They're not B-Players!

For the last 15 years or so one of the things that I do with teams I work with is a quarterly talent assessment, help them figure out who are their A-players, B-players, C-players, toxic C-players and help them figure out actions to take for all those folks.

And I prided myself on the fact that I've developed my own tool, which I think works great my clients love. I go real deep in that area I've taken a lot of pride in it, but I've realized recently that I've been screwing it up, that there's something I'm doing and language that I'm using, that's actually hurting a team's ability to move forward hurting their ability to actually coach and develop people to reach higher highs. And here's where I've been screwing up.

If someone is performing as a B, I call them B-players. Someone's performing at a C level I call them C-players, what are we going to do about the C-players? Is this person a C-player? Are they a B-player? Or are they an A-player. And while that sounds okay, and that's the kind of language we use all the time, what I've come to realize is that labeling people in that way, is hurtful and not helpful.

There's a very simple, but I think profound shift in vocabulary. And I'm still screwing it up. Because it's such a habit for me to say C-Player, B-player, A-player, but there's a shift in cat in vocabulary that I'm trying to use, hopefully I'll make it a habit soon, is instead of saying this person is a B-player, to say this is a person who is currently performing as a B, this is a person in the B category. This is a person who is performing at a C level, that it's not about them by calling someone a C-player.

What it does is it causes our mind to think that's who that person is. And if that's who that person is. It's not our fault. It's not my problem and deal with, it's theirs.

And I came to this conclusion when I was working with a team on a talent assessment. And they had a bunch of B-players. And they were debating it in such a way that it was the B-player’s fault, or their fault for hiring the wrong people. They hired all these B-players. And while some of that might be true, maybe they did hire some folks that were wrong for their organization.

What I realized, what I helped them to realize is that, as a leader, if you've got someone working for you who is performing at a C-level, or performing at a B-level, the first place you need to look is in the mirror, if you've got someone performing in a C-level, what are you doing? What are you not doing? How did you do your onboarding? What kind of coaching have you given them? What kind of motivation have you given them? Have you given them opportunities to develop? Have you given them opportunities to improve, show what they can really do, leverage their strengths?

The first place I want you to look is in the mirror. If this person is on your team, and they're performing at a C-level, or they're performing in a B-level, I want you to question what you have done or not done for them to perform that way. I want the first assumption for you to make to be that you hired a superstar, someone who's got the potential to be a superstar. But you haven't quite gotten them there yet. Now I know that's extreme. Maybe it is someone who's never going to perform beyond the seat because they are the wrong person for the job.

But if you don't start out getting curious about what you can do, versus, they're just a C-player. If you don't get curious first about what you can do, you're not going to solve the problem. You're not going to take care of those folks. The way you should.

You're going to let some potential superstars go off to the competition and kick your ass later. So let's stop calling them B-players, C-players. I'm not as worried about calling people A-players because that's a positive, but even they're calling them a player's may give you the idea. That's just who they are. They're always going to be A-players, and it takes the burden off of you coaching them, developing them, re-recruiting them, challenging them.

So, I'm going to try I keep falling into the trap, making the mistake I'm talking about. But let's try to change our language. They're not A-players, B-players, C-players, toxic C-players, they're people performing at an A level, at a B level, at a C level, at a toxic C level.

Give it a try.

See how it changes your attitude, the attitude of your team. And I really believe by thinking of it in that way, we're going to do our team members more justice, and we're going to find people have a lot more potential than we think.