Great Employees Only: How Gifted Bosses Hire and de-Hire Their Way to Success

by Dale Dauten

Book Overview

"A mediocre employee in your group is more than one mediocre employee--he or she is a human multiplier-effect, to the downside. If you have even one mediocre employee, you have announced to the world that mediocrity is okay by you, while conceding that you are willing to slow the entire group for the sake of the worst employee. Thus, allowing that one person to stay is not being kind or generous; it's dangerous. It's dangerous for the individual,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470007885
• ISBN13: 9780470007884
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Master of the Anecdote

Dale Dauten is a master of the anecdote that perfectly supports the often counter-intuitive hiring practices this wonderful book proposes. You can read it front-to-end or jump in anywhere. The book is divided into dozens of bite-size pearls, each of which can easily rate a book by itself, yet in Dauten's expert hands, each becomes a meal in itself. Check out the story from Southwest Airlines about the employee who quits because she "can't stand to be happy all the time." That's an example of organic dehiring. A takeaway for me is that change starts with a willingess to abandon cherished but unworkable assumptions. The temptation when we don't make progress is to blame "them." Dauten's answer is that focusing on "those people" is doomed to failure. Like it or not there is really only one way to create change and that is by the example we set by our own transformation. So the question, "how do you get them to change?" becomes an interrogation with oneself. This books is an indispensible guide to start some of those difficult interrogations.

Great Authors Only

This had more ideas than any business book I've read in the past few years (and I've read plenty of yawners in that mix). It was a quick read, while being clever and often funny. As good as his earlier book "The Gifted Boss," "Great Employees Only" maintains Dauten's status as "The Boss" of business consulting.

The Art of Getting Better

This book is broken into dozens of observations, insights and case studies that any manager will learn from. I particularly benefited from the sections on "noboby wants to be managed," creating "hiring pools" and on "de-hiring." If everyone read and followed the de-hiring process, the world would be a better place and there would be a lot more happy employees and productive workplaces.

Best of the best

There is a lot to like about this book. One, there is helpful, specific practical information on how to create a "hiring pool" to have better employees. Two, there is revolutionary thinking about "de-hiring." This sounds like a synonym for "firing" but it isn't... it's a new way to think about employees and how to motivate them to be top performers or motivate them to find a place where they can be (working elsewhere). Finally, the book is clever and witty. Dauten is a syndicated newspaper columnist, and his writing style is personal and warm. Don't be fooled by the light touch and humor -- this is a book that is both deeply philosophical and immediately practical. It's the employment equivalent of Good To Great.

Another gem by Dale Dauten

This book is one I recommend that every manager (or anyone aspiring to become a manager) read and study. Dauten focuses on a much-neglected topic -- the advantage of promoting healthy turnover and improving the performance of direct reports by ensuring that every employee produces results at an acceptable level. Firing a terrible employee is a no-brainer. Dauten explores a more difficult and common problem, handling a long-term underachiever. He advocates a method of "de-hiring" in these situations. Allowing employees to produce mediocre work indefinitely does not help the company, the manager, or the employee. Dauten advises that managers set quantifiable objectives that represent an appropriate level of performance, and not a minimum standard. If the employee understands that meeting this level of performance is a condition of employment, he will either rise to the occasion, try and fail to meet the standards and leave voluntarily, or understand better when terminated. This approach treats the employee with dignity, provides an opportunity for improved performance, and establishes clear expectations for the future. This book is a quick read. Yet it contains principles that I continue to reference when coaching dozens of managers in the automotive retail industry.