Fixing the B-Team

We receive steady requests to help companies that somehow feel stuck. We have that initial meeting, and we hear that the company isn’t making much progress for one reason or another. It starts with the CEO telling us about their objectives, and all the milestones that were missed by the team, and the discussion flows from there. Usually these CEOs think it’s a process problem, that all we have to do is come in, share some form of project management process or management techniques, and everything will be great. Sometimes that’s all it is, and it’s an easy fix.

When we first come in, it’s hard for us to pinpoint what’s really happening internally until we drill down into the root cause. It can be anything, and now and then we’re surprised by something completely new. Companies can be stuck for many reasons and we don’t presume to know the answers until we have a few cross references that point in a particular direction. We go in, and listen, and we keep asking questions.

We talk to everyone we can and we double-check our assumptions. It doesn’t take long before we get to know the team and the CEO and how the company communicates. We begin to see trends that start to show the real nature of the problem and too many times, the root cause is that the CEO unknowingly cut corners when hiring and ended up with a low-quality team. They may not know they settled for someone who wasn’t very strong in the first place. Sometimes it’s intentional, but done without thinking it through. If you don’t know what an expert should look like in that role, how would you know when someone isn’t that expert? These hires may work hard, have some skills, but way too often, they are not all that trainable, and don’t seem to grasp the bigger objectives. Often they wait for instruction and don’t take much initiative to solve problems on their own, preferring to blame someone else, or point a finger at someone else’s work as the reason they are off plan. Sometimes they are right.

We knew of one CEO who hired “strategists” that couldn’t have been less qualified for the role if they were unconscious. Yet, he had no idea what a strategist should look like, so to him, they were qualified, when anyone who knew better, and had experience, knew the difference. The problem was, this CEO wouldn’t listen to the advice of his own employees who understood their lack of qualifications. Of course they failed!

Often what we tell the CEO is something they don’t want to hear. That they have A-Player objectives with a B-Player team. Weak management almost never hires strong management. Unless the CEO knows what a qualified candidate should look like, they often settle for something less. Usually at some level, they know they are weak, and they tend to hire down, not up. There is an old saying that B-Players only hire C-Players and this is generally true. In the case where we think there is a way to salvage the team, we recommend our own Dr. Keith Dunbar to the company to come in and take a deeper look. Sometimes the existing team can be saved, sometimes not. They could be the partners that own the company and there is no other choice but to try and save them, and sometimes, it means replacing some partners to get the company moving again.

When we have to switch a company from a B to an A group of managers, it often comes with a stretch of chaos in the middle as the company shifts how it works. Sometimes, the shift happens easily, and sometimes not so much, and there is this stretch of complete chaos where some love the improvements while others hate it. This is where experience and soft skills come in. The process can often be tedious with constant reminders about the objectives so it doesn’t devolve into chaos. In all but one case, we were able to get the culture change to stick. One couldn’t make the leap because of the weakness within the partnership itself.

We had a client where just one B-Player who was a bully had his boot on the neck of just about everyone, including the CEO somehow. When he was fired, just his exit alone had a profound impact on the company and it made a rapid shift towards A-Players. This is why it’s not always a case where it’s dump everyone and start over. Sometimes it’s a matter of small adjustments. What we do know is that if you wait too long to take action, and you don’t fix the team, you could end up losing your company when it could have easily been saved. Keep in mind some of these shifts can happen without much of an increase in spending, but with a much healthier return instead.

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