A-Players
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
I keep hearing these conversations in tech: "Oh, they're definitely an A-player" or "We only hire A-players here" or "He is a world-class talent."
I'm always a bit skeptical. My cultural background has trained me to question everything (it's in my DNA at this point, but that's a story for another essay).
Growing up, I was that kid winning physics olympiads while struggling with literature and languages. Like really struggling. My language teacher was constantly escalating to the school director, treating everything like a crisis that needed immediate intervention. But I got lucky – our director was different. Instead of trying to "fix" me, we made an agreement: I show up to language classes instead of hiding in the physics lab doing exercises, and she would shield me. No pressure about results, just be present.
Later, computer science won over physics – that’s not on her, that’s the essay about incentives and economics.
Want to understand what I mean? Watch "The Last Dance" about Jordan and the Bulls. Seriously, if you're a manager and you haven't watched it, stop reading this and go watch it now. It's the best management course you'll ever take – just $5 instead of $200,000 for your typical MBA.
The key insight isn't just that Jordan was brilliant – it's about how the Bulls built a championship team around different types of excellence. Rodman wasn't your typical "A-player" by any corporate standard. He was eccentric, unpredictable, and broke every rule in the management handbook. He was also crucial to their success because he was phenomenal at what he did best.
Let's be real for a moment. Some people in any organization simply view work as a transaction – they show up, do the minimum, and collect their paycheck. And you know what? That's their choice, and it's completely valid. We waste so much energy trying to "fix" these people or force them to be more engaged. Why? They've made a conscious decision about their relationship with work, and that's fine. As a manager, your job isn't to judge or change these folks – it's to recognize this reality and focus your energy where it can make a real difference and create a system for the rest to be P&L positive.
Now, there's an important distinction here: coasting isn't the same as underperforming. Someone who coasts still meets their basic responsibilities (and with proper systems in place, they'll either be P&L positive or naturally move to the underperforming group) – they're just not going above and beyond.
But true underperformance is different. That's not about work-life choices; it's about not meeting fundamental obligations. And while you can accept coasters, you can't tolerate genuine underperformance. It's a nuanced but crucial difference that every manager needs to understand.
The formula is simple:
Focus Group = Total Org - (Coasters + Underpperformers)
With good systems in place, underperformance should naturally approach zero without consuming much of your time.
The real art of management isn't about grading people like they're school assignments. It's about creating an environment where different types of excellence can shine. It’s how you can build the winning teams from your focus group.
Setting the goals and agreeing on what's important and what's not. Create an environment where someone can be absolutely brilliant at one thing and just okay at others – and that's not just acceptable, it's celebrated and rewarded.
Here's my belief: everyone is an A-player at something. Your job as a manager isn't to turn them into someone else's version of an A-player. It's to figure out what they could be exceptional at, and then give them the space and support to get there. And if you can't see where someone could be exceptional? Well, maybe the problem isn't with them. Maybe it's with your ability to recognize potential. (Sometimes they might be exceptional in other companies or career paths – just have that fair conversation.)
So next time someone tells you they only hire or want to work with A-players, ask them what they really mean. Are they looking for mythical all-rounders who are great at everything?
Or do they understand that real excellence comes in many forms.