The Tipping Point

By: Chris Pace

Possibly the most important action in a business is hiring, training, coaching and developing new employees at all levels of the organization. Never is this process more impactful (and volatile) than during the first 6 months of a new employee’s tenure. While this is not breaking news for most of us, I think it’s always a good idea to touch base on this phenomenon and consider how we encourage success as opposed to hoping for a positive result.

Please view this short video describing the Tipping Point – a concept developed into a book by Malcolm Gladwell.

Certainly the “tipping point” for a new employee is something we have all experienced but perhaps have not followed the process of discovering the reason for their success or failure. Certainly, there’s a qualitative conversation to be had about when a new employee decides to quit or is prompted to leave. Clearly this is a conversation we would all benefit from.

Glidewell gives us an interesting perspective on better understanding the various roles employees, new or experienced, play in every organization. Think about your company, it’s people, and how they function and interact with each other daily. Let’s start with:

The Law of The Few

Consider the variables discussed in the video. At the precipice of this moment between success and failure (the tipping point) are the people that define The Law of theFew. These are the ‘special’ people in the world that translate a new thing, process or product –to make it successful and reach the tipping point in their career within our organization. 

These people are:

Mavens: They likely know product, industry news, and are constantly seeking new, innovative developments within their scope of organizational control

Connectors: These are the phenomenal networking employees that seem to know everyone, remember the names of family members, receive holiday and birthday gifts and always have a “guy/gal for that”

Salesmen: These are the persuaders; the employees who (with the intel from Mavens and the opportunity via Connectors) can engage the new thing or concept and steward business development and get others to follow along. They’re also the folks that close the sales deals.

That said, how can you make it possible to start searching for these qualities in your next employee?

How often do you ask of an applicant?

–          Do you consider yourself Innovative or cutting edge?

–          If you’re in a room full of strangers, what does your experience look like after 30 minutes?

–          Are you able to persuade others to commit to something new and exciting without being forceful? Describe that process.

It seems to me that we can better qualify the employees that we hire by asking some of these core questions to determine if they have those three attributes. This leads us to our next step in Tipping Point success:

The Stickiness Factor.

The Stickiness Factor is the unique and interesting personality that an employee brings to the role. This is defined by thousands of things, but it’s the secret sauce of a successful new addition to the team. Most competitors can compete with price and even service, but they cannot compete with personality and relationships. Many business models are aligned with letting employees run their own business within a business so finding the right person to let their proverbial “freak flag” fly is the key to providing genuine, authentic, and memorable service. And if they’re simply serving in a collaborative role with less autonomy… it’s even more important that they be their truest and genuine selves with their team, so guards are down, and collaboration and creativity are high. Lastly, let’s consider

The Power of Context.

This is simply the timeliness of a shared idea… Or as most would call it, follow-up. Time and time again, it has been confirmed across many industries, that one major obstacle to organizational growth is employees – often new ones – stop or never truly start engaging with clients in a robust and constant manner. This non-action simply relegates your business to the next, wasted opportunity. This disengagement is never more impactful than when follow-up is not efficient, timely, and accurately executed.

That said, I would urge you to consider the process of a successful employee based on the qualifying characteristics that make up the components of the Tipping Point Theory. In fact, if you look closely, I suspect you will find that your top performers and rising stars already execute those three components right now. We just need to quantify and qualify those attributes a bit more precisely as we search for our next shining star or as we coach and teach our new team members on the path to success!

I hope you all start Tipping success in your direction.