Chapter 4 – Productivity Power: Unleashing Your “A” Players

One of the most exciting Super Bowls (XLII) recently ended with the New York Giants upsetting the New England Patriots after a long and improbable fourth quarter drive that culminated with a sudden touchdown. The pressure was great and the stakes were high, but Eli Manning, the Giants’ relatively inexperienced quarterback, somehow managed to elude the Patriots and find his receivers for the win. In the locker room, Manning calmly explained that when a game is on the line, he wants the ball in his hands. “I like being accountable,” said the quarterback.

Manning may or may not mature into a great NFL player, but his post-game comments show that he is already an “A” player. And, whether you’re a football coach, an executive or an entrepreneur, you definitely want to surround yourself with “A” players.

These are the game-changers, the business-builders, the top- and bottom-line enhancers. These are the responsible ones who dig in and focus; the ones who take ownership and take it on; the ones who keep raising the bar and then want to be measured; the ones who bring big ideas and then go out and implement them; the ones who are really productive.

Finding and developing “A” players is hard enough, as we all know. But the truly big challenge, on and off the field, is unleashing them so they can deliver maximum value to the team or the company.

In a group dynamic, managers have to make sure their “A” players don’t get bogged down, held back or side-tracked by the email jockeys, busy-bodies and other unproductive employees in their midst. It’s also important to spread the work load – and accountability – so that “A” players don’t get burnt out from shouldering a disproportionate amount of the burden; in the process, we need to know what tasks each team member is actually attacking and achieving so we can move away from the old 80-20 rule. Finally, we need to harness technology solutions that help executives and entrepreneurs assess and understand which employees are on course to become super-productive “A” players and which aren’t. Clearing a path that ultimately leads both groups to success is a smart and far-sighted business strategy.

When it comes to helping players or teams consistently live up to their potential, football once again offers valuable lessons. Each week during the season, for example, there is a perfect management oversight tool called “game films.” These films are meticulously reviewed by coaches, and every player's performance and productivity is diagnosed and graded based on how well individual assignments are executed. If there is a break down on the field, the films show it clearly and game plans can be adjusted accordingly in time for the next opponent.

With its emphasis on continuous improvement, the football world is clearly conducive to “A” player excellence. But not all cultures allow this.

Silicon Valley, for example, is a tough place for hard-working “A” players to break through and truly make a sustained mark over time. A little success goes a long way in the tightly networked Valley; as a result, many people stop producing and coast there after scoring an initial achievement. There’s so much talk about teamwork in the Valley, but scratch the surface and it’s really a first-person-singular culture where “Me” rather than “We” ultimately dominates. Returning to football, the question is whether being on the cover of Sports Illustrated or being on a Super-Bowl winning team means more to the average executive or entrepreneur in the Valley.

The innovation-obsessed Valley also rewards big ideas, but it doesn’t seem to value execution and follow-through quite as much. In fact, you’re considered a world-beater in the Valley if one out of 10 concepts on the white board bear fruit and end up making a difference in the marketplace.

And the hyper-kinetic Valley is always swirling – people constantly move from job to job and company to company in order to be part of the next hot technology wave; so, with human capital turnover rates this high, it’s especially difficult for IT managers in the Valley to reinforce accountability and a sense of responsible implementation.

Asia, on the other hand, offers a culture that is tailor-made for “A” players because it’s all about taking teams and companies to the next level of excellence. Throughout the region, there is a keen sense of accountability; responsibility is taken very seriously; and collaborative productivity is venerated. This helps explain why we see very few email chains of low importance in the Pacific Rim countries – people keep their heads down, work hard, and don’t like to waste time. It’s ironic that the faceless corporate team is a cultural stereotype in Asian business, when the fact is that legions of “A” players – albeit humble “A” players – are driving revenues and profits for companies in Japan, China, Korea and other neighboring countries.

Europe’s culture of accountability and responsibility also frees up “A” players. Much digital communication in EU companies, for example, is mindful, measured and meticulous. This stands in sharp contrast to so many email threads in U.S. firms, which are often unwieldy, undisciplined and unclear. The unfortunate end result when these tangled and swollen emails drop into employees’ in-boxes is that nobody knows what to do next; and the paralysis and confusion just eats away at forward-thrusting accountability and responsibility. If you can’t make sense of an email chain because a host of unproductive team members are chiming in mindlessly just to be heard online, then you’ll probably sit tight and do nothing.

This helps explain why many senior executives in U.S. companies spend so much of their time compiling, consolidating and updating status reports – they’re the only ones who truly understand what tasks are supposed to be accomplished, and by whom. Obviously, this is a huge dissipation of potential high-value productivity; when your “A” players are reduced to filling in activity flow charts, you know you’re in big trouble. And, if you’re looking for a compelling case study of how unproductive team members can sully, stymie and sand-bag the efforts of their most productive colleagues, this is it.

The most powerful and profound way to unleash “A” players – whatever continent you’re operating on – is to make sure your company, operating unit or team consistently develops and transmits clear and relevant communications that help everyone understand their individual roles and responsibilities; if there’s broad-based accountability, then the high-octane, high-energy “A” producers won’t have to step in and burn unnecessary midnight oil all the time.

The ultimate goal – which may be slightly unrealistic – is that every syllable matters and is meaningful to core business objectives. When a report comes in and needs editing, for example, ask yourself if the revisions will make it better or different. Busy-work and iterations for the sake of iterations simply drain the productivity life-blood out of an organization. Having an “A” player review the same document over and over again until it’s “perfect” is a waste. And when you start a meeting, offer three options including the suggested course of action so that the conversation stays bracketed, the gathering remains focused, and everyone – not just the “A” players – knows their next task, assignment and deadline.

The collaborative business knowledge market is growing by leaps and bounds – from $50 billion in 2005 to $72 billion last year, according to research firm Basex – and the customer mantra for productivity-enhancing collaborative technology is quickly becoming “Keep Track to Keep Score.”

This means that the IT solution must provide transparency – making tasks, activities, assignments, milestones and deadlines accessible to every participant on the team. If this tracked information – owner, status and next steps – is linked to business objectives, then there will several positive outcomes:

Nowhere to Run and Nowhere to Hide – the “B” players on the team and in the organization will be flushed out into the open; they won’t be able to lurk undetected anymore in a thicket of superfluous email.

From Competition to Collaboration – the unproductive and often unspoken competition between the “B” players and the “A” players will draw to a rapid close and become productive collaboration because managers will be able to see who is doing – and who isn’t doing – what’s expected of them; in essence, the “B” players will no longer be able to hinder the “A” players.

The Best and Brightest – managers will be able to better assess their “A” player talent. They’ll see who their best creative people are, for example, or who shines as a project manager or excels at strategic insight and intelligence.

Unclogging the Productivity Arteries – if there’s an issue or blockage that’s preventing a project from moving ahead, then managers will quickly see this and be able to make mid-course adjustments without missing a beat – or a deadline – and without squandering valuable “A” player time or resources. The unproductive “Before and After Mystery” will be replaced by the much more productive and real-time “Running Chronology.”

Unleashing “A” players has always been as coveted a business objective as winning the Super Bowl. The right management and the right culture can go a long way toward realizing this critical – and truly productive – goal for companies everywhere. But the right technology solution, which may not be as exciting as Eli Manning’s recent fourth-quarter heroics, can definitely help push almost any firm into the end zone.