THE FACTS ABOUT OUR TEAMS
In every organization there is an “A” team, “B” team, and a “C” team. There are those who create messes and those who clean them up. The A team being the best and the C team being the worst. The “A” team is full of highly proactive team players who willingly put forth a quality effort for every hour on the job. These are your leaders, role models, and your “go-to people.” The ones who unfortunately spend too much time cleaning up the messes, and the ones you miss the most when they’re on vacation. These are the ones who will lead by example even though they may not be receiving the full financial benefits of the position.
The “B” team is full of highly proactive team players who will also put forth a quality effort for every hour on the job, but somehow fall short of the “A” team. They could be new hires and simply need more training, or maybe they don’t quite grasp the big picture and their role within it. Whatever the shortcoming, they’re very close to being an “A” team member.
The “C” team consists of a small but fluctuating percentage of employees (temporary and permanent) who create and sustain the mess. These are the ones who are unrealistic in their expectations about what they should and shouldn’t be allowed to get away with. There the ones with no sense of awareness or commitment to organizational success. Although they do not represent the majority of employees, this C team requires the bulk of the resources and never-ending maintenance. This team consists of those who aren't necessarily bad people; although I’ve noticed that in the past several years, the C team’s numbers have grown to be more defiant, disrespectful and undisciplined. This entitlement mentality (Planned Obsolescence) allows C team people to say just about anything to get a job. They put a street smart spin on their own qualifications and misinform leaders as to their own work ethic and/or ability. This behavior has led to an unjustified negative perception of those leaders who are supposed to make sure that only the right people are on the bus. Regularly scheduled turnovers of the C teammates are a requirement for personal and organizational success. Small businesses are the least likely to have the resources to subsidize the C team. The usual thought process is that hiring a very well qualified person is too expensive and money can be saved by just hiring an amateur instead. I got news for you, that amateur will end up costing you ten times more than you ever expected.
The majority of the resources (personal and financial) that it takes to support all these teams are more often than not directed towards the “C” teams. This is due to a whole host of issues involved with allowing the C team to be on the bus in the first place. Yes, all three teams do share some of the same resources; the difference is that the resources which are going to the A and B teams are recognized as actually adding value, whereas the C team is more prone to waste these resources. The C team’s whole host of issues necessitates the need for the majority of those resources, of which are recognized as being non-value added. Issues like:
Tardiness, which leads to disruptions in the flow of information, production, morale, and teamwork.
Lack of passion for their work, which leads to a lack of productivity, creativity, teamwork, morale, and quality.
Disciplinary issues, which lead to disruptions in other departments such as Human resources, Quality and Finance.
All of these issues are also called “indirect cost.” The resources necessary to continually address these issues, when added up, are very costly not only to the organization but to the members of the organization and their health and well-being. If these issues are allowed to go unnoticed, or more importantly, noticed and uncorrected, they will sap the motivation right out of people in spite of their best efforts to keep a positive outlook.
