Nothing can be more destructive to a person's competence and skills than an abusive treatment by his superiors. As far as I'm concerned, the true test of leadership is dealing with a subordinate's shortcomings. It's not only about breaking your workers' spirits (and sometimes causing real psychological damage), but also about how to get the best out of your team, taking the abilities of each player into consideration.
Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
21–30 of 53 posts
Re: Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
#22Great article. I very much agree with all the points made, and see a lot of myself in the author's hindsight about themselves.
You must be a real A-player.
Re: Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
#23People try to live up to the expectations you set for them. From kids to adults. Expect people to be excellent, ask how you can help when they are behind (helps validate the expectation) and celebrate excellent results.
Can you do this with your own expectations for yourself?
Re: Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
#24I remember listening to a 30 year old manager say you can't turn a C player into a B or a B into an A. That's a poor attitude for a manager.
I don't know exactly what the definition of an A / B / C player is, so take this with a grain of salt.
I think managers can give mentorship and advice but it's up to a person to improve themselves. That mostly comes down to attitude, interest and perseverance. Some people just stop themselves from being better, and give themselves arbitrary limits on what topics they won't learn or areas that aren't in the scope of their job.
Re: Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
#25It's hard to trust that this is from a real "A-player" when it throws so many of my "not an A-Player but a genial bullshitter" flags.
- Poorly written and communicated, with faux-profound single word paragraphs
- 'Insights' that would look more at home on a wall decal ("It’s true that I resisted the negativity, escaped, and embraced the positivity and rode it to its potential.")
- "I used to think this way, before I became enlightened" style statements showing complete lack of self-awareness
- Article about a vague concept without defining any of the behaviours that go along with that concept
- Reference to 2x2 matrices (iron law of management theory: all of human behaviour can be collapsed into four quadrants)
- Sign up for my newsletter modal
- His own signature at the end of the post
Is there anything in his background that separates this from the low-grade shlock that pollutes my Medium feed on a daily basis?
Re: Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
#26Re: Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
#27Nothing can be more destructive to a person's competence and skills than an abusive treatment by his superiors. As far as I'm concerned, the true test of leadership is dealing with a subordinate's shortcomings. It's not only about breaking your workers' spirits (and sometimes causing real psychological damage), but also about how to get the best out of your team, taking the abilities of each player into consideration…
What you just described sounds a lot like Peter Drucker's description of management:
"Management is about human beings. Its task is to make people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant."
Re: Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
#28It's hard to trust that this is from a real "A-player" when it throws so many of my "not an A-Player but a genial bullshitter" flags. - Poorly written and communicated, with faux-profound single word paragraphs - 'Insights' that would look more at home on a wall decal ("It’s true that I resisted the negativity, escaped, and embraced the positivity and rode it to its potential.") - "I used to think this way, before I…
> Is there anything in his background that separates this from the low-grade shlock that pollutes my Medium feed on a daily basis?
Considering he posts about his background on his very site, maybe you should do a bit of research before asking such a basic question and sling what amounts to a bunch of insults.
It's hard to trust this comment is from a real "journalist" when it throws so many of my "doesn't do any research and just asks questions to try to be different" flags.
Re: Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
#29[deleted]
Re: Why You Should Treat C-Players Like A-Players
#30It's hard to trust that this is from a real "A-player" when it throws so many of my "not an A-Player but a genial bullshitter" flags. - Poorly written and communicated, with faux-profound single word paragraphs - 'Insights' that would look more at home on a wall decal ("It’s true that I resisted the negativity, escaped, and embraced the positivity and rode it to its potential.") - "I used to think this way, before I…
[deleted]