 List 3 reasons management should show more interest in the B players.

In your own words

explain the thought process behind those reasons.

Employees can be classified as 3 types of players: A, B, & C. Kiani’s (2021) article, “How to
identify “A Player” “B Player” and “C Player” clearly describes how to distinguish between them:

When you delegate to When you recruit When they need to do When they are blocked
Type them something new
A you are confident it will you look for others they teach themselves they ask for help
Players get done that are similar
B they get it mostly done you always look for you have to guide them they waste time trying to
Players but need guidance someone better towards how to learn it figure it out
inefficiently, rather than
admit they are
struggling
C you are worried it won’t you purposefully look you need to precisely they rarely ask for help
Players get done well for someone very show them exactly how and instead, just let the
different to do it, and it often still
project slip
gets done wrong
Above table from (Kiani, 2021)

According to DeLong & Vijayaraghavan (2015), “A players make up the top 10% of a company, whereas
B players make up the middle 80%, and C players make up the bottom 10%.” That means A players are
minority in any given company. Being a desired minority and the most ideal focus of hiring, “A players
tend to think of themselves as stars, who relish in new opportunities and battles”, have higher salaries
than average and competitors are constantly fighting to steal them away so retention is usually an issue
(DeLong & Vijayaraghavan (2015). Thus it is unrealistic to have more than a minority of employees that
are A players.

B players on the other hand are more stable, grounded, cost less, and more likely to be loyal to a
company. B players have “the defining characteristic is their aversion to calling attention to themselves
—even when they need to. They are like the proverbial wheel that never squeaks—and, consequently,
gets no grease” (DeLong & Vijayaraghavan (2015). Whereas C players are employees you’d prefer not to
have as they more a hassle and a liability then useful.

In short, DeLong & Vijayaraghavan’s article was very insightful, their view slightly differed from
Kiani’s view in that they portrayed B players in a positive light. Based on the research and articles I’ve
read on this topic, my perspective is A players are employees the most ambitious, that typically stand
out in a positive light in performance often the highlight, however at the same time due to this nature
they take risks and can be a loose cannon or somewhat unreliable and as being the most ambitious
overall as a category tend to switch jobs the most for higher pay or opportunities so in a sense the least
stable in terms of company retention. B players can be anywhere to mediocre and above, their pay will
be less than A players but they are more grounded, less ambitious, and most likely to be a long term
employee of a company, as DeLong & Vijayaraghavan puts it “In crisis, B players’ stability can be an
organization’s saving grace.” This would be similar to a mentor who’s been at the job for so long and
knows the ins and outs. If we are thinking about a product I would view “A players as the outer
wrapping, or what a consumer sees cosmetically or the cover page, whereas B players would be the
internal intricacies, what makes the product function and maintain durability.

Citations

1. Kiani, B. (2021, March 25). How to identify "A Player " "B Player " and " C Player ". LinkedIn.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-identify-player-b-c-bilal-kiani

2. DeLong, T., & Vijayaraghavan, V. (2015, August 11). Let’s hear it for B players. Harvard Business
Review. https://hbr.org/2003/06/lets-hear-it-for-b-players