Do you know your ABCs?

Auren Hoffman's post on Why Hiring is Paradoxically Harder in a Downturn was clearly of high interest in the recruiting world. 

And, yeah, he's right, there's a very high signal to noise ratio when you go looking for talent in this market.

But that whole A-Player thing? Not so much.

All bosses think they are A-Players. But, if you think about the whole A-Player framework, it's a fallacy, because once you move up a level, you automatically get assessed by a new set of criteria. And, this is where the A-Player framework breaks down for me. I've experienced too many BAD BOSSES who think they are A-Players when it comes to building a team. And guess what they say after they've hired someone who doesn't work out? 

"Oh, they just didn't meet expectations, they aren't an A-Player"

Um, yeah, right. Did you look in the mirror before you said that?

Comments

[Tim Walker]

Good point, Dave. The sports analogy breaks down when you're talking about business, because the *game* changes as you move up levels.

If we're talking about baseball players, it's much simpler: a minor-league third baseman is playing *exactly* the same game as he'll play at the big leagues, except against a group of players that are, on average, younger and not quite as good as big-leaguers.

But think of the typical transitions in a business career:

--Individual contributor.
--Managing / coordinating projects.
--Managing individual contributors (often without P&L responsibility).
--Managing managers (P&L often kicks in around here).
--Managing directors & department heads.
--Managing senior executives.

The stakes, the egos, the budgets, the cognitive complexity -- all of them rise at every level.