Dealing with top performers (and c-players)

Developing your talent is one of the most important parts of your job as a leader. And, to do this, you must meet each team member where they are—some will be further along in their proficiency and maturity journey, more knowledgeable about the intricacies of their job.?

For those who are well versed and more proficient, you can stand back and let them take charge once you let them know what is needed. Others are just starting; they might know the steps they need to take but are so self-aware that they might need you to prod them along.?

Yet others might not be aware of how much they don’t know. You need to help them learn and get better—hand-hold them, as it were. This is the essence of situational leadership.

However, that is not enough. In every organization, the diversity of talent—from high-performing A-players to those struggling with C-player status—plays a pivotal role in shaping its success.?

A-players are the champions who drive organizational capacity, innovation, and productivity, while C-players, despite their potential, may need support to reach their best.?

You need to take more prompt action with some members of your team than with others. And this is especially true for A- and C-players. Every team member is important, but, as an organization, it's important to invest in and retain top-notch talent in order to drive business success and to ensure you have successors for yourself or other leaders. Equally urgent is addressing team members that drag the team down.?

One of the most important questions management will assess when evaluating whether they should promote you is whether you were able to build talent, creating leaders for the future.

First, the Easy Part

Top performers are valuable assets to any organization and you must ensure they continue to grow and contribute to the company's success. So make sure you focus your attention on providing them with opportunities for professional development.?

Give them challenging assignments, and be quick to recognize and reward their contributions. Very importantly, ensure they don’t become entitled arrogant individuals- they are one of the best assets you have to bring the whole team up.

Work hard to retain them. Structure things such that you give the team, and especially your A-players, challenges, victories, and opportunities to grow and want to invest themselves in the company’s success. These are intrinsic motivators, which have been shown to produce motivation and engagement much more effectively than extrinsic ones.?

Give them hard challenges for them to overcome, where they will feel proud to have contributed, that they will feel they own, and that will provide opportunities for career advancement. That said, extrinsic motivators such as competitive compensation and benefits packages won’t hurt.?

At the end of the day, you want to ensure a consistent level of high performance, help the company stay competitive, and build a deep bench of future leaders.

That is the easiest part- after all, nobody minds being told that they have a promising future and that you want to retain and develop them. It is very different when you consider the other group that needs urgent action: C-players. It is also critically important you address underperforming colleagues with speed and alacrity. Let’s deal with that now.

Take a look at this video on a very interesting study on creating ownership, pride, engagement and motivation in people’s work.?

Now, for the Hard Work

Deal with underperforming colleagues effectively: Dealing with underperforming colleagues effectively is essential to address performance issues and improve overall team performance. More often than not, you might find that, despite investing time and effort trying to help them improve, some team members are just not carrying their own weight.?

Address underperformance assertively. This helps ensure that performance issues are addressed in a timely fashion and does not impinge upon the engagement of the rest of the team. Be clear with everyone about boundaries and consequences for non-performance, and follow through with those consequences if necessary.

Act in a humane and respectful manner. Dealing with underperformance is urgent but does not necessarily need to end in parting ways. You can give them support and resources to help them improve their performance, setting clear expectations and goals, and offering coaching and mentorship to help them succeed. In other words, setting clear performance targets, providing regular feedback and support, and implementing performance improvement plans.

If? you don’t act quickly, C-players may drag down the engagement of the rest of the team. They all need to work more to make up for the incompetence of those who lag, and you send a bad signal if you tolerate mediocrity. Be decisive, and promptly and compassionately weed out those colleagues dragging your team down- and who might also be unhappy with the status-quo and with damaged self-esteem.?

I don’t mean to make this sound cold, or too black and white, but at the end of the day, experience shows this to be true. I just want to be direct about it. It is more respectful and humane to ensure people are well matched with their jobs- they could flourish doing something else, somewhere else, or both.?

Handling these situations swiftly and humanely will make it easier for you to promote a positive work atmosphere for the entire team. It will showcase your commitment to fairness and accountability, high performance and commitment to talent development. It will also exemplify universal values of excellence, respect and transparency. For the individuals moving on, it offers an opportunity to seek roles better aligned with their skills and aspirations, ultimately fostering personal growth and professional fulfillment.

Things to Do

I don’t want to reduce the many complexities and nuances of continuously strengthening your team to a humble article and a list of suggestions. This is a topic unto itself, and multiple books and scholarly articles have been written to address this in detail.?

With that said, however, here are some strategies for dealing with top performers and C-players in your team:

For A-Players

1. Celebrate their achievements openly. This could be giving public recognition, promotions, bonuses, or professional development opportunities. Showing appreciation fuels their drive and loyalty. And here’s the gem: if you also do this for those team members with potential to become A-players, it will fuel their motivation to do even better. Leverage this umbrella effect! In fact, as soon as you’re done reading, write three notes to your top talent and at least two to your up-and-coming elements. Thank them, let them know you have them in your radar, and encourage them. Copy other senior leaders. This will have a significant impact.?
2. Assign them to? complex projects. This will stimulate their innovative thinking, set clear goals that inspire them, and provide an environment where their autonomy is respected. Create a list of your top three talents and projects you could give them, preferably cross-functional, so they will have more visibility. This will also give you opportunities to collaborate positively with other leaders.
3. Avoid micromanaging them. Assess your list of A-players. Are there things you could take a measured risk on by delegating to them? Are there any tasks? you can totally give to them, forcing yourself to let go? Create a list! Set a date next to each line in that list. Empower them with decision-making responsibilities within their roles, offer flexible work arrangements, and nurture their leadership potential by assigning leadership roles.
4. Help them realize their potential. Consider getting them a coach that will help them build on their strengths and address any challenges they might be facing. Coaching will potentiate their many abilities and give them the confidence and clarity they need to become even more valuable assets to your organization.

For C-Players

1. Define clear expectations. Regular feedback and informal performance dialogues are crucial. Give them constructive feedback, and develop tailored improvement plans focused on skill enhancement and career counseling. If you haven’t close your door and spend time creating a support plan for any such elements in your team. Set aside a few hours to do this; plan it in advance and make sure to respect that time.?
2. Invest in their growth. As you provide feedback and set clear expectations, give them access to? skill-building workshops, mentorship programs, and pair them with A-players. Give them career guidance to align their aspirations with organizational goals.
3. Give active, positive reinforcement. Help them celebrate incremental achievements, help them break down tasks into manageable steps or have your A-players team up with them to help. Foster a supportive environment where they feel valued and motivated.
4. Help them move on, if nothing else works. Don’t take the easy exit of just pulling the trigger for efficiency. You would be shortcutting your own growth as a leader. But, if efforts to improve performance fall short, actively help them explore reassignment opportunities that better match their skills. As a last resort, consider parting ways respectfully to uphold team productivity.

There are abundant resources and further reading on talent management and workplace dynamics for top and bottom performers. I recommend at least taking a look at HBR’s article, "How to Manage A-Players and Underperformers,” and visiting the site of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), where you can find numerous articles on performance management.

This is hard work, but it is one of the most important things you are expected to do as you continue your growth journey. You will grow to the same degree you build teams that also grow and push you upwards.

Interested in Coaching?

Coaching is one of the most effective tools to unlock your potential and overcome the obstacles you will inevitably face as you pursue your career journey.?

You will be able to access what you already have within you. It helps you think about your strengths, where to focus to address your opportunity areas, and achieve not only your long-term goals but also more fulfilling work-life integration, enhanced emotional intelligence, and improved resilience and adaptability.

The idea is to enable you to use what you already have within you to attain this. In a coaching engagement, we utilize tools, frameworks, and deep conversation so you can focus on and tap into your strengths.

Imagine enjoying clarity, strengthened confidence, better leadership skills, and self-awareness, which will produce continuous strength and growth!?

If this sounds interesting, book a brief discovery call.?

I'd love to hear about you and your work and explore how coaching can help you accelerate and get more clarity on how to overcome any obstacle you might be facing. Be well!