The People Analyzer^®: how to know if you have the right people in the right seats.

By Ray Myers · Professional EOS Implementer^® · Dallas–Fort Worth

The 3 a.m. conversation

Every business owner I work with in Dallas–Fort Worth has had the same 3 a.m. conversation with themselves. Someone on the team isn’t working out. You know it. Your other leaders know it. Nobody wants to say it out loud, because “isn’t working out” is vague, and vague reasons don’t hold up in a room, in a coaching plan, or in a courtroom.

The People Analyzer^® is the tool that makes the conversation specific. It answers two questions, in this order:

1. Is this person the right person for our company at all? (Do they share our core values?)
2. Is this person in the right seat? (Do they Get it, Want it, and have the Capacity to do it?)

Right person, right seat. Two independent tests. Failing either one is a problem. Failing both is a decision.

The tool, on one page

The People Analyzer is literally a grid. Names down the left. Your company’s core values across the top. Then three GWC columns at the end: Get it, Want it, Capacity to do it.

For each person, for each core value, you mark one of three things:

• Plus (+). They live this value most of the time.
• Plus/minus (+/−). Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
• Minus (−). They don’t live this value.

Then a bar: your company’s standard for staying on the team. Most healthy companies set the bar at three pluses, with the remaining columns as plus-or-better (no straight minuses). Yours might be higher or lower. What matters is that you set it, in writing, and apply it to everyone including the founder.

Then the three GWC columns get a simple yes or no:

• Get it. Do they truly understand the seat, the outcomes it’s responsible for, and how it fits into the business?
• Want it. Do they genuinely want the seat? Not tolerate it. Not do it because it pays. Want it.
• Capacity. Do they have the mental, physical, emotional, time, knowledge, and skills capacity to do the seat well?

Three yeses on GWC and above the bar on core values means right person, right seat. Anything else is a specific, name-able gap.

Why this works better than a performance review

A performance review measures output against last quarter’s goals. That’s useful, but it can’t answer the harder question: is this person going to be part of your company in three years, in the seat you actually need them in?

The People Analyzer separates the two questions most reviews confuse:

1. Are they a fit for our company? This is a values conversation, not a performance one. A top performer who bullies teammates is failing this test, and no output number changes that.
2. Are they a fit for this seat? This is a role conversation. A wonderful person in the wrong seat isn’t a bad person. They’re a misplacement. That’s a solvable problem, and often the solution isn’t termination, it’s reassignment.

Once you separate those two questions, the follow-up actions get obvious. Values failure with GWC pass: probably a “coach or exit” conversation, because values gaps rarely close by themselves. Values pass with GWC failure: often a “move to the right seat” conversation, and one of the most satisfying wins in EOS^®.

How to run a People Analyzer session

The tool works only if you use it the same way every quarter. The rhythm I use with DFW leadership teams:

1. Fill it out in private first. Each leader marks the whole leadership team, including themselves, before the meeting. No debate yet.
2. Compare notes in the room. One person at a time. Where everyone agrees, mark it. Where opinions split, discuss. This is where you learn what you’ve actually been tolerating.
3. Land on one row of ratings per person. Not an average. A discussed, agreed-upon read.
4. Decide next actions. For anyone below the bar or a “no” on GWC: a specific plan with a specific date. “We’ll see how it goes” is not a plan.
5. Redo it next quarter. This is not a one-time exercise. Real change shows up in the quarter-over-quarter movement.

The first time a leadership team runs this, it takes two to three hours and feels uncomfortable. By the third quarter it takes forty-five minutes and feels like the most useful meeting they run.

The Three-Strike Rule

When someone is below the bar or a “no” on a GWC column, EOS^® offers a simple, humane sequence:

1. Strike one. Sit down with them. Be specific about the gap. Agree on what “improved” looks like and by when.
2. Strike two. If the gap remains, have a second conversation. Same specifics, sharper stakes. Written this time.
3. Strike three. If it still hasn’t moved, part ways with respect and dignity.

Three strikes is not three chances to hope things get better on their own. It’s three chances for the person to demonstrate they can close the gap now that they know exactly what it is. Most people either close it in strike one or self-select out by strike two. The teams that hate this framework are almost always the teams that have skipped strike one for years.

What it doesn’t solve

Honest pushback, because I owe you that.

A no on GWC doesn’t always mean fire. A “no” on Capacity can often be closed with training, mentoring, or a smaller version of the seat while they grow into it. A “no” on Want it means something is off, and the fix is usually reassignment, not termination. Only a “no” on Get it after real coaching is the strong exit signal, and even then, the exit should be dignified.

The values are the values only if leadership lives them first. If your core values are the eight things you painted on the office wall in 2019 and nobody talks about anymore, the People Analyzer will just enshrine your worst hiring habits. Rewrite the values if they aren’t real. Then run the tool.

It doesn’t replace legal counsel. Documentation, employment law, and severance still matter. The People Analyzer clarifies your thinking. It doesn’t clarify your legal exposure. Talk to an employment attorney before any termination.

And it can be weaponized. A dominant leader in the room can talk everyone else out of their own ratings. If your leadership team can’t hold a disagreement, the tool will still work, but the ratings won’t reflect reality. Sometimes the first People Analyzer needs to be run with an outside facilitator for exactly this reason.

The Plano leadership team that ran it once and everything changed

A 40-person services firm in Plano had a top-billing employee who everyone in the leadership meeting quietly resented. Everybody had a different reason. He was “too intense.” He “didn’t collaborate.” He “wouldn’t use the CRM.” None of that fit into a review, because his numbers were the best in the company.

The first People Analyzer they ran, in a room, together, revealed something the individual conversations had never surfaced: he was a straight minus on two of the four core values. Not a plus/minus. A minus. Every leader agreed independently, before comparing notes. Nobody had realized everyone else saw it too.

He got strike one: a specific, written expectation, and 90 days to move to plus-or-better on those two values. He didn’t. He got strike two. He didn’t. They parted ways at strike three, six months later. Revenue dropped for a quarter and then came back higher than before, because the two next-tier salespeople stopped spending their energy managing around him and started selling.

The CEO said afterward: “The People Analyzer didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know. It told me that everyone else already knew it too. That’s what made it possible to act.”

Try this next quarter

Even without a full EOS^® implementation, you can run a first-pass People Analyzer on your leadership team next quarter:

1. Write your core values down. Three to seven. If you don’t have real ones, do that first.
2. Build the grid. Names down, values across, plus GWC columns at the end.
3. Fill it out in private, then compare in the room.
4. Land on one agreed row per person, and one specific next action for anyone below the bar.

You’ll learn more about your leadership team in two hours than you learned in the last two years of one-on-ones. That’s not a promise. That’s what happens.