In my years in leadership coaching for employees and executive leadership coaching for CEO’s there has always been one truth that I turn back to over and over and that is: The leader must hear their employees.

Key #1 – Know who to listen to……

The catch is you must know the right employees to hear and the right employees to suggest they be successful elsewhere. This is a skill that 95% of executives do not have and the lack of it can kill your business.

Key #2 – Develop a Process…….

How do you hire your employees? What is your process? Do you really know them? It is true that even in highly successful companies only 20% of the key personnel (referred to also as “impact players”), are producing 80% of the innovations and profits (Many believe it is now 5% doers : 95% watchers).

In my years of business leadership coaching and executive leadership coaching these facts remain painfully true for many businesses.

Why?

Key #3—Know when to cut bait…..

As a longtime leader in leadership coaching, I have seen CEO’s often hang on to under performing employees for much too long and often listen to the wrong voices instead of the integrity filled voices.

Key #4 – Create impact positions and hire impact players….

Successful companies get the market edge by identifying the positions that will create innovation… and then fill them with impact players who earn the right to be heard.

Key #5- Listen to Your A+ players…..

Those impact players are the ones the highly-attuned executive listens to at critical junctures in the life of their business. The goal of the smart executive is to surround themselves with as many “A plus” type executives and leaders that they can.

The late Chet Holmes of Business Breakthroughs International hires strictly through personality profile and interview for their executive leadership coaching positions. In fact, resume’s play a minor role in the hiring of superstars for that organization.

Holmes often claimed with substantial proof that he has “true” superstars in his company than just about any other executive training organization in the world. It was those superstars that forged the merger with Chet Holmes and Tony Robbins in 2009. And it is those superstar who have earned the right to be heard after his death.

Business Breakthrough International employees have a voice in their organization in this time of transition because they are “A” players. Find “A” players and listen to them! Chet had “A” players he could trust. It ended up being the catalyst for real change.

Apply it now: Take your key employees through a personality profile and determine whether they are the right fit for the position. Go to www.businessbreakthroughs.com and select personality profiles for more information on how you can hire superstars. Those are the “A” players you need to listen to and release to drive your vision.