Drivers vs Passengers

Drivers vs Passengers

The Pareto principle, or the 80-20 rule applies broadly to many data distributions. 20% of the effort leads to 80% of the outcomes.

The 80-20 rule often applies to the performance of people in your company too. 20% of your people drive 80% of the results.

If you have 10 people on your team, 2 of those people probably drive most of the growth, or most of the improvements. If you have 50 people in your company, 10 of them probably drive most of the growth, or most of the improvements, etc.

I bet you can name the 20% of people who drive your company forward?

I like the analogy of “Drivers vs Passengers”.

Your A-Players are like drivers. They drive the growth. They drive the improvements.

Your B-Players are like passengers. They show up and do the work, but they deliver a mediocre level of performance.

Everyone knows who the C-Players are. Even ineffective managers eventually pluck up the courage to remove C-Players. But it is the B-Players that hold your company back. They are the passengers who come along for the ride, adding the extra weight that slows you down.

Steve Jobs believed a small team of A-Players could run circles around a big team of B & C players. I agree.

But if you want a high-performance culture, there are tradeoffs that you need to make. You need to push people to do their best work, and not everyone will like that kind of work environment.

Some people will squeal. Some people will leave. But A-Players will thrive.

The physicist, Richard Feynman said “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool”

I come across many managers who fool themselves. They tell me their team is full of A-Players. But is that really true?

Are your people so world-class, that other companies continually try to poach them?

Do you have to pay top-dollar salaries to retain these A-Players and stop them from being poached?

Are your people so world-class that A-Players from other companies are clamoring to work for you?

Let’s put it more tangibly. Does the person achieve their Metrics targets 9 times out of 10? If yes, they might be an A-Player. If not, you are probably dealing with a B-Player.

Does the person get their tasks done on time, to the agreed standard, 9 times out of 10? If yes, they might be an A-Player. If not, you are probably dealing with a B-Player.

Does the person continually develop new skills and create improvements that raise the performance bar for the overall team? If yes, they might be an A-Player. If not, you are probably dealing with a B-Player.

Remember what Feynman said “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool”

Don’t fool yourself that your team is full of A-Players!

By the way, I’m not passing judgment. It’s your choice where you set the performance bar. You may want to provide good jobs and make people feel happy. As long as your business remains profitable you could settle for B- Player performance. And that’s fine.

But if so, accept the tradeoffs you are making. Don’t fool yourself that your team is full of A-Players, because a high-performance culture is not for everyone.

It means you don’t accept average performance.

It means pushing people to do the best work of their careers.

Until next time…
Stephen