Chapter 2 – All About A Players, page 24.
The ability to make good decisions regarding people represents one of the last reliable sources of competitive advantage, since very few organizations are very good at it.” – Peter Drucker
- High performers – A Players:
- Contribute more.
- Innovate more.
- Work smarter.
- Earn more trust.
- Display more resourcefulness.
- Take more initiative.
- Develop better business strategies.
- Articulate their vision more passionately.
- Implement change more effectively.
- Deliver higher-quality work.
- Demonstrate greater teamwork.
- Prevent more problems.
- Attract more A Players.
- Find ways to get the job done in less time with less cost.
- Some “A Player” Statistics:
- Typical companies find that only 25% of people they hire turn out to be high performers…but Topgrading companies achieve 75%+ success.
- Typical companies find that only 25% of people they promote turn out to be A Players…yet Topgrading companies achieve 75%+ success.
- Typical companies have only 25% to 40% high performers in management…yet Topgrading companies achieve 75%+ high performers.
What is Topgrading?
- Topgrading is to fill at least 75% of positions in the organization with high performers (A Players) by hiring and promoting people who turn out to be high performers at least 75% of the time.
The Need For Topgrading
- Thousands of oral case studies confirm – managers typically inherit:
- 25% high performers and those with high performer potential.
- 50% “okay,” “adequate,” but marginal performers who lack the potential to be high performers and are not as good as others available for the same pay.
- 25% chronic underperformers.
- Two Different Perspectives:
- Glass Half Full – You have 75% “okay” or better talent.
- Glass Half Empty – 75% of your talent lack even the potential to be high performers.
- Among the 6,500 executives I’ve assessed, the A Players were and are not satisfied with the glass-half-full perspective, so they do everything they can to keep their As, and they replace the chronic low performers. In the meantime, A Players work extra hard to cover for the inadequacies of the Bs and Cs.
- So, Topgrading means achieving 75%+ A Player/A Potential by using:
- Topgrading Hiring methods to bring in high performers.
- Topgrading methods to promote people who turn out to be A Players.
- Topgrading coaching methods to develop A Potentials into A Players.
Definition of A Player
- The simple definition of A Player is “high performer.”
- A Player: Someone in the top 10% of the talent pool available.
- B Players are in the next 25% and C Players are in the bottom 65%.
- An A Player is “best in class,” in the top 10% of talent available, but what does that mean?
- “Available” means willing to accept a job offer:
- At the given compensation level.
- In that specific company, with a certain organizational culture.
- In that particular industry.
- In that particular location.
- With specific accountabilities.
- With available resources.
- Reporting to a specific person (A player candidates are more available to you if you are a positive A Player, not a negative C Player).
- Everyone one of these factors affects “availability,” though “at the given compensation level” is the most important.
The Only Good Designations Are A Player and A Potential
- Companies that initially Topgrade designate A, B, and C Players, but within about a year they focus on the designations that are most practical, most actionable:
- A Player
- A Potential
- Non-A Player
- Topgraders regard a chronic B Player (unable, despite training and coaching, to rise to A Player status and not capable of being an A in a different job) as undesirable as a chronic C Player.
- Both C Players without A potential and B Players without A Potential must be replaced.
- An “A Potential” is someone who is predicted to achieve A Player status, usually within 6 to 12 months.
Conduct Compensation Surveys
- If an A Player is someone in the “top 10%” of talent “available” for compensation, you must do compensation surveys.
- Organizations that Topgrade do not necessarily pay more for talent than their competitors.
- In typical teams with Bs and Cs, the As devote a huge amount of time to preventing and fixing the problems of the lower performers. So As perform even better without having to “carry” Bs and Cs.
- If you need A Players at a high salary level, Topgrade and you might be able to cut total compensation and pay more.
- Topgrading companies, in contrast to their competitors, get disproportionately better talent for the total compensation dollars they spend.
- A company that begins a serious Topgrading effort finds it easier to recruit top talent because the company suddenly has a brighter future.
- A Players are talent magnets!
- Picture this: The Topgrader has five sales reps, all high performers and highly paid, and the competitor has the same budget spread across 12 sales reps – three As, six Bs, and three Cs. Which sales force would you want?
- A Player managers can still enjoy work-personal life balance because they can delegate to A Players who avoid most problems and who quickly fix the few problems that occur.
A Players, By Definition, Exist at all Salary Levels
- Picture this: Why would an A Player accept a $30,000 job as Night Manager? Perhaps the A Player understands that her night manager job at a fast-food store is the highest-paying job where she qualifies amongst the top 10% of talent available. If she somehow were hired to manage a restaurant, a job paying $75,000, her lack of experience and training would likely doom her to C Player status, and she would likely fail. For now, she’s smart to take a job where, as an A Player, she can succeed and incrementally build her credentials for bigger, higher-paying management positions in the future.
- Topgraders like to say that, theoretically, everyone can be an A Player. Almost everyone can be a top 10% performer in some job, though not necessarily in the job or at the salary level they want.
What are A Player Competencies?
- For most jobs, you must immerse yourself, finding many ways to judge how much talent you get for the compensation.
- Summary of Critical Competencies for Upper-Level Managers.
- Problem-Solving – A “quick study” able to rapidly perform complex analyses.
- Leadership – Executes needed change; highly adaptive and able to inspire the organization.
- Energy/Passion – Very high energy level; fast-paced; 55(+) hour workweeks (plus home e-mail); driven to succeed.
- Resourcefulness/Initiative – Impressive ability to find ways over; round, or through barriers; can-do attitude.
- Topgrading – Selects high-performers and employees with potential; redeploys chronic underperformers.
- Training/Development/Coaching – Coaches and trains each team member to turbo boost performance and personal/career growth.
- Team Building – Creates focused, collaborative, results-driven teams.
- Track Record – Consistently excellent performance.
- Integrity – “Ironclad.”
- Communication – Excellent oral/written skills.
Resourcefulness is the Most Important Competency
- Resourcefulness is a composite of several competencies. It’s energy, passion, analytic skills, and persistence wrapped into one.
- In common terms, resourcefulness is the brains and drive to figure out how to get over, and around, or through barriers to success.
- A Players exude resourcefulness.
- Coach them to look ahead, anticipate opportunities and problems, and figure out how to create success.
- In Topgrading interviews, we advise interviewers, “In every response to every question, look for indications of resourcefulness.”
A/B/C Player Designations
- Separate A/B/C designations for the current job From A/B/C designations for promotability.
- All companies in a fast-growth mode are naturally interested in screening talent not just for the present but for future jobs, and promotions.
- They want enough promotable people to fill a lot of positions with internal candidates, but not so many promotable people that many promotable are not promoted fast enough and quit.
- It’s in your best interest to hire enough promotable people, but not everyone is equally promotable, so you can use the following scale:
- A1: A Player, probably promotable two levels.
- A2: A Player, probably promotable one level.
- A3: A Player, probably not promotable.
- A Topgraded organization expecting rapid growth has almost all A Players, including a lot more A1s and A2s than A3s.
- A company’s succession plan usually includes a chart indicating who the A1s, A2s, and A3 Players will be for the next three to five years.
- There is some confusion about the difference between a B Player and an A3 Player.
- B Player:
- Not promotable.
- Works medium hard.
- Delivers marginal results.
- A3 Player:
- Not promotable.
- Works very hard.
- Delivers A results for exactly the same compensation as the B Player.
Performance Management Systems
- Performance Management Systems in Topgrading companies make “Meets Performance Expectations” the standard for A Players.
- “High Performer” is a term a lot of people can relate to, but in a lot of performance management systems an employee who receives an “Exceeds Expectations” rating is considered a high performer, and one who receives a “Meets Expectations” is not.
- Topgraded companies eventually raise the performance bar so that “Meets Expectations” is for A Players, high performers.
- It makes no sense for “Exceeds” to be used for As, and “Meets” for Bs, when the goal is for everyone to be a high performer.
Can A Players Be Incompetent? Yes.
- Maybe you’ve set the compensation too low.
- They are being stifled by the boss.
- A product or project is canceled, rendering the job of the A Player who ran it unnecessary.
- If the performance bar is set so high that no one, not even the #1 A Player in the universe, could succeed.
- When asked to assess and coach management teams, we often find many more managers with A Potentials than CEOs thought they had. The A Potentials who had not been performing well quickly perform at the A level when put in a job better matching their talents, or assigned to a boss who will unleash rather than stifle them.
A Players Can Become B and C Players in Fast-Growing Companies
- An A Player can drop to B Player, and drop to C Player – not because their absolute level of talent has diminished, but because their talent has declined in relation to the salary they are paid, for the more complex and difficult job.
When to Overpay A Players
- Forward-looking, growing companies will hire for the talent and compensation level needed three years from now.
- Another situation in which it may be wise to “overpay” for an A Player at a high level of absolute talent is in a turnaround situation. Your pool of candidates may be too small and undertalented, due to the unattractiveness of the employment prospects of joining a troubled company.
- A lot of companies have to “overpay” necessary talent to compensate for unattractive locations, a declining industry, or Chapter 11 bankruptcy status.
- Also, if you have a negative reputation as a boss, you’ll have more difficulty attracting top talent.
When to Pay Less for A Players
- You can pay less when there is an economic downturn. Be careful though. Don’t underpay your people too much, or when the economy turns around, your high performers who felt taken advantage of are apt to leave.
- Early retirees sometimes offer a lot of talent, cheap.
- Some talented people just want part-time jobs to raise kids or pursue other lifestyle preferences.
When to Hire Underqualified People
- Sometimes firms hire high-potential people who will be superior performers in future roles but may seem underqualified initially. Clients label these people as “A Potential.”
- Another example happens when a company is dissatisfied with prospects within their industry, and recruits outside their industry, seeking candidates with superior talent and potential but who will have to experience a learning curve as they transition into a new industry.
Get “Calibrated” to Correctly Judge A/B/C Players
- If you are a manager who must consider investing in new equipment or software, it’s your job to get calibrated, to accurately judge the value of your investment.
- It’s the same with people. Managers must become calibrated as a Topgrader to qualify as an A Player.
