Staff With Eagles
When it comes to a person’s character, there is an old saying: “You can’t expect to soar with the eagles in the daytime, if you fly with the buzzards at night.” The same might be said for staffing. You can’t select buzzards and expect to build a high-flying organization.
While writing Chess Not Checkers, it became clear early in the process to create the type of organization that could win consistently, it would be critical for people to Act as One. However, a new insight surfaced along the way – It is much easier to align the “right people.” This simple observation, witnessed time and time again, compelled us to add Staff with Eagles as one of the best practices of High Performance Organizations.
Randy Gravitt and I wrote about the importance of Staffing with Eagles in the Chess Not Checkers Field Guide. The following is from that section in the guide.
When it comes to a person’s character, there is an old saying: “You can’t expect to soar with the eagles in the daytime, if you fly with the buzzards at night.” The same might be said for staffing. You can’t select buzzards and expect to build a high-flying organization.
The people you surround yourself with will determine the quality and direction of your organization as well as your level of effectiveness.
If you hope to create a High Performance Organization, you better make sure you attract great talent.
“Talent matters.” Every coach will tell you, “Winning is not as much about the X’s and O’s as it is the Jimmy’s and Joe’s.” You can have the best plan in the world, and even communicate it in a compelling way, yet still not reach high performance. The determining factor will always be your level of talent. Winners are never satisfied with being good. They continually look to distance themselves from the competition, understanding that the team with the best talent has the best chance of winning.
One of the best practices for High Performance Organizations is to Staff with Eagles. They recruit aggressively with a focus on attracting the brightest and best. They set high standards and seek to raise performance at all levels. And when someone is no longer a cultural fit, they courageously make hard decisions and remove him or her from the team. Can the same be said for you?
What do you look for when there is an empty seat in your organization? Are you constantly on the lookout for winners? Is your team stronger than it was a year ago? Do you have people that can take you to the next level, or if a gap exists, are you willing to make a difficult decision?
If you intend to be a High Performance Organization, recruit the best, select the best, retain the best, and accept no less … Staff with Eagles.
How much time and energy do you invest in finding the right people to join your organization?

Meet The Author, Mark Miller
Mark Miller’s passion is serving leaders. He has traveled to dozens of countries around the world in an effort to fulfill his calling. Whether speaking to global audiences or individual leaders, his message is consistent and pragmatic: Lead Every Day.
His career at Chick-fil-A began over 40 years ago as an hourly team member in one of the local
restaurants. Shortly after that, he became Chick-fil-A’s 16th corporate employee. Since that day, he
has worked all across the business but recently retired as the Vice President of High-Performance
Leadership, where he was a principal architect in building Chick-fil-A’s renowned high-performance
leadership culture
For the last twenty-five years, he focused much of his time on helping the organization grow its
leadership capacity. Mark and his team at Chick-fil-A invested a quarter century and tens of millions
of dollars searching for and validating ideas that work. Over the years, they focused on numerous
topics, including High-Performance Teams, High-Performance Organizations, Employee Engagement, Execution, Personal Leadership Effectiveness, and, most recently, Culture. These projects have each culminated in globally acclaimed books. Today, over one million copies of Mark’s books are available in 25+ translations, including national bestsellers and a Wall Street Journal Bestseller. His approach to writing and speaking has always been to find what is true in principle and apply it to the real world. Because of this, Mark is best known for his ability to unlock the full potential of executives and teams to create High-Performance leaders and organizations.
When not practicing or studying leadership, Mark is an avid photographer. His expeditions have taken him to some of the world’s most difficult-to-reach destinations. He has photographed silverback gorillas in the jungles of Rwanda, the icebergs of Antarctica, the Maasai warriors in East Africa, Nepalese culture at Everest Base Camp, and much more. More adventures are in the works.
Mark is married to Donna, his high school sweetheart. They recently celebrated their 40th wedding
anniversary. Mark and Donna have two sons, Justin and David. Justin is married to Lindsey and they have three children: Addie, Logan and Finn. If you are a follower of Mark on social media, you will likely see them make a debut on his Instagram feed.
Learn more about Mark: LeadEveryDay.com