The GWC

Making sure your team "gets it," "wants it," and has the "capacity to do it" will ultimately determine the success of your company.

A principal from EOS (Traction) our team routinely comes back to is the GWC.

GWC stands for "Gets it, Wants it, and has the Capacity for it." If simplicity is your thing, there's no better way to evaluate your team (or yourself) than the GWC.

After nearly six years of using the GWC to evaluate our team (past, present, and future), it works.

Let's take a look at how to use this tool:

Gets It

What it Means

"Gets It" means the person clearly understands their role and how it fits into the larger ecosystem of your organization. It also means they understand their job description, what's important, what's not, how to prioritize their daily obligations, and what success in their role looks like.

How to Recognize It As An Issue

You'll know a team member does not "get it" if you're consistently perplexed by their decisions, what they say, and/or their actions. If you find yourself with a puzzled or incredulous look on your face, more often than not, you have someone that does not "get it."

How To Solve It

If it's genuinely a matter of them needing more information, tools, or sufficient experience in the role, then there's hope. You can arm them with the information, provide them with the tools and let them marinate in the role a bit longer. Upping the frequency of your interactions with them will be helpful, and feel free to review the core elements of their role with them daily. Yes, daily. It's startling how often we must be reminded of our north star.

How To Hire For It

How do you know if a candidate "gets it" before bringing them on board? My favorite question is something like this:

"Pete, if you and I were buddies, and we were meeting for a beer at the end of the day today, and you mentioned you had an interview for a new job today, and I asked, 'What is the job about?', what would you tell me?"

This is a more personal and less direct way of asking, "In your own words, tell me about the job description for this role you're applying for."

Be ready for the applicant to tell you something misaligned with the job description they read before applying. It's human nature to take in information and spin it into the story we want to hear. If this is the case, you may be dealing with an applicant that not only does not currently "get it" but may never "get it."

Wants It

What it Means

"Wants it" means the person has a burning desire to do the job excellently, plain and simple.

How to Recognize It As An Issue

This is pretty easy. Lack of "wants it" manifests itself in incomplete and inaccurate work, slow execution, a poor attitude, and/or questionable attendance. The Monday Tell is another sign that you have a "wants it" issue with a team member.

How To Solve It

In my experience, you can't solve this. If you have a team member that does not want to perform with excellence, there is nothing you can do but bring it up once, hope it changes, assume it won't change, and part ways. I've seen people go from "wanting it" to not "wanting it" from time to time, and usually, that's because of a personal issue that I also can't solve. It's best to cut your losses and move on.

How To Hire For It

I typically evaluate the "wants it" during the application process based on the energy they put into seeking the opportunity. I look for prompt responses to the communication, listen for signs they prepared well for our conversations, and gauge their follow-up after we interact.

A deep dive into their career history will also be telling, primarily if they've been promoted throughout their tenure within organizations they've been part of. People that are driven rise to the top and take on additional roles and responsibilities. Be on the lookout for this fantastic sign that they "want it!"

Has the Capacity To Do It

What it Means

Having the "capacity to do it" means the individual has the mental, physical, emotional, and relational health to do the job at a high level. This is the most common element of the GWC that causes people to move on or be asked to leave the team.

How to Recognize It As An Issue

In the end, lack of capacity reveals itself in poor results. Plain and simple. Identifying the sub-category of capacity (mental, physical, emotional, and relational) they are struggling with requires a deeper dive and many conversations. Still, in the end, you'll simply note a lack of performance.

How To Solve It

OK, good news, bad news here.

Good news: Capacity issues are almost always fixable. Humans are amazing creatures, and we can grow and develop far beyond what we think we can. We can get smarter, stronger, and healthier if we want to.

Bad news: It's really hard to overcome a capacity issue because it requires consistent, intentional hard work and practice, and 99% of the population isn't willing to invest the effort into shoring up their inadequate capacity.

All you can do is recognize the issue, bring it to the team member's attention, and work with them to develop an improvement plan. Other than that, it may not be the right role for the individual.

How To Hire For It

The absolute best way to evaluate capacity is a week-long working interview. Sometimes this is possible; sometimes it's not.

If it's not, you'll want to closely examine their past job performance. Find out exactly what they did in their previous roles. How did they do it? Why did they do it that way? If you're hiring someone for a role in which they do not have proof of doing that exact thing really well in the past, then you do not have a strong candidate for the role.

Conclusion

As you observe the world around you through the GWC framework, you'll start noticing GWC's strengths and weaknesses everywhere.

And don't be afraid to use the GWC on yourself as well. You may conclude that you aren't perfectly aligned for your role, even if that's CEO. I've known many business owners who made the mistake of confusing being a good business owner with a good business operator. And that, folks, is a lack of "gets it!"

Books of Note: I just finished another Erik Larson book, The Splendid and the Vile. Unlike many of his past works (like Devil in the White City, my favorite of his), this one is more straight history than it is a story about interesting characters in a historical context. In summary, it was likely more pure and accurate but a bit less entertaining.

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