Bradford D. Smart

BRAD HELPED US DEVELOP THE TOOLS TO PICK A-PLAYER LEADERS AT GE. JACK WELCH Great companies, large and small, rise or fall because of their talent; the more high performers on your team, the more successful your organization will be. Of course, thats easier said than done. Research shows that only about 25% of all new hires turn out to be high performers. But companies that have used Brad Smarts Topgrading system over the past two decades have boosted their hiring success rates dramaticallysometimes even to 90%. Three huge problems account for the typical poor results in hiring: dishonesty (via deceptive resumes), incomplete information (via shallow interviews), and lack of verifiability (via biased references). Topgrading shows how to solve all three problems. Instead of hiring by your gut reactions to resumes and interviews, you can start using a scientifically honed process that compels candidates to be totally honest. Smart, one of the worlds foremost experts on hiring, has personally helped hundreds of companies double, triple, or even quadruple their hiring success rates. His clients have ranged from global giants such as General Electric and Honeywell to midsize and small businesses in every field imaginable, and to not-for-profits such as the American Heart Association. And hundreds of thousands of readers have applied the lessons and tools of the first two editions of Topgrading. The Topgrading system makes hiring easier, faster, and more successful than any other process. And it works at every level, from the front lines to senior management. For the first time in seven years, Smart has fully revised and updated Topgrading with many new tools, techniques, and case studies. This edition now features 40 companies of all sizes, across a wide range of industries and home countries. Its the most advanced and useful version of Topgrading ever. The third edition includes: Simplified Topgrading methods for entry-level jobs. The new Topgrading Snapshot, which screens out weak candidates in just 15 seconds. The latest version of the acclaimed Topgrading Interview script. Case studies from 35 companies not featured in any previous edition. Many additional innovations created by Topgraders. Topgrading isnt just about hiring and promotingits also about developing talent. It enables leaders to reward their A Players, coach their Bs to become As, and weed out the Cs who are beyond improvement.Many great leaders know that Topgrading works. Find out how it can help your company gain a big competitive advantage.

Las grandes empresas no nacen, sino que se hacen. El secreto estriba en contratar a los profesionales adecuados. Sin embargo, está estadísticamente demostrado que la mitad de las operaciones de seleccion de personal fracasan, pues nunca se acaba eligiendo a la persona ideal para el puesto. Y si a ello se añade que los costes pueden superar en mucho el salario del profesional en cuestion, entonces el perjuicio economico es escalofriante. Esa es la razon por la que Brad Smart ha creado un metodo de seleccion del personal utilizado por empresas como General Electric o AlliedSignal y que el mismo explica en esta obra sin precedentes. El autor utiliza su archivo de mas de cuatro mil entrevistas para ilustrar sus ideas con casos reales, elaborando un sistema que enseñara a directivos de cualquier nivel de grandes y pequeñas empresas a ir siempre por delante de la competencia. En definitiva, la leccion es sencilla: aplicar el metodo de Smart equivale a contratar a los mejores profesionales, a los lideres capaces de alcanzar el exito tanto para su empresa como para si mismos.

A concise extension of the business classic Topgrading, targeted to sales managers Brad Smarts Topgrading has sold more than 150,000 copies since 1999, making it the definitive book for executives who want to hire, coach, and retain top talent. Now Smart has teamed up with Greg Alexander, who used Topgrading to radically improve his sales force at EMC. In Topgrading for Sales, they have boiled down the key Topgrading ideas to a pithy 112 pages while focusing on the unique needs of sales managers and sales directors. Great sales forces dont just depend on strategies-they depend on hiring the best possible reps. But surveys show that about half of all hires and promotions put an underqualified person in the wrong job. No wonder the average tenure for sales managers is only nineteen months. Topgrading for Sales takes the guesswork out of hiring by teaching readers how to interview systematically for A-level talent instead of relying on hunches and prejudices. It also shows how to coach B-level reps to turn them into A-players and how to weed out C-players before they do too much damage.