Creating A-player Executive Leadership Teams

When creating a high performing leadership team it is essential to keep in mind some fundamental truths.

If you mix A-players with B-players it causes drain on your A-players.

To bring this to life let’s look at an example of the runner.

The runner that can run a mile in under 5 minutes. This represents our A-player.

In an environment with other A-players, as we have discussed they will thrive and their performance will improve. We observe exponential output, the learning engine and enthusiasm loops.

Now if we look at a mixed environment. We know that A-players are the ultimate threat to B-players. The natural preservation instinct of B-players is to target the A-players. Because B-players spend their energy building padded workflows, inflating headcounts, and mastering corporate deflection, they actually have far more operational bandwidth to play politics than the A-player. While the A-player is focused 100% on high-velocity execution, the B-player is setting traps, weaponizing "process" and gatekeeping.

So we are in an environment where the A-players will be driven away through the actions of the B-players. Or, alternatively the A-players will have to defend themselves from the actions of the B-players.

Essentially the natural runner is having to defend themselves while running. To extend the analogy, the runner is having to wear armour to defend themselves from the B-players. This results in the significant slowing down of the A-player, fatigue and the opposite effect of working with A-players. As soon as there is a chance the A-player will leave.

When looking to bring about organisational change and drive an A-player leadership team it is essential to be ruthless in ensuring this will work. If there are B-players, they need to be contained, controlled and replaced. Unfortunately for organisations this can be a big step however, it is key in ensuring that you can achieve your objectives in building an A-player leadership team.

N.B. Although in some lines of business the skills required in a B-player are actually required for the role, in the vast majority of cases they are not. The activities of a B-player represent negative actions that can result in HR/legal issues, a complete waste of time that could be used productively, and quite often misrepresentation in reporting.