Chapter 5. Take a Stand for an 'A' Player in Every Job-Coach 'B's, Re-deploy or Release Chronic C's
Situation: You are beginning to wake up to the fact that you cannot create an Impossible Future with a team of chronic 'C' players. You'd give anything for a team of 'A' players, if only it were possible. Now it is!
"Patrick Lamonde has a Napoleonic air," a colleague told me on the plane. "Though understated, he exudes authority and can be intimidating. Watch out Michel!" I laughed this off and then reached into the pocket of my airline seat and pulled out a BusinessWeek magazine. There he was on the cover, Patrick Lamonde, "European Business Manager of the Year." He even looked like Napoleon with a curling lock on his brow. And here he was executive vice president of the consumer division of Phillips Electronics, 60-years-old, grey hair, dark blue suit, gold and red silk tie. I thought to myself, how am I going to make a difference with this guy?
I met LaMonde at a special dining room in the train station in Paris. Despite my concerns, LaMonde and I created an easy familiarity by speaking in French. He voiced concern that he had a "Strategy for the Future" presentation to make to the Board soon, but was not making much progress on it. "Generally, I am very good at creating strategies and designing their implementation. But, Michel, I am almost embarrassed to say that I am spending all my time micro managing my fifteen direct reports on operational issues." The reason he gave was that he didn't have confidence in his team's ability to perform. He continued, "Michel, let's talk about the people on my team. This is where I believe you can really make a difference."
I explained that one of the things that we emphasize with all the executives we coach is that, to deliver extraordinary results, they need to create an extraordinary leadership team. The only way to create this is to take an unequivocal stand to have an 'A' player in every job, rather than merely putting up with or trying to change the situation. "Let's look at your team," I said, "how many 'A' players do you have? How many 'B' players? How many chronic 'C's?"
When LaMonde asked for a clear definition of an A, B, and C player, I responded, "'A's tend to be extraordinary leaders who consistently deliver results that are beyond and out of the ordinary. 'B's are good as leaders and deliver what's expected. Chronic 'C's may have some leadership qualities, but are full of reasons and excuses when it comes to producing results. Or they do the reverse, produce results but lack leadership. I can get more specific if you like."
I could tell I had piqued his interest. "Michel, that's an intriguing way to look at it," he said, "I guess I have too few 'A' and 'B' players and too many chronic 'C's who are never going to deliver. I need to make some tough people decisions." We came up with a people strategy of rating all the players on his team A, B, C, or D based on specific criteria that he believed the job required. The second part of the strategy was to keep the 'A's, coach the 'B's, and redeploying the chronic 'C's.
Within six months, LaMonde not only came up with a new strategy for the future of his company, but created a high performance team of nine direct reports, three 'A' players, three 'B's who he decided to coach more intensively, and three new hires from outside, who he had rated as either 'A's or having 'A' potential. As LaMonde said, "We need to reinvigorate the corporate gene pool." After he had the team put together and new people in place, he asked me to lead a team building session.
One of the first things I noticed was that the way he related to his team was different-like a general getting ready to lead an army into battle, rather than a Boy Scout leader guiding his troops through the forest. In the future, he would not only ask people to set soaring stretch goals, he also raised the bar in terms of people coming up with the inventive and effective strategies to meet these goals and analyze business issues. When they did, he was fully of admiration, "You're brilliant, or "Magnifique!" and "with this kind of thinking, we will have a dazzling future in front of us." When they didn't, he was like Napoleon, admonishing his troops after a great defeat, "Gentleman, we need to think harder on things. We have the livelihoods of thousands of employees at stake, as well as the profits of our shareholders."
Teachable Point of View: Take a stand for having an 'A' player in every leadership job within 12 months.
All too often, leaders avoid making the tough people decisions, while seeing their direct reports "reverse delegate" things back to them, resulting in a great loss of personal effectiveness. If this is the situation that you are in, it is time to take a stand for creating an 'A' player in every key leadership role on your team. As mentioned in the story above, the basic idea is to promote the 'A's, coach the 'B's to become 'A's and redeploy (or release) the chronic 'C's and 'D's. Give yourself a timeline of 12 months to do this. You will be amazed at how much more empowered you feel with a team of 'A' players, and how much more you will personally and collectively be able to accomplish.
Empower people by extending them an 'A'. Once you decide to keep people on your team, extend them an 'A,' keeping in mind that it is impossible for people to succeed in an environment where their boss views them as a chronic 'C' or 'D.' In other words, start relating to people right now as if they were 'A' players, even if they are only 'A's in the making. Then standing in people's greatness, coach them to set high goals that are achievable and give them feedback in the context of being an 'A.' For example, "Joe I see you have the potential to be an 'A' player and make a powerful contribution to this lab. Now I have some feedback to give you in that context about a few areas where you can make some improvements."
Take responsibility for bringing people's leadership to the next level. One of the most powerful roles of a leader is to develop other leaders. Here is a story that bears that out. One day Jack Messler, Business Unit General Manager of ExxonMobil, was at an executive team meeting with Frank Holmes, the executive vice president. Jack was holding forth on the power of our one-year Action Coaching program that was helping to creating 'A' players out of 'B' players. Homes said, "That's great at your level, but I am not sure we have time for that at my level."
"Why not?" Jack asked. "Just what do you think your job is Frank
Template for Action
1. Create a rating system for ranking people. Talk over with a coach or thinking partner your decision to create an 'A' player in every key leadership role. Then come up with a way to rate people A, B, C, or D, either formally or informally.
2. Define what constitutes the characteristics of an 'A' player in your organization. For example: 1) Demonstrates leadership initiative, 2) Collaborates well across boundaries, 3) Performs beyond what's expected, 4) Personally lives the company values.
3. Get job specific in your rating. For example, the criteria for a vice president of a business unit might be: "To be an 'A' player: 1) Be an enthusiastic leader; 2) Be a good deal maker; 3) Exhibit strong thinking processes; 4) Demonstrate financial acumen.
4. Once you rate the people, decide on a go forward plan. Discuss your opinion with your coach, and get a second opinion or use 360º feedback interviews if possible. Be prepared to make some decisions with edge. 1) Who will you promote? 2) Who will you coach to be an 'A' or a 'B'? 3) Who will you redeploy or release? Keep in mind that it's sometimes better to redeploy or release someone from a job that they can never be an 'A' player in than it is to keep them there and allow them to struggle, knowing inside that they can never win.
5. Develop a coaching plan for all you're 'A's and 'B's. Again the leader's job is to develop leaders at all levels of the organization. Start with having each person set a significant business challenge, as well as a leadership development challenge. Either give them a coach or schedule regular coaching meetings (every two to three weeks) with you where together you look at what has happened, what is missing that will make a difference, and what's next in producing the business and leadership breakthrough business goals.
6. Set up a powerful coaching relationship with them. Tell every person on your team that you are extending them an 'A' for the year and that you stand for their success with respect to their strengths and gaps. Also make it clear that you are ready to coach them in that context. It is important to keep in mind when deciding to coach people who have gaps, that some gaps represent behavior that is transformable behavior, others are not. For example, you cannot coach someone to have a higher IQ or superior thinking processes. But, for example, you can coach them to be more people-oriented and much better communicators.