Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching and Keeping the Best People

Rating:
Summary: The #1 source for world-class hiring and coaching processes
Review: As an HR consultant and executive coach, Topgrading is my bible. It's taught me skills that have really worked to help clients hire nothing but A players and coach their B players to become As. I agree with the review in Recruiting Magazine Online that says, for those that hire people, this is the "most important book ever written." Needless to say, I give the book 5 stars!

Rating:
Summary: The #1 source for world-class hiring and coaching processes
Review: As an HR consultant and executive coach, Topgrading is my bible. It's taught me skills that have really worked to help clients hire nothing but A players and to coach their Bs to become As. I agree with the review in Recruiting Magazine Online that says for those who hire people, this is the "most important book ever written." Needless to say - I give the book 5 stars!

Rating:
Summary: An extremely useful book based on solid research.
Review: Based on solid research, this book introduces the concept of topgrading-filling every position in the organization with a top candidate at the appropriate pay level. Topgrading is a process involving: seeking out, hiring and retaining top people; using the best assessment methods to make less than 10% mistakes in hiring and promoting; improving current staff through coaching; redeploying employees who are not performing at highest level to a position in which they can excel; and achieving inclusivity goals without lower performance standards. A chapter devoted to self development focuses on fifty management competencies and is of particular usefulness. Other guides and aids are presented for interviewing and self appraisal. This is an extremely useful volume.

Rating:
Summary: Beware
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: 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!

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Summary: An Improvement on Best Practices for Recruiting Top Talent
Review: Computers and equipment are wonderful tools, but people make the difference. Many companies are too little focused on hiring the best. Research consistently shows that the best 25 percent in any population produce over 80 percent of the economic results. Yet the cost to hire and keep them is much less than the benefit. TOPGRADING is built around that insight. TOPGRADING makes it clear just how valuable it is to hire and work with the best. The mistakes you will avoid make the investment very valuable. Early in our company's history, we did a statistical analysis of how many candidates we had to seriously consider before we could assume that we had seen an outstanding one. It was over 140. Now, most people would stop long before then and will usually hire someone who is not a top performer. TOPGRADING helps with this problem by providing you with a process that reduces that number a lot, but still ensures that you will be able to hire the best. I was very impressed with this book. I think it is one of the few books that goes beyond the current best practice to establish a new and higher standard in any field. It is certainly the only one I have seen that sets a higher standard in hiring. You would be very foolish if you did not read and apply the messages of this book. Some few geniuses may be able to hire the best using intuition, but for the rest of us there's TOPGRADING. When the history of many companies is written in the future, a key turning point will be the day that TOPGRADING was first applied. I wish that I had had this book available 22 years ago when I established my consulting firm! I have recently discussed this book with a number of business executives, and they each found the book to be as valuable as I did. Banish stalled thinking about hiring, and use this process. If you are not years ahead of the competition, the lack of this process could be a major contributing cause. Think about it.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT PROCESS AND REASONS TO HIRE THE BEST
Review: Computers and equipment are wonderful tools, but people make the difference. TOPGRADING makes it clear just how valuable it is to hire and work with the best. The mistakes you will avoid make the investment very valuable. Early in our company's history, we did a statistical analysis of how many candidates we had to seriously consider before we could assume that we had seen an outstanding one. It was over 140. TOPGRADING provides you with a process that reduces that number a lot, but still ensures that you will be able to hire the best. I was very impressed with this book. I think it is one of the few books that goes beyond the current best practice to establish a new and higher standard. You would be very foolish if you did not read and apply the messages of this book. When the history of many companies is written in the future, a key turning point will be the day that TOPGRADING was first applied. I wish that I had had this book available 22 years ago when I established my consulting firm! I have recently discussed this book with a number of business executives, and they each found the book to be as valuable as I did. THIS BOOK WILL INCREASE THE CHANCES THAT YOU AND YOUR COLLEAGUES WILL BE BIGGER WINNERS THAN EVER BEFORE! Banish stalled thinking about hiring, and use this process.

Rating:
Summary: Do not waste your money
Review: Do not buy this book. It is waste of money. It appears the author's main reason for writing this book was to brag about himself, himself and himself. Perhaps it will be very useful, if he could take some writing lessons before trying to write his next book.

Rating:
Summary: This is a "must" book for anyone in management!
Review: Dr. Brad Smart shows clearly how winning companies topgrade. This book is not just for CEOs but for all managers, because it gives the reader all the tools to truly hire the best. This is also a powerful personal development manual; it's helped me grow as a leader.

Rating:
Summary: Ruthless and scary
Review: Dr. Smart has provided the definitive guide on how to acquire and retain elite talent. His approach is not only logical and well researched, but also highly practical. Dr. Smart does not simply develop a thesis and encourage the reader to figure out how to make it work for his or her company. Instead, this book provides all of the tools necessary for successful implementation of the "Topgrading" strategies.

CEO's should require their vice president of human resources and all senior managers to read Topgrading, and then read it again and again and again....