The reference for topgrading. This lesson sits inside Module I — Hiring — of Hiring and Firing, the course that anchors the Leadership Foundations program. It is not a survey; it is the specific, working understanding of "Reading: Smart and Street, Who" that the rest of the course assumes you carry forward.
- 01Define Reading: Smart and Street, Who in the precise sense used across Hiring and Firing.
- 02Recognize when Reading: Smart and Street, Who is the correct lens for the situation in front of you, and when it is not.
- 03Apply Reading: Smart and Street, Who to a concrete case drawn from Hiring, and defend the result in plain language.
- 04Connect Reading: Smart and Street, Who to the adjacent lessons in this module without collapsing the distinctions between them.
The idea, stated plainly
The reference for topgrading. That single sentence is the whole lesson in compressed form. The rest of the reading unfolds it — what it means when the terms are taken seriously, where it comes from, and what work it does inside Hiring and Firing. Read the sentence, then read it again after the sections below; it should carry more weight the second time.
Why it belongs in Hiring
Module I exists because the written process. "Reading: Smart and Street, Who" is one of the pillars of that module: without it, the later lessons either become memorization or lose their bite. Notice which earlier lessons this one leans on, and which later lessons will lean on it — the shape of the module is easier to see once you place this piece.
How the School of Leadership faculty use it
In practice, working school of leadership professionals reach for this idea before they reach for a formula or a tool. It is a way of framing the problem so that the right question comes first. The mark of understanding is not that you can recite Reading: Smart and Street, Who; it is that you catch yourself using it, unprompted, when the situation calls for it.
Common misreadings
The most frequent error is to treat Reading: Smart and Street, Who as a slogan and skip the mechanics. The second most frequent is the opposite — treating the mechanics as the point, when the mechanics are only there to make the idea usable. Both errors collapse the same distinction, and both are correctable by returning to the one-line summary and asking what it actually claims.
- Reading: Smart and Street, Who is a working tool, not a slogan.
- Its meaning is set by the module it lives in: Hiring.
- Understanding is demonstrated by unprompted use in the correct situation.
- The adjacent lessons in this module are its natural context; read them together.
104 — Hiring and Firing, Module I. The Anabasis Academy.
The primary institutional context. Re-read the module framing after finishing the lesson.
The Anabasis Academy — School of Leadership: The practice of directing capable people toward durable ends..
The school-level thesis that this lesson quietly serves.
Selected canonical sources on "Reading: Smart and Street, Who" from the Leadership Foundations reading list.
Faculty-curated primary and secondary works. The Academy library maintains the current edition.
- 104 — Hiring and Firing, Module I: Hiring — The parent module for this lesson. Re-read the module blurb after finishing the lesson.
- The Anabasis Academy — School of Leadership, Leadership Foundations — The wider program this lesson serves; the Certificate in Leadership Foundations (Foundation tier). credential ultimately certifies mastery of ideas like this one.