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Topgrading, 3rd Edition: The Proven Hiring and Promoting Method That Turbocharges Company Performance Kindle Edition
Great companies, large and small, rise or fall because of their talent; the more high performers on your team, the more successful your organization will be. Of course, that’s easier said than done. Research shows that only about 25% of all new hires turn out to be high performers.
But companies that have used Brad Smart’s Topgrading system over the past two decades have boosted their hiring success rates dramatically—sometimes even to 90%.
Three huge problems account for the typical poor results in hiring: dishonesty (via deceptive résumés), incomplete information (via shallow interviews), and lack of verifiability (via biased references). Topgrading shows how to solve all three problems. Instead of hiring by your gut reactions to résumés and interviews, you can start using a scientifically honed process that compels candidates to be totally honest.
Smart, one of the world’s foremost experts on hiring, has personally helped hundreds of companies double, triple, or even quadruple their hiring success rates. His clients have ranged from global giants such as General Electric and Honeywell to midsize and small businesses in every field imaginable, and to not-for-profits such as the American Heart Association. And hundreds of thousands of readers have applied the lessons and tools of the first two editions of Topgrading.
The Topgrading system makes hiring easier, faster, and more successful than any other process. And it works at every level, from the front lines to senior management.
For the first time in seven years, Smart has fully revised and updated Topgrading with many new tools, techniques, and case studies. This edition now features 40 companies of all sizes, across a wide range of industries and home countries. It’s the most advanced and useful version of Topgrading ever. The third edition includes:
- Simplified Topgrading methods for entry-level jobs.
- The new Topgrading Snapshot, which screens out weak candidates in just 15 seconds.
- The latest version of the acclaimed Topgrading Interview script.
- Case studies from 35 companies not featured in any previous edition.
- Many additional innovations created by Topgraders.
Topgrading isn’t just about hiring and promoting—it’s also about developing talent. It enables leaders to reward their A Players, coach their Bs to become As, and weed out the Cs who are beyond improvement.
Many great leaders know that Topgrading works. Find out how it can help your company gain a big competitive advantage.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPortfolio
- Publication date16 August 2012
- Reading age18 years and up
- File size6260 KB
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Review
--KEN CAMP, CEO, Hillenbrand
"The Topgrading interview process is one of the best tools in our arsenal for getting an in-depth understanding of high-potential managers. It probably improved our success promoting high-potential managers from maybe 50% to over 80%."
--BILL CONATY, former Senior Vice President of Human Resources, General Electric
"The most valuable management skill a person can have is the ability to produce high-talent teams. Nothing else even comes close. That's why Brad Smart's Topgrading approach should be a top priority process in your organization."
--PRICE PRITCHETT, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO, PRITCHETT LP
"Topgrading is the best practice I know of for hiring and promoting people who turn out to be A Players. In a not-for-profit, that can translate into raising more money to educate the public, and that can save lives . . . Having the best talent at every salary level is crucial."
--CASS WHEELER, former CEO, American Heart Association
"Turnover came down, and sales and profits skyrocketed. With 98% hiring success due to Topgrading, the business took off."
--JACK HARRINGTON, then CEO, Virtual Technology, now CEO, Thales Raytheon Systems
"When I look back at the dramatic success of our company, I can clearly point to the implementation of Topgrading as the pivotal moment that made our success possible. I implore every business owner to make Topgrading mandatory. A Topgraded team is the ultimate secret weapon to crush the competition."
--RICHARD ROSSI, Co-Founder, EnvisionEMI
"We've Topgraded the entire company and our sales and profits have soared."
--ORRIN KLOPPER, CEO, Netsurit
About the Author
Visit www.Topgrading.com
Product details
- ASIN : B0074VTH02
- Publisher : Portfolio; Revised, Updated edition (16 August 2012)
- Language : English
- File size : 6260 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 364 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : B00D9T9712
- Best Sellers Rank: 192,254 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 11 in Industrial Business Management
- 45 in Industrial Management & Leadership
- 76 in Business Teams
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Brad is frequently acknowledged as the world’s foremost expert on hiring. Brad’s firm, Topgrading, Inc., consults with many leading companies and hundreds of small and growth companies helping them pack their teams with A Players. Brad has interviewed over 6,500 candidates for hire and promotion to executive positions.
Background:
Brad has been married to wife Mary since 1969, has 11 grandchildren, and competes in Masters Springboard Diving. In his age group he occasionally wins, because better divers eventually drop out and Brad is the “last man … springing!” He completed his doctorate in Management Psychology at Purdue University, entered consulting, and since the 1970s has been in private practice as CEO of Topgrading, Inc., based in the Chicago area.
He is author of eight books, most of which are Amazon, Fortune, and Wall Street Journal best sellers.
The latest book is: Foolproof Hiring: Powerful, Proven Keys to Hiring High Performers, co-authored by his president, Chris Mursau. Also popular is the most complete Topgrading “textbook,” Topgrading, 3rd Edition: The Proven Hiring And Promoting Method That Turbocharges Company Performance. In addition to writing books on hiring, he and daughter Dr. Kate Mursau wrote Smart Parenting, How To Raise Can-Do Kids.
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It then reduces human personality to A-players, and B and C players.
The A players are those who will work their bums off and are also gullible enough to be manipulated into accepting low pay.
The B and C players are everyone else.
On top of this horrendously bad take on team building and running a modern business, the book is simply very badly written. It is repetitive, and needy, and about half of it is trying to justify its premise without offering any (none, zero) evidence, other than name-dropping and random bombastic claims (backed with zero evidence).
The author also writes a lot about himself and how great he is, not surprising given that his mug covers most of the front page.
Nominative determinism doesn’t always work….

Also recommend this book for any job seekers! Understand what you are up against and make sure you bring your A game to an interview! Who you are will come out- welcome the thoroughness of the process and be glad you are an A player!