There is no such thing as an infallible judge of people. There are, however, a few executives who take their people decisions seriously and work at them.

What are some of the basic principles?

• If I put a person into a job and he or she does not perform, I have made a mistake. I have no business blaming that person.

• The soldier has a right to competent command. Therefore, it is the duty of managers to make sure that the responsible people in their organizations perform.

• Of all the decisions an executive makes, none is as important as the decisions about people because they determine the performance capacity of the organization. Therefore, I’d better make these decisions well.

• The one “don’t”: Don’t give new people major assignments, for doing so only compounds the risks. Give this sort of assignment to someone whose behavior and habits you know and who has earned trust and credibility within your organization. Put a high-level newcomer first into an established position where the expectations are known and help is available.

Few important steps in making effective promotion and staffing decisions are…

• Think through the assignment. The terms of the assignment can be quite different on each occasion. For example, when the task is to select a new regional sales manager, the responsible executive must first know what the heart of the assignment is: to recruit and train new salespeople, because, say, the present sales force is nearing retirement age? Or is it to open up new markets because the company’s products, though doing well with old-line industries in the region, have not been able to penetrate new and growing markets? Each of these is a different assignment and requires a different kind of person.

• Look at a number of potentially qualified people. The person and the assignment need to fit each other. To make an effective decision, an executive should look at three to five qualified candidates.

• Think hard about how to look at these candidates. The central question is not, “What can this or that candidate do or not do? It is, rather, “What are the strengths each possesses and are these the right strengths for the assignment? Weaknesses are limitations, which may, of course, rule a candidate out. But effective executives do not start out by looking at weaknesses. You cannot build performance on weaknesses. You can build only on strengths.

• Discuss each of the candidates with several people who have worked with them. One executive’s judgment alone is worthless. Because all of us have first impressions, prejudices, likes, and dislikes, we need to listen to what other people think.

• Make sure the appointee understands the job. After the appointee has been in a new job for three or four months, he or she should be focusing on the demands of that job rather than on the requirements of preceding assignments.

If you do not follow this step, don’t blame the candidate for poor performance. Blame yourself. You have failed in your duty as a manager. The largest single source of failed promotions – is the failure to think through, and help others think through, what a new job requires. It is not intuitively obvious to most people that a new and different job requires new and different behavior. Almost fifty years ago, the boss of Peter Drucker challenged him four months after he had advanced him to a far more responsible position. Until the boss called him in, he had continued to do what he had done before. To the boss’ credit, he understood that it was his responsibility to make him see that a new job means different behavior, a different focus, and different relationships.

Source Drucker, Peter The Essential Drucker, 96-99. Elsevier, 2007