When it comes to evaluating and optimizing human capital, radio's regiment divides into two disparate groups, one larger than the other. Valuation and debt loads now force many companies to view people purely as "expense" quantifying them as a line-item entry.

The other group views people as "assets," validating them by relative contribution and measured impact on the big picture. A case can be made that companies operating under this practice usually prevail long-term; if for no other reason than they develop stronger, more decisive leadership through higher retention. Hardly anyone at Wharton or Kellogg School would argue with the maxim that relative permanence and lower turnover yields greater return over an extended period of time. So, if the concept of vastly improving your company's leadership and core team retention intrigues you, take heart and consider the following tenets from ADG's Rules of Retention: 

• Move fast with reversible decisions; move slower with irreversible decisions, especially when they involve people. Once someone is gone, they're irretrievable.


• Popularity-per-share is a datum never seen on balance sheets so instead of seeking friendship, seek relative permanence with the people who have proven they matter most to your business model.


• You can attend endless symposia on recruiting, training, and retention, searching for a perfect formula for knowing when to stay with someone and when not to. We have always practiced a simple one-sentence question for making an irrevocable decision when faced with keeping or losing someone: "Has belief turned to hope?" Answered objectively, it will never fail you.


• Cemeteries are filled with indispensable people. One cannot become indispensable through press releases or resumes. The truly indispensible usually don't know they are.

As an exercise, overlay the following "expendability" criteria with your staff.

Most valuable / not expendable: a person meeting or exceeding objectives and closely following your systems to accomplish them. Next most valuable / least expendable: someone who is meeting or exceeding objectives, but not always following your system to the letter. Marginally valuable / justifiably expendable: a person not meeting objectives but attempting to follow your plan, slowly improving performance. Finally, least valuable / most expendable: someone neither meeting objectives nor conforming to your system.

Either we charge toward achievement or retreat to mediocrity. Perhaps the biggest improvement we can offer an organization comes with much sharper focus on developing people, retaining the winners (or those predicting to be), while making an agonizing reappraisal of those destined to hang back on the trail.