After having talked about the Level 5 leaders, let’s have a look at the central concept “first who, then what”.

First get the right people (on the right seats) on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it.

If you begin with WHO rather than WHAT

• If people join the bus because of who else is on the bus, then it’s much easier to change direction to be more successful. 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 be part of creating something great.

If you begin with WHAT rather than WHO

• If you have the wrong people, it doesn’t matter whether you discover the right direction; you still won’t have a great company. Great vision without great people is irrelevant.

Are you rigorous or ruthless?

• To be ruthless means hacking and cutting, especially in difficult times, or wantonly firing people without any thoughtful consideration.
• To be rigorous means consistently applying exacting standards at all times and at all levels, especially in upper management.
• To be rigorous not ruthless, means that the best people need not worry about their positions and can concentrate fully on their work.

How to be rigorous:

1. When in doubt, don’t hire – keep looking.
2. When you need to make a people change, act.
3. Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not on your biggest problems.