No such thing as a toxic A-player

There is no such thing as a toxic A-player.

What do I mean by that?

When I work with my clients quarterly to assess their talent, we categorize people as either A-players, B-players, C-players, or toxic C players. An A-player is someone who is living the core values of the organization, and is incredibly productive. Your C-players are folks who are living the values, but their productivity is hurting the organization. A toxic C-player is someone who is not living the core values, they are repeatedly violating one or more of the core values and your B-players are all the folks that don't fit in any of those. So again, people that aren't living the core values I call toxic C-players.

Where I had a client come to me two weeks ago and say what if you have a toxic A-player?

What do you mean, I don't have a definition for that.

We have this amazing salesperson there alone bringing in 35% of our revenue. But culturally, they're toxic. We have five core values, they are repeatedly and blatantly violating two of those. And might by your definition that would make them toxic C-players, but this person is so highly productive.

So for this leader that became a complex situation, what do we do with someone who is performing productive at such a high level. But they're not living the core values?

Well, I don't believe that's complex at all.

And I don't believe there's any such thing as a toxic A-player.

If you're not living the core values, if somebody is repeatedly and blatantly violating one or more of the core values, they are toxic to your organization, I don't care how productive they are in meeting their goals. And if someone's toxic to your organization, you need to deal with that quickly, you need to figure out if you're coaching, or if you're cutting the cord.

Now, I believe in the philosophy of fire fast, hire slow. Now that doesn't mean I'm heartless. That doesn't mean I don't understand that these people that we've hired are human beings. And part of our job as leaders is to take care of those human beings. So I certainly believe if someone's not living the core values, regardless of their productivity, they absolutely need coaching.

But here's what I tell my leaders.

If their answer to our week coaching or cutting the cord is I'm going to coach you this person. That's beautiful. Let's understand what you're going to coach them on, how you're going to coach them. But we need to fix this problem within 90 days.

If 90 days go by, and they're still around breaking your core values, and you still believe they deserve more coaching. You might be the C-player.

You can't afford in your organization to have someone around who is bringing down the culture.

If you have a set of core values that are non-negotiable. As soon as you let a highly productive person break those core values just because they're bringing in a good amount of revenue. Your core values become a joke to everyone else.

So again, there is no such thing as a toxic A-player. If someone is not living your non-negotiable core values, coach or cut the cord. Fix that situation in 90 days. Or you might be the toxic C-player.