Leadership Summit [Ashish Nanda]

The second day launched with Bill Hybels interviewing Ashish Nanda, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. Nanda uses a case study about Willow Creek Community Church each year.

He talked about the risky business of hiring peak performers from outside your organization. Nanda did his research on stock analysts. His research showed:

1. The performance of the “star employees” goes down in the new organization
2. The performance of the team in the new organization also goes down
3. Performance dropped the most in situations where “stars” are added to existing teams rather than launching new initiatives
4. More damage is done when “stars” are hired from top tier organizations and hired into second tier organizations. “Stars,” on average, won’t do their “magic” in smaller organizations.

How does this apply to churches? Even if the churches have similar values, the performance of the “star” is likely to go down. Nanda suggested if hiring stars:

1. It’s better to also hire the team around them. (Unlikely.)
2. It’s better to hire someone from the outside if starting something new rather than strengthening and existing team.

Three strategies for developing your team:

• Grow your own stars and do everything you can to hold on to them.
• Go buy your your stars.
• Grow your own stars. Don’t try to keep them. Lose your stars. Try to build more stars.

Obviously the first strategy is the best strategy. That strategy outperforms the other two. The best staff is developed from within your organization.