Don’t Hire A-players, Hire an A -Team

There is a logic that goes around Silicon Valley — A players attract A players. B players attract C players, and C players attract D players. So hire only A players.

The logic is sound, but it doesn’t quite always get the results you are looking for. What would you rather have? A company full of A-players or a company that achieves results? Obviously, the latter.

There are countless examples of All-star players forming a team, but they never succeed because they are just fighting with each other. And the sad thing is the amount of hubris, that easily is mistaken for confidence, with having the “best” people how could we lose?

Now, why this doesn’t work:

Looking at just an individual is too myopic.

American Society tends to laud the lone inventor or the individual champion, but reality is that if you look closely there is always a team behind him or her.

Individuals don’t win championships, teams do.

Whether it is their coach or assistant, reality is rarely is success based on one person alone. This is the same with startups. Assessing an individual without the context of the team is just too myopic. Oftentimes, if there are too many A-players on a team, execution is negatively impacted.

People aren’t born A-players.

As Malcolm Gladwell said, it takes about 10,000 hours of practice for someone to be expert. People aren’t born A-players, it takes time and experience. This means that more than likely the people you hire are on their way to be an A-player and use your startup as training ground. Don’t be too disheartened by the fact that more than likely your startup does not have A-players.

Remember, the ark was built by amateurs, but the Titanic was built by professionals.

Since most startups don’t have the time or resources to hire experts, the best thing the organization can do is provide the right environment to groom the right team and foster the best performance and results.

Expectations of an A player changes over time.

And sadly, rarely does an organization re-define expectations over time. There are three phases of a company that requires a different team and therefore a different A-player at each phase: founding, growth and scale.

Founding Phase
During the founding phase, an A-player is a generalist with a “get-shit-done” attitude and can work at all levels.They may not be able to do each level expertly, but good enough until there is enough product-market fit to demand a larger team size.

An A-team at this stage is full of people with attitude and initiative for everyone to pull their weight and everyone is measured by how much “shit” they get done.

Growth Phase
During the growth phase, an A-player is someone who can specialize, and is brought in for their expertise. During this phase a company hires people to focus on building a team that specializes in Marketing, Operations, IT, etc…The “get-shit-done” attitude starts looking a little different, and becomes mismatched. A company spending too much time with a mis-matched attitude of “get-shit-done” ends up with a lot of shit.

A-players are still helpful, but instead of doing the work themselves the true A-players are great at influencing not just their team but the entire company. These A-players can truly help the company get into the scale phase by helping the company operationalize and put the right process in place. A true A-player can get the adoption of process and operationalization without much push back, while growing the business.

An A-Team is a group of people who can work effectively as a unit and intensely focused on team goals. I think about our Marketing team during this time. It was led by an A-player who made sure every player worked together well and identified as a team. The team members were all at different phases of their career, yet it was small enough that everyone had an impact. They were one of the rare teams that had annual team dinners and would give awards. And, interestingly enough, this function endured the most changes (re-orgs, new leaders) ; however, those that remained have always gone on to make the teams they join better.

Scale Phase
The company by now needs someone who can hook all these departments together, expert at refining and communicating. An A-player at this stage is not only specialized but can see the overall picture and move multiple moving pieces in concert while also being innovative and creative in how they solve issues. The issues at this stage just at an operational level can get quite complex. Coming up with impactful solutions requires a depth and breadth that is truly on a different level. They have long gotten past micro-managing, delegate well, and know how to politically maneuver any situation and still remain unscathed.

A-players at this stage are brilliant masterminds who know their stuff and can apply it in an unknown and changing world. Just like great writers who purposely ignore grammar rules to bring about new work (yes,I’m looking at you Mr.-run-on-sentence-William-Faulkner). They can only bring about new work because they know the rules so well. A players at this stage have specialized so well, that they can break the rules and go into the unknown.

An A-Team here gets more challenged as the company gets larger, it gets more difficult to have the team feel they are moving the needle for the company. And if the team does feel they are moving the needle for the company the weight is either immense or not enough. The team goals purpose and goals become more specialized, and it becomes the leader’s job to make sure that those teams know they are doing something incredibly important and meaningful. An A-team will be able to achieve their team goals while at the same time awareness from the ecosystem and rest of the company their value.

Building an A-Team takes the following:

Knowing the right team to build. Figure out what type of team you need and begin to build that team. Focus on setting that leader up for the best success possible. If at all possible it is best to hire the head of the team first. The leaders are a reflection of the company and personally of the CEO. The leaders set the bar and tone of that team.
Focus on the individuals in the context of the right team. This means thinking of their role from all angles — not just skill set, but methodology, approach, perspective and personality. A-teams build upon all parts of the person.
Build an environment of strong teams. Is your company constantly force ranking your employees and pitting them against each other? What are the incentive structures like? Is there a concept of a team goal that plays into incentives? What are your recognition rituals like? Are they only focused on individuals and not teams?

I end with a confession. When we started out to build Kabam, we were far from A-players. Our rag tag team of designers, engineers, and marketing were cash-strapped, had little experience, and a bunch of quirk. But we worked together as a team. That and a bit of luck, has proven far more valuable than just a group of A-players trying to get shit done.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” — Michael Jordan

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I am the co-founder and Chief Development Officer of Kabam, these perspectives are my own and do not necessarily represent Kabam.