A new acquaintance of mine, Tony Cinello, President of Anthony Andrew, LLC. suggested the book “Topgrading” by Bradford D. Smart. Smart defines Topgrading as filling every position in the organization with an A-player, at the appropriate compensation level.
An “A Players’ is defined as one who qualifies among the top 10 percent of those available for a position. An A Player is best of class. Tony leads a retained search firm in Dallas and is definitely an A Player.
I am up to page 70, so can not yet provide a full opinion of the book. However, I was intrigued to learn that A Players make up only 25% of most company’s workforce. The balance of the workforce are divided into 3 categories:
- 25% chronic B Players
- 25 % chronic C Players
- 25% B/Cs who are able to become A players, after develop or redeployment into a more suitable position.
Number 1 and number 10 are my favorite. I would add two more: Passion and Commitment. Some days you just don’t feel like picking up the phone to make another call. Passion and Commitment keeps you in the groove.
Here is Simon’s list:
- Needle in a haystack—it’s great fun to find a wonderful candidate who makes a real difference when hired.
- Need to pay the rent—most of us need income. Along the way we’ve found that we’re good at this gig. It pays the bills
- Order out of chaos—20 to 30 plus requisitions, countless resumes to review, tons of voice mail, endless emails, visits from desperate hiring managers, the list goes on and on. Most of us thrive in an environment where there is just way more to do than could be done every day.
- Trust the process—unless you’re from the throw as much *!&# against the wall and see what sticks crowd, most highly successful recruiters know what works and make sure they’re doing enough of the right kinds of activities to keep the machine running.
- Gotta Play on a team—some folks are happy working from home but most of us get our jollies working closely with others. There’s a lot to be gained by being part of an organization. You have to love walking through the office and seeing all those smiling faces of people you placed and their totally satisfied managers who see you as a valuable business partner.
- Art and science—finding wonderful candidates by using innovative sourcing techniques is invigorating. This is the same thrill as gold prospectors must feel when they hit the mother load.
- Technology junkie—lots of us just love technology. Why do the same mundane task day in and day out if you can automate it? How many ways can you be connected?
- Love to network—it may be working a room at a trade event, making phone calls, IMing, emailing, Googleing, or blogging but we just love to network with people
- Share the wealth—working with new people, showing them the ropes and cultivating talent is truly rewarding.
- Doing the impossible—we’ve all had that impossible to fill position. Who doesn’t want to be Superman or Superwoman? Defying the odds and making it happen is the best rush there is.
I don’t know Simon, but based on his list, I’d say he is an A Player.