential individuals. This discipline enabled him to recruit his eventual successor, Gregory Case, whom he had first identified at McKinsey years earlier.

Your sourcing system should operate on multiple levels. Start by making employee referrals part of every manager's scorecard—require them to source a specific number of qualified candidates annually and reward success with bonuses or recognition. Deputize friends of your firm by offering incentives to advisors, clients, and industry contacts who refer top talent. When you do engage external recruiters, treat them as partners by sharing your scorecard and company culture insights. Most importantly, create a tracking system that captures every promising contact and schedules regular follow-up. Success in sourcing comes not from brilliant tactics, but from consistent execution of proven practices that keep exceptional candidates flowing toward your organization.

Traditional interviewing is little more than a coin flip when it comes to predicting job performance. The solution lies in a structured, four-part interview process that gathers facts about a candidate's track record rather than impressions about their personality. This systematic approach transforms hiring from guesswork into a data-driven decision that you can make with confidence.

The process begins with a screening interview—a focused thirty-minute phone conversation using four key questions to eliminate obvious mismatches before investing significant time. The centerpiece is the Who Interview, a chronological walk through the candidate's career that reveals patterns of behavior and performance. Jamie Dimon's hiring as CEO of Bank One exemplifies this approach's power. When board members asked about his departure from Citigroup, Dimon's refreshing honesty stood out: "You know what? I was fired." This candor, revealed through thorough interviewing, helped convince the board he was the right leader. Under Dimon's leadership, Bank One doubled in value.

The Who Interview asks five simple questions for each job in the candidate's recent history: What were you hired to do? What accomplishments are you most proud of? What were some low points? Who were the people you worked with? Why did you leave? These conversations, lasting one and a half to three hours depending on career length, uncover the real story behind polished resumes. You'll discover whether candidates were promoted because they excelled or pushed out because they struggled. The patterns become unmistakable when you dig deep enough.

Complete your evaluation with focused interviews that examine specific scorecard elements and reference calls that verify what you've learned. The goal is matching a candidate's skill (what they can do) and will (what they want to do) against your scorecard requirements. When someone has a 90 percent chance of achieving outcomes that only the top 10 percent of candidates could accomplish, you've found your A Player. This rigorous process requires significant upfront investment, but every hour spent interviewing saves hundreds of hours managing poor performers later.

Finding the right candidate is only half the battle—you must also persuade them to join your team. The most common hiring failure occurs in these final moments when exceptional candidates slip away to competitors or decide to stay in their current roles. Success requires understanding what truly motivates A Players and addressing their concerns through what we call the five F's of selling.

Consider John Malone's challenge when recruiting Greg Maffei to become CEO of Liberty Media. Maffei was a blue-chip executive with experience as CFO of Microsoft and Oracle, but his family had deep roots in Seattle and resisted relocating to Denver. Malone didn't give up—instead, he made family concerns central to his selling strategy. "During nearly every conversation I had with Greg, I asked, 'How is your wife feeling about this? How excited are your kids to live in Denver?'" Malone consistently emphasized Denver's lifestyle benefits, particularly the easy access to mountains for skiing and hiking. His persistence and attention to family concerns eventually convinced the entire Maffei family to make the move.

The five F's provide your roadmap for successful selling. Fit connects the candidate's goals and values with your company's vision and culture—show them how they'll make a meaningful impact. Family addresses the broader implications of job changes on spouses, children, and personal relationships. Freedom demonstrates the autonomy they'll have to make decisions and develop their leadership style without micromanagement. Fortune presents the financial opportunity and career growth potential, ideally linked to performance-based compensation. Fun captures the work environment and relationships they'll build with colleagues who share their values.

Your selling efforts must span five critical waves: during initial sourcing conversations, at the end of interviews, between your offer and their acceptance, from acceptance to their first day, and through their first hundred days on the job. Many managers mistakenly back away after extending an offer, assuming candidates need space to decide. This silence often proves fatal as competing opportunities and family concerns create doubt. Instead, maintain regular contact, address concerns quickly, and demonstrate continued enthusiasm for bringing them aboard. Remember, A Players have choices—your job is making your opportunity the most compelling option they've ever considered.

Implementing the A Method across your organization requires more than good intentions—it demands systematic change management and unwavering commitment from leadership. The most successful transformations happen when leaders make hiring excellence a top priority, dedicate significant time to the process, and create systems that sustain improvements over time.

John Zillmer's transformation of Allied Waste demonstrates the method's power when applied systematically. When Zillmer became CEO, the company had been a "lead balloon" for years with flat performance that disappointed investors. Within eighteen months, he hired or promoted twenty-seven new A Players into management roles with a 90 percent success rate. More importantly, he trained every manager in the company on the A Method, making it a requirement rather than a suggestion. The results spoke volumes—company value increased 67 percent during Zillmer's first eighteen months, proving that the right people in the right roles create exponential returns.

Your implementation plan must address ten critical elements. Start by making people decisions a top priority, spending up to 60 percent of your leadership time on talent-related issues. Lead by example by following the A Method yourself, then build support among your executive team through workshops and shared success stories. Cast a clear vision like "We will win with A Players in every role" and back up these words with action. Remove barriers that prevent success while implementing policies that support the change, such as requiring scorecards for every job requisition and Who Interviews before any offer.

Recognition and accountability complete the transformation. Celebrate managers who achieve 90 percent hiring success rates and link substantial bonuses to talent outcomes. Remove managers who refuse to adopt the method after receiving proper support and training. Most importantly, track your results and continuously refine your approach. Companies that embrace this systematic approach don't just hire better people—they create cultures of excellence where A Players attract other A Players, building momentum that competitors struggle to match.

The path to extraordinary business success runs through one fundamental truth: the most important decisions you make are not what decisions, but who decisions. When you master the art of finding, selecting, and hiring A Players, you transform every aspect of your organization's performance. As countless successful leaders have discovered, focusing on who eliminates the endless stream of operational problems that consume so much time and energy.

The A Method provides your roadmap for this transformation. Create scorecards that define success with precision, build sourcing systems that continuously attract top talent, conduct interviews that reveal true capability, sell candidates on the opportunity you're offering, and install processes that make excellence sustainable. Remember this powerful insight from the leaders who've mastered this approach: "Hiring A Players takes hard work, but it's not always for the faint of heart. You have to dig hard, ask tough questions, and be prepared sometimes for disturbing answers."

Your greatest opportunity lies right in front of you. Start today by creating a scorecard for your most critical open position, or begin building your talent pipeline by asking ten accomplished contacts who they know that you should hire. The compound effect of better hiring decisions will revolutionize your career, increase your financial success, and give you more time for the relationships that matter most. You have the knowledge to solve your number one problem—now you simply need to decide to act.