Are Your Managers “A Players?”

This is a bit of a tough post for many readers who are leaders. It forces them to reflect on your own capabilities and those of the management teams they lead.

A key question, “When reflecting on your own capabilities, and those of the managers on your team, are you ‘A Players?'”

Be honest with yourself, if you aren’t you can develop, more later.

Why is this such an important question?

The answer is pretty simple, in maximizing the performance of their teams, leaders must be top performers, themselves. If they aren’t, then their ability to drive the highest levels of performance from their teams will be limited by their own ability, vision, commitment. Just think about it for a moment, can B Players, as managers recruit and retain A players? A Players seek to continually grow, they demand leadership that enables them to develop to achieve their full potential. If they aren’t getting that coaching and development, they will go some place where they can be surrounded by other A Players.

Think a moment about the highest performing organizations you have encountered. Whether they are organizations you admire, competitors, customers, suppliers, or organizations you have worked for. These organizations tend to be more heavily weighted to A players. They, also, tend to be organizations with higher average tenures. Again, A Players want to “play with” other A Players.

What does it mean to be an A Player, particularly from a management point of view? Here are some things I look for:

• Open, growth oriented mindsets: Leaders who have their “playbook,” implemented in every role they take are limited in their ability to maximize the performance of their teams. While they may have had great success, sustaining that in the face of the massive disruptions, complexity, and changes we see impacting every industry and company. The old playbooks are no longer working. The ability to innovate, adapt, change is critical to the growth of any organization. They are continuous learners.
• No excuses, results orientation: These leaders are driven to achieve the goals they have established for themselves and their organizations. They instill this orientation in the rest of their team. They focus on the outcomes their organizations create, not just the activities the team executes. They take ownership for failures, never seeking to blame others.
• Self-motivated: They are more driven by their own goals than the external rewards. They proactively look for new challenges and opportunities to grow. Often, quota, is something they pass, seeking to achieve the goals they have established for themselves.
• Adaptability/Resilience: Recognize the need to change when they aren’t achieving their goals. They recognize the need for continuous improvement, both in what they do and with the organization. They tend to have an outside in, rather than an inside out view. Recover from setback, learning from them, adjusting strategies to better achieve goals. Actively seek feedback, willing to change.
• Team players: Highly collaborative, recognize their success is not their individual contribution, but the collaborative contributions of everyone on the team. Create positive work environments, where everyone feels valued and has the opportunity to grow. As leaders they recognize their job is to serve and support the people in their organizations.
• High EQ: Actively seek to understand the emotions and what drives each person on their teams. Build strong relationships. Successfully navigate conflicts and interpersonal challenges.
• Strong work ethic: Committed to doing the work necessary to get things done and achieve the goals. Strong ownership of results. Always go the extra mile, as opposed to “phoning it in.” This doesn’t mean an obsession with the hours worked, sacrificing work/life balance. Instead, they continually find ways to get the work done. Most have strong commitments to work/life balance, recognizing they won’t be at the top of their game, unless they are also taking care of themselves and their families.
• Visionary and strategic orientation: Strongly aligned with the organization purpose, values, and goal. Have the ability to see the big picture, yet can connect the dots to what it means for tactical execution. While they look at monthly, quarterly, annual results, their perspective is these are on the roadmap to achieving the long term strategy and vision.
• High integrity: Strong ethical standards, value system. Honest and transparent in all interactions, building trust constantly. They are people who can be counted on to adhere to the strongest personal and organizational standards. They will always do what is right.
• Effective communicators: Ability to connect with everyone they work with in high impact ways. Adapt their communications styles to complement those of the people they work with. Value listening more than talking, driving high impact collaborative conversations.
• Role models for the organization: Through their behavior, they model and reinforce the organizations values, culture, and purpose. Set an example for everyone else, in everything they do. They lead by example, not by edict.

No one is perfect across each of these dimensions. But A Players are driven by these, recognizing their shortcomings, but constantly seeking to grow, develop, and improve.

Developing and maintaining a high performance organization is all about leadership. If your managers/leaders aren’t A Players, or actively developing themselves to be A Players, it will be impossible for the organization to maintain strong performance over time.

Afterword:  Here is the AI generated discussion of this post.  While the discussion is interesting, there are a few errors that are fascinating.  It seems the AI doesn’t remember something it said in the previous sentence, or earlier, hallucinating slightly.  This is most noticeable in their pronunciation of “A Players,” versus a player.  Enjoy!