The Science of Top Performance
The Top Performer Profile (TPP) process is built upon the Core Values Index to help any business—small or large—better align the right employees with the right work. This methodology answers a fundamental question: What core values combination predicts success in a specific role?
By analyzing your current top performers, the TPP creates a scientific benchmark that can be used to screen all future candidates. This isn’t about finding people who look like your current stars—it’s about identifying the inner nature that drives their success.
Why Experience Alone Doesn’t Predict Success
Traditional hiring focuses on skills, experience, and qualifications. These factors are important, but they don’t predict fit. Two salespeople with identical backgrounds and training may perform very differently because of their inner core values.
The remedy for performance mismatches is to better understand employees through developmental assessment and align their work with their inner capacities to be a certain kind of contributor, doing a certain kind of work. The TPP process does exactly this—but at the hiring stage, before mismatches occur.
How the TPP Process Works
Creating a Top Performer Profile involves several key steps:
- Identify Your Top Performers: Select the A-players in the target role—those who consistently exceed expectations and thrive in the position.
- Assess Their Core Values: Have each top performer complete the CVI to reveal their core values profile.
- Analyze the Pattern: Identify the common core values themes among your top performers.
- Create the Benchmark: Develop a scientific profile that defines the ideal candidate for this role.
- Screen Future Candidates: Compare all incoming candidates against this benchmark before investing in interviews.
The Core Values That Drive Results
Different roles require different core values combinations. A leadership role may require strong Builder energy for decisive action. A customer service position may thrive with Merchant values for relationship building. Technical roles often align with Innovator problem-solving or Banker precision.
The TPP process reveals which combination drives success in your specific context. The same role at two different companies may require different profiles based on company culture, team composition, and strategic priorities.
Guaranteed Hiring Results
When you align candidate CVI profiles with scientifically validated role requirements, you transform hiring from hope to prediction. Instead of wondering whether a new hire will work out, you have objective data indicating fit.
Companies using the TPP process report dramatic improvements in hiring outcomes. The performance bell curve shifts from the typical 10% A performers toward much higher percentages. Turnover decreases because people are in roles that match their inner nature.
Beyond Hiring: Development and Retention
The TPP process also reveals opportunities for developing current employees. When you understand the core values profile that predicts success in leadership, you can identify high-potential employees whose inner nature aligns with future roles.
This creates a development pathway based on inner fit rather than just current performance. An excellent individual contributor may not have the core values for management—or they may have exactly the right profile for a leadership track.
The Cost of Wrong Hires
Putting the right person in the right seat is the single most important task of any business leader. If this is not done correctly, all the training in the world will not produce the desired outcome. The costs of wrong hires include:
- Salary and benefits for underperformers
- Training investments that don’t produce returns
- Management time spent on performance issues
- Team disruption and morale impact
- Customer relationship damage
- Replacement costs when the hire eventually fails
The TPP process prevents these costs by ensuring fit before hiring.
What Rafer Johnson Knew
Rafer Johnson, the 1962 Olympic Decathlon Gold Medal Winner, said it best: “Employees should be all they can be. Because if they are, the company can be all it can be.” The TPP process ensures you hire people into roles where they can truly be all they can be—where their inner nature aligns with the work.
This creates conditions for excellence. When employees work in alignment with their core values, they engage fully, contribute their best, and find fulfillment in their work. The company benefits from their peak performance.
Create Your Top Performer Profile
Ready to build a scientific benchmark for hiring success? Learn how the Top Performer Profile process can help you consistently hire A-players who thrive in their roles.