In the Davis Household, the start of the NFL Season is always a momentous time for our family. As we've been watching HBO's Hard Knocks (I'm a huge Jets Fan) and reading about the players' reactions to having the coaches' critiques of them being aired for everyone to see as well as how hard the coaches push the players to perform, it got me thinking about how this kind of situation applies to businesses that don't employ professional athletes.

Specifically, a few months ago, in advance of the NFL Draft, there was a situation where a Wide Receiver from Oklahoma State was being interviewed by the Miami Dolphins and a General Manager stepped over the line. While interviews with management are very common before these Teams make their decision to spend millions of dollars, the reason this particular interview received so much press was because the GM asked Mr. Bryant, "Is your mother a prostitute?"

I'm not interested in debating whether or not this was a fair question.

Rather, I'd like to offer the following thoughts for you to ponder as a Business Leader:

One of the common complaints I hear from Business Leaders is that the process of Topgrading is too arduous to implement or, even more common, they question why an A-Player would allow someone to put them through filling out a Career History Form or go through a 4 Hour Interview. They challenge me by saying, "Other companies that want that person won't ask them to go through all of these steps - won't we lose the best talent if we ask them to do so much more than our competition?"

My belief is that this is a simpler situation than many would make it out to be: it's Economics 101 where you learn about Supply and Demand. However, it's not supply and demand from the perspective that these aforementioned Leaders would think [that A-Players are in short supply and thus have high demand]. Rather, it's whether or not your COMPANY is in demand and the SUPPLY of positions available are limited.

Everyone is aware of those companies that have such a great culture and reputation that they have thousands of people who want to get considered for each role - Companies like Google, Oracle and DELL back in the 90's, Bazaarvoice here in Austin a couple of years ago.

With the NFL, so many young Athletes want to have a shot at "working" for a professional team that they are more than willing to subject themselves to the Combines where they are poked and prodded and then stripped down to their underwear and asked to sprint and lift weights. They take mental acuity tests (remember Vince Young 3 years ago?). Even in the college ranks, there are young men across the country who pay hundreds of dollars to attend "camps" at major universities where the instruction that they receive is secondary to their dream of getting "noticed".