PROTECTING YOUR A-TEAM
by Kevin L. Baker. MBA
There is an old saying about the strength of the wolf is the pack, and I think there is a lot of truth to that. On a football team, it’s not the strength of the individual players, but it is the strength of the unit and how they all function together.—Bill Belichick
Kevin Baker here with this week’s Peak of Potential Newsletter. The premiere American football coach and five time Super Bowl Champion, Bill Belichick, says, “the strength of the wolf is the pack.” The New England Patriots are a team of A-players that form an A-team. One of the leadership lessons Belichick often shares is, “You’ve got to count on your most dependable people.” I begin this week asking, “Can your most dependable people count on you?”
Successful companies are totally invested in growing their dependable people. Growing companies are made of growing people where everyone is contributing, everyone is engaged, everyone is productive, and everyone is profitable. You may object and say, “That is impossible.”
My response to clients who object to this leadership lesson is, “What if after all our efforts to coach and train people into growth and being the type of employee you want, you start SUBTRACTING those who consistently under-perform to MULTIPLY results? Have you given serious thought about the impact those who do not contribute, produce, and engage have on those who do?”A client here in Sydney and I were recently coming to a conceptual agreement about how to best prepare to re-position an executive in their company. When a company is investing in one of their executives, I often mention Dr. Brad Smart’s Topgrading system of ranking people as A, B, and C players. Is this executive an A-player, B-player, or a C-player?
GREAT COACHES RANK PLAYERS
As a consultant who provides coaching as one of my services, you will hear me say over and over, “The best players have the best coaches.” One of the coaching lessons I teach all executives and managers is: You need to rank all your players if you are going to build great teams. This is not to create a “tiered” system, but to move more players into “A” slots and strengthen your wolves to strengthen the pack.
Here is the simple ranking system that I use:A-Player: Brad Smart defines A-players as “the best you can get for a position.” I would enhance the definition to say they are the committed, talented, engaged, contributing, and productive. Why do you want to work with A players and have them on your team? Simply, they have paid the price to develop their potential, and develop professionally.
They come with “batteries included,” which means they are self-motivated, and have designed their own professional systems of productivity, communication, and skill. Potential is simply “currently unrealised ability.” The best on your team are those who take their professionalism and career seriously. They have developed their abilities.
In a business, the growth of a company is always created by development that realises more of the ability of those within our workplace individually, and collectively.
B-Player: These people are optional on your team. They can find their passion and upgrade to being an A player, or they can degrade your business.
C-Player: These are a drag on your business. They put in the bare minimum of effort, they are not contributing much, they often take up a lot of time complaining and dragging other people into being disgruntled. Most of the time, they are just not that good. For some reason, they have been kept around. They used to be good, but the direction or season of the business changed and they no longer are. C-players tend to get a lot of attention. Even in this article they got more space than B-players!
Over time, people in a business can shift and change categories. Ideally, as leaders, we coach and manage players to be their best, so the company can be its best. However, as leaders, we only have so much control over that. Every team player has to decide if they are going to show up.
What Impact Do C and B-Players Have on Your A-Players? So, what is the cost of procrastinating as leaders if we do not deal with C and B-players?
- A-players will take opportunities to play on better teams. All-stars want to play with other all-stars.
- A-player systems for productivity are slowed down when they have to wait for players who are not the same quality. There is drag, friction, and clean up time dealing with people problems.
- When standards and values are not upheld (being punctual, honesty, having integrity, providing a first-class experience), your company standards will deteriorate if not applied consistently to everyone in the company. This applies to family members, and non-family members, in a family business. No one gets special treatment.
- A-players are leaders, so they now have to pull other people along, which takes time, and energy, away from producing greatness and growth.
- A-players do not want to use their time to clean up other people’s messes. This discourages A-Players.
- A-players do many things well. They can be taken for granted and end up having to cope with your poor leadership. This reduces their contribution, productivity, and profitability.
Coaching Prescriptions For Protecting Your A-Team
- Identify reasons why you are not taking action with your B and C-players.
- Recognise the cost of having your A-players deal with friction, drag, and cleanup time. What opportunities for growth and profit are you losing?
- Ask A-players: “What is working on the team?” “Are you getting the support you need?” Do not ask them who the weak links are! We need to model, as leaders, that there is room to grow and coach people into realising their potential in our company. However, if people are consistently under-performing and dragging everyone else down, it must be addressed. Remember—don’t shoot the messenger when A-players tell you the truth and it is difficult to hear.
- Show authentic appreciation to your A-players on a regular basis, and never take them for granted.
- After they have earned it, design roles around your A-player strengths, unique abilities, and passion. Let them thrive doing what they do best.
- Remember, your company grows and expands by the expanding capabilities of your team.
- The last resort is firing people. The optimal result is re-deployment of B and C-players through coaching, and getting the right people in the right seats within the company.
- Create exit strategies for those you must subtract in order to multiply results. Remember Pareto: 20% of people generally produce 80% of results.
If leaders of winning teams need to count on their dependable people, your dependable people also need to be able to count on their leaders to create great teams.
I would appreciate your feedback to help us make the newsletter better. If you have any questions, comments, or topics you would like addressed in coming newsletters, or would like to meet or book a call to discuss anything you have read today, mail me at: kbaker@kevinbakerinc.com