How to Keep Your "A" Players #11: Get the Right Role Fit

Attracting and retaining talent is essential to scaling your business successfully. This is especially true for your “A” Players. Let’s continue visiting with our friend Frank.

Frank was sitting in his office feeling great about his team and the company in general. “I love my job. I get to come to work every day and do work that I love and that I’m really good at. I don’t even mind the occasional “push” times when we have to work harder than usual so much. What could be better?”

Pipedream? I don’t think so. Put your team members in roles that play to their strengths and passions.

Letting people do what they love to do is pretty obvious. They’ll work longer and harder because they enjoy their work, and their passion for their work easily propels them over the inevitable obstacles they will encounter along the way. They don’t need as much external motivation/management because their internal motivation is so strong.

In professional football, the two highest paid players are the Quarterback and the Left Guard. The skill sets required for these two positions, however, are very different.

Ideally a good Quarterback is a strong leader and strategic thinker who can “read” the field of play and then make tactical adjustments to the game plan on the fly. To be most effective, he needs to be able to throw the football well and be a fast runner.  

One of the main duties of a Left Guard is to protect the Quarterback. Ideally a good Left Guard is incredibly strong, i.e., he needs to have the brute strength of a human tractor. While he needs to be “quick” is short bursts, he doesn’t necessarily need to be a fast runner over longer distances, and he never throws the ball.

While both players are essential to putting together a winning football team, I strongly recommend that you don’t ask your Left Guard to play Quarterback.

Don’t be a stranger. (770) 993-1129, tdockery@TheResolveFirm.com