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Star performers are not necessarily the best
team players. MOHAN BABU writes why organisations are now
understanding the need to nurture their B Players—the dependable
and consistent workers who play very critical roles in all functions
An interesting article advocating the need
to nurture “B Players” in organisations appeared in a
recent issue of Harvard Business Review. The article titled “Let’s
hear it for B Players,” based on extensive research by Vineeta
Vijayaraghavan and Thomas J DeLong, stirred debates on the need
for organisations to recognise and nurture B Players—a fact
most middle-managers already knew in their hearts but failed to
profess to senior management. The article classifies B Players as
those in a rough ranking are neither fast-track A Players who make
up the top 10 percent, nor the struggling C Players who make up
the bottom 10 percent, and goes on to argue that organisations need
to start focusing attention on the middle-rung players and not just
lavish attention on the stars.
Most of us might recall working with one
or more “star coders” (or maybe you happen to be one)
and are in awe of such super-programmers who can switch between
languages, platforms and technologies with ease.
They are the ones whose code complies from
the word go, and they are also the ones with all certifications
imaginable, commanding the highest billing-rates around. Interestingly,
such star coders are not be content to “settle down” in
a corporate setup and will be more content fluttering from one project
to the next or one company to the next. Statistics abound on how
a good programmer reportedly works 20 times as fast as a bad, and
the resulting program is either up to 20 times shorter or has 20
times less bugs (or both), with more functionality at the same time.
It is also a fact that a really “good” programmer/geek
rarely tolerates less talented programmers, and hence is unable
to be a team player.
This is where, even IT managers are coming
to realise the importance of their B Players, non-star programmers
people who have worked on the systems extensively and are able to
provide dependable, consistent output. This, even though the time
taken by such B Players may be more than what an ace programmer
would take. The article, while talking of B Players, categorises
them as:
B Players who are “recovered A Players”:
The author, Vineeta Vijayaraghavan, in a recent interview quotes
the example of one of the top 20 performers at Microsoft, who was
an A Player who burned out and went rock climbing. He later came
back, but to a smaller group—a think tank for new-product development.
He is a “recovered A Player” because he comes from that
world. He maintained calling cards from that world. He knows how
it works, and he can move in and out of that world.
B Players who are the “go-to”
people: Those who have an extraordinary feel for the processes and
norms of the company. They can make connections and go across departments
and divisions to get things done. They’re familiar with who
really has the power, even if it’s not the person in the formal
role.
B Players who are really just plain mediocre
performers: Those categorised as “middling”. The authors
say that the real issue with these people concerns alignment, an
issue of where and how to use their skills. Skilled managers can
try to extract good output even from mediocre performers who are
motivated to do their best.
A while ago, on a trip to Washington DC,
I happened to have an interesting conversation with a senior manager
working for a “big-three” Indian company. He had risen
up the ranks fast and got promoted to the role of a delivery manager.
He was, what you would call, a typical go-getter and an A Player.
After having spent over nine years at the company, however, he was
slightly discontent and was seriously contemplating moving on to
the role of a B Player. The reasons were not hard to see. As a senior
manager, he was expected to be on-call, fighting all the fires and
ensuring smooth delivery of all the projects in his portfolio, and
was expected to travel globally at a moment’s notice. After
spending a few years as a “high flying” consultant, he
wanted to start balancing his work-life with the needs of his young
family. The company valued and promoted go-getters; and the management
back in India was finding it extremely hard to empathise with him
since he was making top-dollars and getting to work on cool technologies.
Mr A Player, meanwhile was seeing his peers in the US settling-down,
living the “American Dream”—wife, kids and a nice
house in the suburbs. Not surprisingly, he quit the company a few
months after he got his greencard, joined the client as a team-lead
and settled down.
Moral of the story: Even Indian companies
(or I should say, especially Indian IT companies) that are grappling
with visa restrictions, should go the extra mile to keep their all
their employees, including those deputed overseas, happy. In the
process if some A Players want to transition into a slower pace,
they should be encouraged, making for a win-win proposition.
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