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Best Sellers | | Home Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People, Revised and Updated Edition | |
|  | |  | | | Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People, Revised and Updated Edition | | | | | SKU:
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Usually ships in 1 business days | | Only 1 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | Great companies don’t just depend on strategies—they depend on people. The more great people on your team, the more successful your organization will be. But that’s easier said than done. Statistically, half of all employment decisions result in a mishire: The wrong person winds up in the wrong job. But companies that have followed Bradford Smart’s advice in Topgrading have boosted their successful hiring rate to 90 percent or better, giving them an unbeatable competitive advantage. Now Smart has fully revised his 1999 management classic to reintroduce the topgrading concept, which works for companies large and small in any industry. The author spells out his practical approach to finding and managing A-level talent—as well as coaching B players to turn them into A players. He provides intriguing case studies drawn from more than four thousand in-depth interviews. As Smart writes in his introduction, “All organizations, all businesses live or die mostly on their talent, and any manager who fails to topgrade is nuts, or a C player. . . . Those who, way deep down, would sooner see an organization die than nudge an incompetent person out of a job should not read this book... Topgrading is for A players and all those aspiring to be A players.” On the web: http://www.topgrading.com/
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Bradford D. Smart Ph.D. | | Hardcover: | 592 pages | | Publisher: | Portfolio Hardcover | | Publication Date: | April 07, 2005 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 1591840813 | | Product Length: | 9.33 inches | | Product Width: | 6.3 inches | | Product Height: | 1.73 inches | | Product Weight: | 1.79 pounds | | Package Length: | 9.1 inches | | Package Width: | 6.3 inches | | Package Height: | 2.0 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.7 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 72 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 72 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
90 of 95 found the following review helpful:
 "OK", with reservations May 16, 2006
By jds100
"Topgrading" does have some insights, that are of some value, but keep in mind that this book is also a marketing tool for the author's services. The ideas here are not necessarily new; they're certainly not earth-shattering. The 'tool' for interviewing is most unlikely to be used by people in the real world, in HR or in the position of making a hiring decision. It is unweildy, excessivly long, and absolutely dependent on the ability of the interviewer to accurately evaluate the responses of the candidates. It is absurd to presume or assume that everyone -maybe even anyone- who reads this book will come away with that talent. I certainly would not want to make my company's growth and/or survival dependent on someone's consistent ability to accurately evaluate qualifications -and "quality"- over the course of using this 2-1/2 hour-long interview tool.
I also question whether or not the best candidates wouldn't get up and leave in disgust, or run as fast as they can from a company that would use this kind of interviewing tool.
The tone of the interviewing methodology seems, to me, to be adversarial and condescending, which will not generate the most accurate eveidence of talent of fit with a given organization. This is tedious, and excessive. It would not take a genius to BS his or her way into giving impressive answers. I question whether or not candidates, the best candidates especially, would not be offended at being asked these questions. I can imagine that candidates who are desperate would be happy to sit through this 'therapy session', but real professionals would more likely determine that a company using this method would not be a good fit. If you believe in making your candidates run a gauntlet of pain and fire, then be honest: set that up. The tool that is touted in "Topgrading" is at least equally as difficult for the interviewer as for the interviewee, especially given that the interviewer is expected to conduct multiple such interviews, while a candidate will endure only one interview. Can you really rely on the accuracy of the last interview of the day as compared to the first or second?
Despite claims for gaining special insight through use of this process, there is nothing special or unique here, other than the mass of what amounts to typical HR questions piled into one interview. The real 'secret' and value is in the ability, again, of the interviewer to assign purely subjective qualitative judgements to the answers. That's scary. It's not any more reliable, nor any more safe than any other systematic hiring approach that takes a little care and a little common sense.
I think most people who find themselves initially impressed are those who have not put much thought into hiring (the interview process) before now, and there is, therefore, a level of excitement at "discovering" a systematic approach. Anyone looking for a magic bullet for interviewing and hiring will think this is it for awhile, but they probably would have thought the same thing if they'd picked up 'that other book' instead.
The general ideas can best be adapted to specific needs, and can best be reduced in size. Add this to your library (or don't), and find the seeds of value in the book (or just bypass it altogether), but don't believe that this is the one true way. It isn't.
28 of 28 found the following review helpful:
 Stop looking for magic bullets Jun 08, 2007
By A Customer
While Brad Smart offers some good advice for the hiring manager, we must keep in mind that the purpose of TogGrading is to make money for, uh, Brad Smart. It is every hiring manager's responsibility to select the best candidate for a position. Some instinctively do a good job at this, while others are simply clueless. Dr. Smart presents his methodology with a zen-like religious furvor. He insists that if everyone in the organization adopts his methodology and becomes a zealot, the organization will become wildly successful. Isn't pretty to think so. My company jumped on the TogGrading bandwagon three years ago, because we had high turnover in a two departments. Now our hiring process is adruous, time-consuming and expensive. The results? Those managers who had low turnover rates still have low turnover rates. Those who had high turnover rates still have high turnover rates. The bottom line: TopGrading doesn't work any better than any other of the various magic bullet methods hawked to managers over the years. There is no one-size-fits-all methodology for selecting top performers. If your company is failing at attracting and retaining "A players" you'd do better to carefully examine your corporate culture than to jump on the latest fad method. If one manager excels at hiring and retaining good employees, allow him to mentor the managers who don't. This is cheaper and far more effective than turning your HR process upside down and hoping for a miracle cure.
36 of 42 found the following review helpful:
Beware Jul 11, 2001
By Greg
Be very careful using some of the information in this book or you risk creating an HR nightmare for your company. Ford Motor Company is in the process of defending itself against law suites brought on by employees who have been exposed to the "A, B, and C, Player," environment. The Top Grading system is viewed by many as arbitrary, unfair, and discriminatory. Even the most vocal practitioners of this system, General Electric, will admit the process can destroy moral.
26 of 31 found the following review helpful:
 Don't waste your money Mar 20, 2000
Brad is arrogant. His style is hard to read, and his conclusions lack evidence. He claims to have used over 4,000 interactions for his book. There really are no specific or scientific use of the data he claims to have. The method may serve to give a prospective candidate practice interview questions. Any senior person would be insulted at his methods and would go to another company. But Brad is high on himself!
22 of 26 found the following review helpful:
Brad Smart knows what he is talking about BUT!!!!!! Aug 19, 1999
I have read this book and conclude that most of the information is accurate in my experience. I think that Brad could TOPGRADE his style, however. The chest puffing gets tiring, his arrogance makes me gag and in general detracts from the potency of the book. This method is "no silver bullet" it works and can be difficult to implement. I also didn't care to read about Brad's property investment property and how he has Topgraded his help. .....Please lighten up Brad.Woody Daroca Denver, Co.
See all 72 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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