You Are Only as Good as Your Team
It's the time of year when we’re thinking about our goals—our ambitions, aspirations, hopes and dreams for the year. But all of your professional goals are dependent on who you have around you because you are only as good as your team.
We teach our children that they will be shaped by who they choose as their friends— “birds of a feather” and all that. There is even a popular quote along the lines of “You are the product of the five people you spend the most time with.”
But far too often, this same philosophy is not carried over into business. We believe our business can thrive despite the B and even occasionally C players. Or maybe we don’t exactly believe it, but hiring is hard and we wonder if our standards are too high.
The hard, inconvenient truth is that you are only as good as your weakest link. Your lowest performers will limit your team’s success. Steve Jobs referred to it as the “Bozo explosion.” Guy Kawaski expounds further: "Steve believed that A players hire A players—that is people who are as good as they are. I refined this slightly—my theory is that A players hire people even better than themselves. It’s clear, though, that B players hire C players so they can feel superior to them, and C players hire D players. If you start hiring B players, expect what Steve called 'the bozo explosion' to happen in your organization."
Over my years in recruiting, I have seen this play out in multiple organizations. When the leaders lower the bar, often by allowing certain levels of behavior and performance, everyone else lowers their standards. The principle of the weakest link applies.
Brad Stulberg writes that “An enormous part of self-improvement is with whom you surround yourself.” He goes on to share examples from world-class athletic programs that produce Olympians. “What sets the best apart from the rest isn’t cutting-edge technology, or ritzy facilities, or even great individual athletes or coaches. It’s the supportive community and culture; when the athletes and coaches are all dedicated to getting better and supporting each other in doing so. This kind of culture makes doing the hard thing just a little easier, whether the “hard thing” is a specific task, keeping a positive attitude amongst a string of setbacks, or gritting out a tedious stretch of work.”
When I went to work at a large public accounting firm mid-career, I was blown away by the uniform quality of work. Expectations were high across the board, and it was fun to work with other high achievers who all held themselves to a similar standard. I developed so much as a professional because I was surrounded with people who pushed me to be my best, to live up to my potential.
One of our most important jobs as leaders is to consistently set the standard for excellence and hold our team accountable.
Execution is where good ideas blossom or where they die.
It is easy to have a big idea. It is really hard to grind it out and consistently execute. One of my favorite examples of this is the salt shaker principle. Famous restauranter Pat Cetta shared this.
“Your staff and your guests are always moving your saltshaker off center. That’s their job. It is the job of life. It’s the law of entropy! Until you understand that, you’re going to get pissed off every time someone moves the saltshaker off center. It is not your job to get upset. You just need to understand: That’s what they do. Your job is just to move the shaker back each time and let them know exactly what you stand for. Let them know what excellence looks like."
— Setting the Table by Danny Meyer, quoting Pat Cetta
Our job as leaders is to move the salt shaker back to the middle of the table. To hold out for the A players, and to help the B players become A players. It is not easy work, but most meaningful pursuits in life are not easy.
So, to make this practical: Work to define what excellence is for your organization. It’s different for everyone, so knowing your “must-have’s” for business success is crucial. Then, find the right people that share your values and pursuit of excellence.
I’ll close with one of my favorite Jobs’ quotes: “We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent, because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be . . . good. It better be worth it.”