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Best Sellers | | Home Great People Decisions: Why They Matter So Much, Why They are So Hard, and How You Can Master Them | |
|  | |  | | | Great People Decisions: Why They Matter So Much, Why They are So Hard, and How You Can Master Them | | | | | SKU:
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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | Great organizations are made up of great people. And for leaders at all levels within those organizations, the ability to find, hire, integrate, and retain great people is an absolutely critical skill—critical to their organization's success, and critical to their own success. But for most people, making great appointments is difficult, time-consuming, and even scary. Few have received any formal training in it, and there are very few resources available to make up for that lack of training. This book fills that gap. It provides the conceptual background and the practical, everyday tools needed to make consistently successful hiring decisions. Great People Decisions is a comprehensive resource for managers who want to improve their personal competence at hiring and promoting people, and also for students interested in the field. Yes, hiring is difficult, but it isn't a mystery. It's a discipline that you can master—to help your organization, and to help yourself. Author Claudio Fernández-Aráoz has been in the business of finding and growing great people for two decades. Now, in Great People Decisions, he provides simple but sophisticated guidelines covering the entire range of issues inherent in the hiring, promotion, and delegation of significant responsibilities to high achievers. Great People Decisions meets the needs of leaders at every level in complex organizations. Are you a member of a team that is looking to build its skills in a particular direction? A member of a board that's looking for the next CEO? A manager who needs to fill a critical slot in the middle ranks of your division? Great People Decisions is for you. It tells you how to know when a change is needed, what to look for, where to look—inside and outside your own ranks—how to appraise people, and how to persuade them to join and stay with your organization. Anyone can fill a position. The real trick is getting the right person in the right job. Filled with invaluable insight and practical guidance on getting it right, Great People Decisions is the ultimate reference for any manager concerned with personal development and organizational achievement. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Claudio Fernández-Aráoz | | Hardcover: | 352 pages | | Publisher: | Wiley | | Publication Date: | May 25, 2007 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0470037261 | | Product Length: | 9.14 inches | | Product Width: | 6.38 inches | | Product Height: | 1.28 inches | | Product Weight: | 1.19 pounds | | Package Length: | 8.9 inches | | Package Width: | 6.2 inches | | Package Height: | 1.4 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.2 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 13 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 13 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Demystifying hiring decisions by a world class expert Jun 08, 2007
By Kenn Dahl
There were a number of things that impressed me about this book. Starting with the author: He is one of the top executives at one of the best worldwide executive search firms, an in demand lecturer, and an accomplished writer with famous articles in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review (directly on the subject of people decisions). So he has an impressive resume, but the book makes clear that he has spent the last 20 years dedicated to becoming a world-class expert in this area. The book is backed up with many references and summaries to the best academic and industry studies, this is not just one man's war stories (although there are interesting stories to back up points) but it is instead a carefully thought out and researched framework utilizing his own extensive expertise but also that of other experts in the field. He is successful at taking a very fuzzy subject and organizing it, simplifying it, making it understandable and actionable, and even providing key "watch outs" based on his experience.
It is interesting reading with a number of interesting points made along the way. Some of my favorites include a description of how dramatic an impact a good vs. bad CEO can make on a company's performance, and as a side note he remarks that this may justify relatively high CEO pay (although he is careful to point out that it does not justify some of the outlandish packages that have been in the press in recent years). My other personal favorite was a comparison of the disciplines of personnel decisions and advertising, the later of which decades ago was also thought of as purely an "art" but over time has become more and more based on "science", and his prediction that personnel decisions will also bend to science over time. Certainly this book helps push that process along significantly.
It's hard to find any significant faults with the book. It is mostly illustrated with examples from upper management and the discussion is also focused on upper management but the author acknowledges this focus and suggests that many of the same principles apply to lower level management. The author lets slip that English is not his first language, but there is no way to tell that from his writing, which is fluent, clear, and very well organized.
6 of 8 found the following review helpful:
The most important job in management May 21, 2007
By B. Fryer
"poetry lover"
This book should be required reading for every hiring manager and every HR person. The author offers up a comprehensive understanding of the biggest challenge in most businesses -- how to get the right people in the right jobs. When the wrong people are hired, whole teams and companies can feel the negative effects for years. Araoz carefully deconstructs the many reasons why the most important job in business management is so poorly done. Then he describes in fine detail how to do it right.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Mandatory Reading for Everyone Making Decisions on People Jun 12, 2010
By Gwendolyn Doden
Great People Decisions (Claudio Fernandez Araoz)
A clear statement up front: This book ought to be mandatory reading for human resources professionals and managers, from first time managers to the Board Room. It is the "nuts and bolts" of getting the right people into the right jobs and ensuring that people are the solution and not the problem.
If you are already a senior executive, I would recommend that you rapidly get beyond the first 50 pages, which are mostly about why great appointments matter so much - certainly not unimportant but somewhat tedious when you are searching for a quick answer. From there on the author underpins his observations from practice with evidence-based examples of what works and what does not and the book becomes much more of a "how to" handbook. There are easy to use tools like a decision tree matrix and clear advice on basic principles for when to hire, how to hire, integrating a new recruit, how to recognize potential when you see it, promotions and how all of these issues tie into the bottom line success of a company. He puts a price on the value of good decisions and the cost of wrong ones. Fernandez Araoz is generous in sharing the learning from his own experiences - the good and the bad - and provides the data to back up the conclusions he draws from applied theory. In essence, Fernandez Araoz delivers a sequential step-by-step guide to getting tough people decisions right the first time. It is reassuring to know that this is a skill that can be learned and polished.
A key take away is his advice on timing in terms of making people decisions. He is absolutely right when he talks about the common error in searching for the "ideal" candidate. In German this is referred to as the search for an "Eierlegendewollmilchsau" or the egg-laying, wool and milk producing pig - a fantasy candidate that does not exist. Too often in my own work I experienced how great people were passed over in search of the perfect fit rather than making logical trade-offs aligned with defined critical competencies. Fernandez Araoz lays out straightforwardly how to avoid this dilemma and create a disciplined process for hiring.
There are two additional points that make this book particularly readable, relevant and applicable Perhaps because English is not his native language, this book is virtually free of the usual jargon. Fernandez Araoz's style and messaging is very clear rendering it easy to read for other people whose mother tongue is not English. It is also written from an international perspective - what makes a difference is different in different places. His experience spans the globe and the examples Fernandez Araoz uses highlight this aspect. This makes the book a truly globally accessible toolkit.
In some books the packaging takes precedence over content. This is not the case with "Great People Decisions". Although there are numerous books on this topic on the market few are as explicit and clear and consequently so applicable as this one.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Exceptional "Must Read" for Anyone Who Makes People Decisions Jan 29, 2010
By V. Wong
If you read one book about making great people decisions, this is the book you will want to read. The book is easy to read and understand; yet rich in content and advice for practical application. It's a book for anyone who manages people or is responsible for hiring or developing others.
It's truly one of the best books I've ever read on Talent Management.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
A Million Dollar Decision Sep 09, 2009
By Russell Clarkson
I was once told by a successful CEO that any hiring decision started at $1,000,000. Even for a front line worker; when you account for hiring costs, training, salary and benefits, then take into account the average number of years they will stay with the company, it is not hard to see how easy it is to reach that amount. Imagine now the costs of bringing on a middle manager or senior executive and you understand why hiring will be the most important part of your job. Claudio Fernandez Araoz pulls aside the curtain and lays out an approach that is not magic, gut instinct or smoke and mirrors, but a rigorous approach that allows you to build a high performance organization.
I have used this material in my current position to build a team that has redesigned the way our company delivers service. It not only allowed me to find the strongest candidates, but it helped to integrate them into the organization in a positive and productive manner. This book shines a light on the most important decision you will make as a manager and delivers its content in clear and consistent manner that is devoid of the jargon that weighs down other books on this topic.
See all 13 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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