Your best friend comes to you. She' struggling at her job in sales.
"What's wrong?" you ask.
"I don't know, I just can't hit my targets."
"Did you..."
"They even assigned me a sales coach who kicked my ass for 2 months and it didn't help. I've worked so hard at this!"
You're not sure what to say. She continues:
"I'm going to fail. Again! This happened at my last job too. And the one before that. No matter how hard I try, I always end up having to leave because I can't hit my targets."
You finally figure out something to say: "But you're really good with people!"
She sighs, and holds back the tears, "That's what makes it even worse! I know this is what I'm supposed to be good at. I know I can make it. I just don't understand why I keep failing!"
She shakes her head. "Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm just a failure," she concludes.
You give her a hug, which she clearly needs. She sobs. There's a bit of release.
Then you remember the Wisdom of the Business World. You can help!
"It's not your fault!" you say, looking hopeful. "I'm sorry this is happening to you, but there's nothing to do about it. It simply sounds like you're a B or maybe even a C player. That's just the way it is for you I guess."
record scratch
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard the phrase:
“Only hire A players. If you hire B players, then they hire C players.”
This reductive thinking is annoying not only because it’s cruel and insulting to most people (unless they have strong enough self-esteem or self-delusion to immediately, confidently place themselves in the A category), but also because it’s simply wrong.
In the scenario above, I like to think most of us would reply with some sort of encouraging comment along the lines of “you just haven’t found the right place to shine yet”, pointing out how hard she’s working, and that once she finds the right company, or maybe even the right career, she’ll thrive as she deserves.
Everyone can make a positive contribution to the world. Of all people, entrepreneurs should know this. So many of us started businesses because we found the typical work environment unbearable. I don’t know how long I would have lasted in the corporate world if I hadn’t jumped into running my own businesses. Maybe I might even have found a special niche to shine from while my soul was slowly ground into dust. But I’m pretty sure that the freedom and flexibility of running my own businesses was a decisive factor in helping me flourish as a human being.
This is true of everyone else too. If they’re not doing well in the role you hired them for, it’s not because they have some kind of intrinsic quality of being a “poor performer”. It’s because something’s not working for them in this environment. Maybe they are in the wrong career. Maybe your company’s culture isn’t quite right for them. Maybe they need more support. Maybe they need less. Figuring it out can be a very interesting and rewarding puzzle, especially if you manage to turn an apparent “low performer” into a star.
It starts by realising that there are no B players, just mismatches. As Einstein allegedly (but not actually) said: Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
Wanting to treat people like adults is all well and good, but what does that mean?
Adults are responsible for themselves
Quite simply, it means assuming that they are capable of being responsible for themselves. They can make and manage their commitments. They can decide when to take toilet breaks and lunch breaks. They can choose to step out of a meeting that they feel isn’t a good use of their time, and determine how to negotiate that with the other meeting participants. They can decide to take the afternoon off to watch a movie at the iMax and work in the evening instead. They can even make the shocking, to some, decision to work from somewhere else than the office for a while, be that a coffee shop nearby or an Airbnb in Sardinia.
Adults are able to understand that actions have consequences. They can evaluate those consequences and adjust their actions accordingly. They can communicate with other adults and figure out a solution for a problem together. They can use the available information and seek relevant advice to figure out which solution is best, how much budget can be allocated to it, and when to review the decision.
Doesn’t it sound refreshing to work with these “adults”?
Well, good news! Unless you’re actually hiring children, chances are your employees are all officially adults, many of them might even have children of their own, and if you treat them the right way, you can expect adult behaviour from them!
First Draft: done!
I was supposed to send this email out on Sunday… but anyone in the UK knows that everything, including yours truly, was melting for most of the last week. I could not summon the energy to do so.
Instead, I focused my last drops of strength on finishing the first draft (minus the very last chapter, which can wait, as it’s a short “come on, let’s go!” kind of chapter rather than one with a lot of substance).
If you haven’t yet signed up to be a beta reader and you’d like to, just reply to this email! I hope that the beta reading can begin next week. Each round will involve 3-5 readers, and will take about 2 weeks. Rounds will continue until… well, until the book feels ready!
Thanks for your attention!