Building the “A Team”

Nothing is more satisfying and rewarding than living in the place of your Giftings, solving problems for a very particular clientele whose needs, it would seem, you were born to fulfill. When you have focused in on your unique art, something that gives you great pleasure and deep intrinsic fulfillment, you’re in your “zone”, a feedback loop which seemingly gives you more energy back than you put in. This isn’t really “work”, it seems like play.

Some of us get to fly solo in such a world. Most do not. Most of us need some kind of ecosystem around us – partners, associates, support staff, suppliers– some kind of support network that allows us to focus clearly and solely on what we do best. In other words, a team.

In my experience, professionals are by and large lousy at teams. We’re lousy at it because team building and management isn’t what we do, unless that’s your Gifting. If you’re the best litigator in town, you shouldn’t be spending half your day as Managing Partner, and if you’re the best Managing Partner in town, you shouldn’t be spending half your day as a litigator. Lawyers in particular are the worst offenders of the Peter Principle (see below).

We’re lousy at building and running the “A Team” because we don’t even know what the ideal “A Team” would look like. Who should we want on our team, and why? What are their roles, and what’s yours? Are we duplicative, complementary, or supplementary? Who has their hands on the steering wheel, and who has their foot on the gas or the brakes?

Professional teams tend to run in circles because they spend too much time focusing on numbers and ratios and other stuff more worthy of McDonalds or Walmart, or optimizing websites and “networking activities” because the latest consultant told them this would work. Wrong tree, wrong squirrel.

Previously we’ve considered the ABCD Grid for grading clients from an economic perspective (https://mailchi.mp/c0c8f814d2f7/resolution-for-15385649?e=[UNIQID]) , and then we looked at a similar grid for reputational purposes (https://mailchi.mp/964e436046bd/resolution-for-15385765?e=[UNIQID]) . A similar grid can be constructed for choosing members of your A Team.

“A Players” are on your team because they want to be there. Passionately. They believe in what you’re doing, and they know they belong. If you like, they’re “aligned” with you. They have Giftings which solve the problems of your specific clients, and being on your team is the same as being in their “zone”. Their Giftings may be very like yours, or they may be adjacent or complementary. An excellent “A Team” often looks like a jigsaw puzzle, but a very deliberate jigsaw puzzle.

“B Players” will often look something like “A Players”, but there’s a critical difference. “A Players” are hungry and energetic and take initiative and have a passion for the mission. They “get it”, that is, they see your profession and business holistically and passionately. They expect to spend their lives doing what they’re doing, and couldn’t imagine anything more exciting.

“B Players” are often just as smart as “A Players”, maybe even more so, but they don’t care as much, they aren’t as invested, and they’re not as eager to eat this up. For them, this is more like a job. “B Players” make mistakes, just as do “A Players”, but “B Players” see a mistake as an embarrassment and hope nobody’s looking. “A Players” will revisit the error again and again until they fully understand where they went wrong, learn everything there is to know about the matter, and write a procedure manual so that the team never again makes the mistake.

“A Players” are believers, that is, they’re invested in the team and in all likelihood will be part of the dream for as long as the Team keeps the dream and treats them fairly. “B Players”? Well, this is a job, so who’s paying the best rates with the best benefits? “A Players” are Professionals in every sense. “B Players” have credentials.

There are also “C” Players who bring some level of competence and generally don’t embarrass you. They’re the foot soldiers, if you need them.

And then there are the “D” Players. Do we really need to talk about them? Seriously, if you have money to throw away, just send it to me, I’m less trouble.

It’s the “A Players” who build the great team, the one that stands head and shoulders above all competitors. Steve Jobs explains it this way: “So I’ve built a lot of my success on finding these truly gifted people, and not settling for “B” and “C” players, but really going for the “A” players. And I found something… I found that when you get enough “A” players together, when you go through the incredible work to find these “A” players, they really like working with each other. Because most have never had the chance to do that before. And they don’t work with “B” and “C” players, so it’s self-policing. They only want to hire “A” players. So you build these pockets of “A” players and it just propagates.”

“A Players” love what they do and would do it for free if they didn’t have responsibilities at home. They see tomorrow. They grapple with issues and problems and revel in solving them. They adore their subject matter. They think about their “stuff” even when they’re not in the office. They flock with their kind and get excited talking about their professional problems and issues.

Interestingly enough, “B Players” and “C Players” often come to the table with more subject matter knowledge than do “A Players”. Don’t let this ruin your focus. Stick with the “A Players”, they will learn subject matter eagerly, and do far more with it for one simple reason: they care, and they care passionately. Because of their Giftings, they get the Big Picture, and all the details simply drop into place, over a lifetime. For “B” Players, it’s just a job. Give them a paycheque and they’ll do what you ask.

If you want to build an “A Team”, you’re going to need to attract “A Players”, and you’re going to need to nurture them and enable them and keep them. And if you do that, they will attract others of their kind. And if that happens, you will grow an “A Team”, organically.

The same rules apply if you simply want to be part of an “A Team”, not necessarily wanting to grow one. You need to be looking for the place that values the “A Player” and is building a team of which you will want to be part, a place where your Giftings are given full reign and your ideal clients are perfectly matched. A place where those around you are complementary to what you are doing, a holistic and joyous place for you, your colleagues, and your clients. It can be done.

Does this make sense to you? Are you trying to build an “A Team”, but it’s not clicking? Maybe we need to talk.