Good to Great?

I just finished devouring Jim Collins’ Good to Great this week, and find myself thinking of it more in personal than business terms as it was intended. Throughout the book, written to decode the secrets between ‘good’ and ‘great’ comanies, Collins constantly refers to “getting the wrong people off the bus and the right people on the bus in the right seats.”

Looking back at the last year or so, I’ve been doing just that. Cutting out those who are toxic or ‘energy vampires’ and spending more time with those that I want on my bus. Most of these decisions were pretty clear cut - people were either decidedly right or wrong. The conundrum I’ve run into lately is not with these people, but with those left in the grey area. The ones who might be right if put in the right seats, but who might also just not be a good fit. How many second (or third, fourth, fifth….) chances or “seats” do these people get before being asked to hop off the bus at the next stop? And is it even fair to do that? Is it useful or logical to take principles of business (a known cut-throat world) and apply them to personal development? Should we just pipe down and take people as they are, embracing the inevitable crazy of them all? Are we too quick to eliminate people when they hold a totally different, possibly conflicting set of values?

As I write that, I can’t help but think of some advice a friend gave me right around this time last year as my world was just starting to turn upside down. I asked him, “when do you know enough is enough?” His answer was so simple, “When you need to ask that question.”

Any thoughts?