Butler, the Big Dance, and Bull’s Eye Job Fit
I am positively euphoric this week after watching my Butler Bulldogs bring a juicy Final Four bone home to their own backyard! As a member of the very first “Barry’s Bad Dogs” student cheering section more than a decade ago (now known simply as the “Bad Dogs” since Barry Collier is the AD while Brad Stevens has the coaching reins at Butler), it is amazing to realize what my alma mater’s team has accomplished in the last ten years.
There’s a lot of talk about The Butler Way. While it has certainly been defined, anyone familiar with the style of Butler basketball knows that it is a distinct, disciplined, collaborative way of playing the game, grooming the players, and emphasizing athletics and academics. It is a culture in itself.
With any culture, as values are increasingly well defined, individuals involved in the group enjoy a synergy and understand how to work in a way that promotes the most efficiency and success for the group. If an individual’s behavior, skills, cognitive ability and personality are a natural complement to the group culture, he or she is sure to achieve his or her full potential and contribute to the success of the group.
The Bulldogs’ continued effort to recruit players that subscribe to their culture is paying off in a big way. But in your organization, do you have a clear vision of your culture and how it translates into bull’s eye job fit for your employees and future hires? And if you do, great, but how do you then measure and assess an individual’s likelihood of superior job performance? You use employee assessments as part of your talent management process.
Sure, you think you have done a decent job of screening and hiring successful employees without assessments so far. Most of your hires work out, some don’t. I challenge you to think about whether your current caliber of teammates and talent acquisition processes would barely qualify you for the NCAA Tournament; or, would you make it to the Final Four and win the championship in your industry?
Image credit: Nikko Bulldog 
by sabianmaggy (contact)
