3 Traits of Top 2% Performers

By Dave Lucas | What Makes Us Different?

Mar 09

As you may already know. Xenitho is a division of Dawning Truth. It is a rebranding of the old Dawning Truth Recruitment.

What you may not know is that Dawning Truth started out as a Personal Development company. Our primary goal was to help people awaken the greatness in themselves.

I remember in the early days trying to discover the secrets of uncommon success so that we could teach them to our customers.

What a fascinating time. We spent every Saturday afternoon researching the greats such as Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Lee, Nelson Mandela and Richard Branson.

We were trying to uncover the secret difference between those that changed the world and those that were changed by the world.

And eventually we did.

These secrets were compiled in the book, “Become Great and Powerful”. Which you can read on Amazon Kindle Here.

Now you may be asking yourself, “What has this got to do with finding me an army of Top 2% performers?”

The answer is, “Everything”.

Because we studied so many successful people, we started to build up a database of success traits. The key behaviours, attributes, attitudes and brain profiles of top performers.

This is the same information we use today to benchmark all our candidates to evaluate if they will be top performers.

So, you may be thinking to yourself. “That’s good to know. I wish I had that information when making a hiring decision.”

Unfortunately, we can’t share all our secrets with you. As they are proprietary, and one of the key elements that makes us unique as a Talent Search Consultancy.

However, we know you are desperately looking for new ways to asses if you are about to hire a dud.

So, in this post I’ll share 3 traits of top performers. Just to be nice… Suppose I’m in a generous mood today.

So here they are:

” Driver Brain Profile
” Sustained Work Effort
” “Can Do” Attitude

So let’s look at them further.

Driver Brain Profile

At the time of writing this article, we will have interviewed something like 5000 top performers. Whew! That is a lot of work.

And time and time again, we always see the same pattern.

Driver Brain Profile.

This trait is actually very accurately identified by our in-house Brain Profile assessment which we use on all candidates we submit. It is also used to great affect by our in-house training clients.

What we have all noticed is that people with Driver Brian Profiles are the people who move and shake the world.

They are the people who make it happen.

So, if you don’t have Xenitho’s in-house assessment, can you still determine if someone is a driver?

You can get rough idea. Unfortunately, it will still be a bit incomplete. Essentially look for someone who takes control of a situation. They are more than likely a driver. Also, look for someone who is achievement orientated. This is normally a trait of Drivers.

However if you really want to know for sure, there is no substitute for Xenitho’s in-house assessment.

Sustained Work Effort

This is another trait that emerges like clockwork.

There can be no success without effort, dedication and drive to completion.

I think we all instinctively know this.

But how do you measure it on a CV?

The answer is. You can’t.

CVs and interviews don’t show you how hard someone works. They just show you how good they are at selling themselves. Which may be a problem. Because we often find that the best people are shy to really put their achievements in their CVs or to brag in interviews. They tend to be humble sort of people, who don’t like to show off. As a result, they often have very bland, boring and frankly unimpressive CVs.

We cannot tell you how many times we have told a top-performer to upgrade their CV as they are underselling themselves.

So is there any way to determine if someone is hard-working and will put in sustained effort? The answer is yes.

Unfortunately, you need a complex combination of behavioural assessments and our brain profile assessment. All of which are proprietary to Xenitho.

If you don’t have these tools, you will have to take a chance or guess. And we all know how well that works.

The problem, is you normally only discover how well someone works after you hire them. And by then it is too late.

I must admit it took us about 3 years to figure out how to assess this at Xenitho. So, yes, it’s not easy to do.

“Can Do” Attitude

This is one that you can assess in an interview.

Successful people are doers. Not just talkers.

They get things done. Take action. And produce results.

To do this they need a ‘Can Do” attitude.

To assess this trait during an interview is simple.

Get the person to start talking about working overtime and see where they go.

Do they complain about too much overtime, or do they say that it is needed to achieve objectives?

The person who is happy to do overtime, is also happy to put in extra effort–with a smile.

They are the people with a “Can Do” Attitude.
So, there you have it, 3 traits of Top Performers.

In Conclusion…

At Xenitho we check a myriad of attributes before we send candidates.

We proud ourselves in finding the best and referring the best to our clients. The top 2% high impact performers.

Our processes are proven and benchmarked against humanities greatest achievers.

That is why you can trust us with your next critical hire.

Contact us today to hire a Top 2% performer.

About the Author

Dave Lucas is the CEO of Xenitho. He has been sourcing Top 2% High-Impact performers since 2010. He is also the author of the book, "Become Great and Powerful.