Stop using this tool for your talent assessment! | Issue #214
Why any fast-growing company should bin the nine-box talent grid
Does your company use the nine-box talent grid? It’s a core model beloved by HR Departments around the world. You can tell how prolific it is from the number of Google records when you search for it – more than 13 million! And you know what? It makes my blood boil!
I hate it with a passion—even more than I hate annual appraisals (and that’s saying something). When a new client tells me they use it, I inwardly moan. It’s total garbage. Worse than that, it’s a model for mediocrity that has the potential to stunt your growth.

Creating Businesses that Bring Joy to Work with Jay Radia
Have you ever felt that you’re in a job that doesn’t fit your genius, but you’re not sure how to find your real purpose? Then don’t miss Jay Radia on this episode of The Melting Pot.
Having spent a few years in banking, working in a job that didn’t bring him the joy he was after, Jay realised his unique expertise lay in coming up with ideas that need to be funded.
Today, Jay is the founder of startup studio, Bliss Growth. And he has founded three tech startups – the first three got to £1 million in 12 months, and two of them got to £10 million in three years.
In this episode, Jay shares what the challenges of coming up with new ideas and funding rapid trajectory are, and what he’s learned along the way, and how he got comfortable with not being the CEO anymore.
This is a truly insightful episode from a passionate entrepreneur, download and listen.
Recommended Podcasts

Happy Millionaire will help you become a happier more successful entrepreneur. Hosts Jay Radia and Dr Rupy Aujla will break down frameworks & principles for building a successful company whilst living a happy life – and we have fun doing it.
Recommended Articles

Designing a Thoughtful Return to the Office
With rising anxiety, illness, and awareness of inequalities, leaders are also calling for more self-care, more recognition of each individual’s uniqueness, and more allowance for each person to live and work as they will. It is very hard to prioritize a strong WE and a strong ME at the same time. Great piece by podcast guest Elise Keith.

6 Factors That Determine Your Company’s Valuation
Investors consult detailed, quantitative models before making decisions. Shouldn’t corporate managers have a similar understanding of how the market values their company, so they can make informed decisions to maximize shareholder value? An EY-Parthenon analysis of quarterly data from thousands of companies in hundreds of industries over a period of 20 years has identified six critical factors that account for most of the variability in market valuations.

How to Encourage Your Team to Give You Honest Feedback
As a manager, it’s your job to ask your employees for feedback on your own performance. How else will you know what you should keep doing and what you should be doing differently? Nevertheless, you might find that your direct reports are reluctant to give you the feedback you need to improve, or even sustain, what’s working. This article addresses five common barriers that managers face in getting helpful feedback from direct reports, and how to address them so that you can gain the insights you need.
Recommended Reads

High Conflict by Amanda Ripley
When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side”—in our politics, at work, or at home—it’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over. That’s what “high conflict” does. It’s the invisible hand of our time. And it’s different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That’s good conflict, and it’s a necessary force that pushes us to be better people.High conflict, by contrast, is what happens when discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them. In this state, the normal rules of engagement no longer apply. The brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side. New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict—and how they break free.
News From The Farm

Less than two weeks – Scale Up workshop
Join Dominic Monkhouse for the last Scale Up workshop of the year – a 5-hour session to get away from the noise, work ON the business and leave with the confidence you need to spin uncertainty into success.
Dominic will share his expertise and knowledge along with some great examples of how other successful businesses have made it to the top to inspire you in your own growth journey.
Hurry – only 5 seats left.
Get your seat now
Upcoming Events
CEO Bootcamp with Verne Harnish & Dominic Monkhouse – 28th-31st March, 2023
3 days to work deeply “on” the business, and address questions that will break open your creative side – in addition to Verne’s one-on-one sessions – is the power of the event. The CEOs and their #2s who participated in last Vail CEO Boot Camp unanimously said that it was ‘the most impactful executive education they’ve experienced’.
Limited offer for 8 CEOs and their #2’s.
28th-31st March, 2023, Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa, near Bath (UK).
Quote of the week
“Leaders set high standards. Refuse to tolerate mediocrity or poor performance.”
Brian Tracy
Dominic Monkhouse
Dominic offers business coaching and management development, strategy planning and organisational change, using tried and tested methods to launch your organisation onto an unparalleled growth trajectory. His programme is a function of his broad experience, his deep expertise and a proven process used by over 2,700 firms worldwide.