Business Coach | Only Hire A & B Players
This business coach post explains why you must only hire A & B Players.
Before I begin teaching you the irrefutable business coach truths that YOUR COMPANY CAN THRIVE ONLY IF YOU COMMIT TO RECRUITING AND EMPLOYING A AND B PLAYERS, let’s take a brief time out to assume that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Let’s assume for a moment that you as the reader don’t value my opinion as a business coach consultant, author, and owner of multiple businesses. If that’s the case, whom would you believe? Whose opinion would you value? As a general rule, most people only value those who have demonstrated verifiable and profound levels of success. So to prove my point, I’m going to start this post by showing you what other business coach gurus have to say about managing humans.
“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” – Steve Jobs (Revolutionary Founder of Apple)
“As we became leaner, we found ourselves communicating better with fewer interpreters and fewer filters. We found that with fewer layers we had wider spans of management. We weren’t managing better. We were managing less, and that was better.” – Jack Welch (Iconic former CEO of GE)
“If you aren’t fired up with enthusiasm, you’ll be fired with enthusiasm.” – Vince Lombardi (Legendary National Football League Hall of Fame coach)
“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.” – Proverbs 10:4 (New International Version)
You have to grasp this business coach concept. Otherwise, you will be unable to thrive, and you will always find yourself struggling to merely survive. Trust me on this. I have personally enabled enough morons to fill up a casting call for an average rap video many times over. This was not a good thing, and I paid the price for allowing these under-performing “C Players” to call my office home. You simply cannot afford to have any “C Players” on your team. They will occupy your time with mindless justifications for lack of performance and destroy your ability to deliver products and services to your customers at a high level. These people also emit dangerously contagious amounts of negativity to all they come in contact with. If they aren’t killing your motivation with their stories of woe, they will kill the motivation of the person next to them as they complain about the “unrealistic expectations” that you place on everyone.
“If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.” – Michael Jordan (National Basketball Association Hall of Fame player)
Hire only A & B Players. My friend, this is a business coach truth! Focus on hiring for attitude and training skills, and the quality of your products and services will increase dramatically. At the end of the day when it all comes down to it, you just can’t surround yourself with people who can’t get the job done. Jack Welch, the former CEO and the iconic leader of GE, was famous for his “4 E’s” business coach principle. Every time he hired anyone, he looked for individuals who had the ability to bring ENERGY to the workplace, ENERGIZE others, EXECUTE the business plans to get things done, and the EDGE needed to be candid with everyone at all times.
In the rare case that someone was actually able to deliver high marks in all four of his “4 E” areas, he referred to them as “A” players. If someone was great in a couple of areas, but lacking in others, he referred to them as “B” players. When someone was weak in every area, he called them “C” players, then he called them into his office and fired them.
Friend, the harsh reality of business is that customers in a capitalist society are not patient. Why should they be? If your product or service is terrible, they are simply going to find somewhere else– with decent customer service– to buy the product or service. This competition and survival of the fittest is what makes our country great. Thus, if you want to make it big in this society, you must not tolerate the work of marginal “C Player” employees. “C Players” cannot be helped.
Psychologically, “A Players” love getting things done. They love wowing customers. They love results. Companies like thrive15.com, love hiring “A Players” because they are purpose driven and they view mediocrity as a source of evil. People who don’t get things done are an annoyance to them, so much so that many of them will refuse to stay at an organization where idiocy, lack of accountability, and excuses are the order of the day. If you don’t want these top people going, you had better make sure that your organization is growing. “A Players” make up only 10-15% of all non-dumb, non-distracted, and non-dishonest employees, so you must work like hell to keep these people on your team or your organization will suffer.
“B Players” make up about 80% of every good workplace. These people value being part of the team and love being “consistent.” They love showing up on time and leaving on time. They are not interested in staying late nor are they very excited about anything that requires change. To them “change is bad” and “consistency is good.” They are unable to grasp the business coach concept of incrementally improving a business to achieve peak results; however, they will reluctantly go along because they “don’t want to rock the boat.” Every organization needs “B Players.” Do not be annoyed by these people because every organization needs them. These people value following the rules and honoring their word, but you cannot have your growth limited by their overall lack of ambition. Your goal as a leader should be to inspire, coach, and train your “B Players” into wanting to become “A Players.” If you celebrate your “A Players” enough, some “B Players” will become discontent with their current reality and begin to act differently so that they too can join the ranks of your company’s “A-Players.”
“C Players” are negative and lazy. They are dumb, they are distracted, and they are dishonest. Their life’s thermostat is permanently set to “make-just-enough-money-to-support-my-baby’s-mamma” mode. These people spend their workday making excuses for not performing, talking bad about management, spreading rumors, and questioning every aspect of your business relentlessly. These people have decided to become full-time victims. These people are draining and they love to ask questions like, “Could you call me to remind me to wake up on time?” When they don’t get something done, they will always blame someone else. They can’t write well because “their teachers in school weren’t any good.” They steal because “they had to make ends meet.” They’ll routinely ask management “either/or” questions that don’t make sense like:
“So do you want me to be a good husband or a good salesman?”
“Are you wanting me to get my paperwork done or to make my sales calls?”
“Are you wanting me to get everything done or to focus on doing a good job?”
These people consistently make bad decisions. “C Players” are unable to mentally grasp business coach concepts. They are unwilling to see that they cause the problems they’re experiencing in their lives. These people are “draining” and they will kill your business. When you “sit down” to meet with them, they always find a way to make you feel responsible for their bad decisions and poor results. When dealing with these people, keep this quote by best-selling author and multi-millionaire businessman-turned-author, Harvey Mackey in mind, “It isn’t the people you fire who make your life miserable, it’s the people you don’t fire.”