Stop looking for “A”​ Players

Bill Belichick wouldn’t put Tom Brady in as a linebacker and Lin Manuel Miranda would not cast Taylor Swift to play Alexander Hamilton. Wait, Taylor Swift could probably pull it off. Okay, my point is we are all exceptional in something but that something is specialized, not standardized.

Yet in business today, we still see the vestiges of an old, standardized approach to evaluating people. Anyone read, “seeking an ‘A’ player” in a job description lately?

The model of leaders stack-ranking people into “A,” “B,” and “C,” classifications across standard criteria seems to put the overwhelming emphasis (read: pressure) on the employee to solely manifest value. While the employee must certainly take ownership of their own development, is it not the shared responsibility of a quality leader to help find, nurture, and cultivate an employee’s unique value?

Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight and my recent guest on the Voice of Value podcast, says that as leaders, our teams are best served when we accept people in all their flawed glory. “It would be wildly unfair to compare your charismatic sales legend to the introverted developer who can code like a ninja, and vice versa,” he says. Stack ranking, he argues, obliterates the nuances that make us interesting human beings.

Instead of focusing on finding “A” players, Nick urges leaders to “find the genius in the person already on the team and put that employee in the right role.”