Friday, January 05, 2007

The "Three 'Cs" of Team Selection

One of the most important skills of a leader is the selection of the right people in the team they lead.

In my career as a manager in health care the times I felt most comfortable with my team was when I was allowed the freedom to select the people in my team rather than 'inheriting' people already there. In the NHS it is often not possible to have that 'blank piece of paper' because managers move into jobs where the team is already in place and well established.

I am reading a great book at the moment called Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels

Bill has been the leader of a team for thirty years and over these years he has come up with - through practical experience of recruiting team members and developing teams - his own his own model called The "Three 'Cs" of Team Selection.

I love Bill's model and recommend it for many reasons not least its simplicity.

Bill says he looks for the following in the order shown when recruiting team members:

Character - integrity, honesty, sincerity, professionalism and values

Competence - can this person actually do the job?

Chemistry - will this person fit in with leader and with team members?

Obviously I have summarised for the sake of brevity but I endorse this method as a rule of thumb for any leader recruiting a team member.

For anyone interested in leadership I also highly recommend Courageous Leadership as a 'must read' for 2007!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It isn't just the NHS; my wife has been an RN for 27 years, mostly in ER and Oncology, working in the UK, Ireland, USA and now Canada.

Perhaps the most enlightened management was to be found in Ireland, the most efficient and appreciative in the USA and the most oppressive, incompetent and vicious in Canada. I have taken the liberty of including my blog address: http://thetyrantnextdoor.typepad.com

Hope you don't mind, but there are some examples on there which suggest that the NHS may be light years ahead of the management style here.

I wish you well with the site Trevor.

Stu Peters.

Trevor Gay said...

Hi Stu

Thanks for your comments and for your fascinating insight into different countries approach and culture/style. Many people in the UK are disillusioned with the way the NHS is run but I think overall the service does well given its many challenges. I have added your Blog to my favourites – I will look in and post a comment or two.

Hope you will visit Simplicity Blog again