First Who, Then What: Why the Right People Matter More Than the Right Plan
What’s one thing that CEOs can count on in this volatile business landscape?
According to Jim Collins, the answer is top talent.
If you’re thinking about strategies for working around tariffs or coping with rising supply costs, you’re putting the cart before the horse — or, as Collins might say, you’re putting the bus before the people you need to drive it.
At last month’s CEO Coaching International Make BIG Happen Summit, Collins reminded more than 450 executives, entrepreneurs, and global leaders that prioritizing talent can be a stabilizing force as well as a key to pivoting from obstacles and towards opportunities.
“First Who, Then What”
In his classic leadership book “Good to Great,” Jim Collins writes that leaders who make the leap to BIG understand three things about talent and strategy:
- If you begin with “who,” rather than “what,” you can more easily adapt to a changing world.
- If you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and manage people largely goes away. The right people don’t need to be tightly managed or fired up; they will be self-motivated by the inner drive to produce the best results and to be part of creating something great.
- If you have the wrong people, it doesn’t matter whether you discover the right direction; youstillwon’t have a great company.
Making strategy and execution secondary concerns can feel counterintuitive to CEOs. You’re wired to think fast, plan, and act decisively.
But a strategy that isn’t aligned with your talent isn’t really a strategy at all: it’s a goal at best, and a wish at worst. And CEOs who try to make those wishes come true through force of will are almost certainly mismanaging their own valuable time and putting themselves on a collision course with burnout.
Why “Who,” and Why Now?
You can’t run a Patrick Mahomes offense unless Patrick Mahomes is your quarterback.
Great companies, like great sports teams, game plan to maximize their players’ strengths and shore up weaknesses. And when you’ve hired the best and given them the resources they need to excel, Jim Collins believes you’re creating three significant advantages that are extremely relevant to the current business environment:
- Adaptability Over Predictability: It’s highly unlikely that’s what’s worked for your company in the past is going to keep on working in 2025 without some adjustments. Talent that are plugged into your systems rather than driving your systems won’t have the skills to help your company execute strategic pivots, or the resilience to keep excelling in challenging circumstances.
- Culture as a Competitive Advantage: Companies that prioritize culture fit and enhancement in their hiring process have an almost inexhaustible resource for reinforcing core values and generating can-do positivity. Your culture will also attract additional talent who appreciate an environment where the best workers aren’t just on the bus, they’re plotting the course around road blocks and driving forward.
- Execution Excellence: This is where great strategy and great talent intersect. The right “Whos” will help you identify the right “Whats” and fine-tune best practices to get things done. And if objectives or systems need to change, your talent will will help you anticipate the need to course correct.
How to Put “Who” First in 5 Steps:
1. Assess who’s on the bus now.
Instruct your team leaders to make a list of all their direct reports. Tell them to ask themselves, “Would you hire this person again today?” The CEO should answer the same question about their c-suite executives and managers. Any “No’s” who can’t be coached up quickly shouldn’t have a seat on your bus.
2. Define the “right people” for your culture.
Shiny resumes have tricked many CEOs into overlooking obvious talent mismatches. As important as skills and experience are, people who don’t embody your company’s values and care about a mission beyond profit are never going to excel at the jobs you need them to do, and are never going to make your company better.
3. Hire for character, train for skill.
Your competitors are probably looking at the same stack of resumes you are. Flip your hiring process around and think about the aspects of your business and your best employees that can’t be taught. A hard worker who’s passionate about customer service, curious, supportive of coworkers, and willing to do the heavy lifting to get a project over the finish line is going to excel no matter where they worked before.
4. Make the Tough People Calls
It’s never easy letting go of long-time employees who can’t keep up with the rate of change at your company. Likewise, it might be tempting to keep a sales ace who hits his quotas but doesn’t work well with others. Be forthright about your decision and try to make the glidepath to another company as smooth as possible.
5. Put people in the right seats.
In other words, optimize your talent. Your best people should be in a position to put their top skills to their highest uses. Give them the support they need to spend as little time as possible on anything else, whether that means hiring additional administrative staff or implementing AI upgrades to your workflow. Use scoreboards and meeting rhythms to maintain a high level of clarity and accountability around objectives.
Beware 3 Who-First Pitfalls
As much as they may try to fall back on logic and reason when making decisions, CEOs are people too. Prioritizing the people who work for you is going to test your EQ skills and, potentially, put you in some uncomfortable situations as a leader.
Jim Collins warns CEOs not to let a focus on “Who” lead them into one of these pitfalls:
1. Holding on to “legacy players” who no longer fit.
CEO Coaching International founder and CEO Mark Moses often asks struggling leaders, “When was the last time you fired someone too soon?” Usually, the answer is, “Never.” Sometimes the most beneficial thing you can do for a legacy player is help them move on to the next stage of their career with dignity and grace before their performance causes problems or embarrassment.
2. Over-relying on pedigree instead of potential.
Everyone starts somewhere. Your company should be a great place for motivated workers to begin an exciting new chapter, not a pit stop for a hired gun who just wants to burnish their resume.
3. Confusing “loyalty” with “alignment.”
Beware employees who are muttering about “the old way” or “saving the company I love from itself.” There’s a BIG difference between honoring a company’s past and getting stuck in it, especially when the world around you is evolving this rapidly.
“Who” Will Make BIG Happen?
“When facing chaos and uncertainty, and you cannot possibly predict what’s coming around the corner,” writes Jim Collins, “your best ‘strategy’ is to have a busload of people who can adapt to and perform brilliantly no matter what comesnext.”
That’s a principle that any CEO can follow as they adjust their 2025 road maps.
Start by assessing who’s on your bus, who shouldn’t be, and who needs to be.
If “First Who” is a difficult mindset switch, work with a CEO coach who can bring a fresh perspective to your org chart. Filling those seats with the right people may be the difference between stalling, crashing, and Making BIG Happen.
If you don’t have a coach and want one to help you prepare your business during this quickly evolving landscape, fill out the form below to take us up on a complimentary 1:1 coaching call.
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About CEO Coaching International
CEO Coaching International works with CEOs and their leadership teams to achieve extraordinary results quarter after quarter, year after year. Known globally for its success in coaching growth-focused entrepreneurs to meaningful exits, the firm has coached more than 1,500+ CEOs and entrepreneurs across 100+ industries and 60 countries. Its coaches—former CEOs, presidents, and executives—have led businesses ranging from startups to over $10 billion, driving double-digit sales and profit growth, many culminating in eight, nine, or ten-figure exits.
Companies that have worked with CEO Coaching International for two years or more have achieved an average revenue CAGR of 25.9%, nearly 3X the U.S. average, and an average EBITDA CAGR of 39.2%, more than 4X the national benchmark.
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