Hire drivers and fire passengers

One of my biggest takeaways from Frank Slootman’s book Amp It Up is the concept of drivers versus passengers. Finding, recruiting, rewarding, and retaining drivers while parting ways with passengers should be an organization’s top priority.

Passengers are people content with riding a company’s momentum. They offer little or no input on the direction of the company. Passengers can often diagnose and articulate a problem but don’t do the heavy lifting to solve it.

Drivers are people who make things happen. They feel a strong sense of ownership and demand high standards from themselves and those around them. Drivers are problem solvers.

Passengers are often kind and get along with everyone. They blend in. They avoid taking strong positions at the risk of being wrong, so they can take any side of an issue depending on what’s safest.

Drivers own their responsibilities, take and defend clear positions, argue for their preferred strategies, and make an impact. They do not blend in. They exude energy, urgency, ambition, and boldness.

Passengers are mostly dead weight and even inadvertently undermine high performance by sapping the urgency and intensity it needs to thrive. That’s why they’re the first to be thrown overboard during a reduction in force (RIF) or layoff.

Drivers jobs are often secure during a RIF or layoff. Slootman suggests an organization’s performance often improves after a RIF because it rids itself of passengers and gives its drivers more responsibility.

Discussing the concept of drivers versus passengers makes people who are not sure if they’re drivers uncomfortable. Few people are drivers 100 percent of the time, but if you’re not confident you’re a driver, you’re probably too much of a passenger.

Have thoughts on this topic? I'd love to hear from you! I'm @RickLindquist on Twitter.