Let’s Hear it for B Players

Professor Thomas DeLong and Vineeta Vijayaraghavan in their article 'Let’s hear it for the B players' succinctly explain that though organizations downplay average performers because they lack the luster and ambition of stars, they may be the best supporting actors in times of need.

I was pleased to hear that as I am certainly a B player who always attempts to hire A players.

The argument that companies do not notice the importance of the B players and their roles in counter balancing the ambitions of the company’s high performing visionaries - whose esteemed strengths when carried to an extreme can lead to volatile behavior did make sense to me.

With the abundance of literature on STARS, it was refreshing to read this article. The truth is that companies need to recognize their B players are not necessarily less intelligent than the STARS. While A players maybe demonstrate an achievement oriented behavior much more, the B player clearly demonstrates an aversion to calling attention to themselves. B players often have a great temperament - Emotional Intelligence.

EQ is more important than IQ – get hired with IQ but you can only get promoted with EQ.

There is certainly a need to learn more about shaping our B players. For more details, email lily@smrhrd.com.

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