My First experience with ABC Theory - Assess Your Team

Assess Your Team

It all started with my experimenting with people. I have been keen observer of people behavior and always loved talking to people to know them better. When I became first time manager, I saw a different dimension of people. The observation resulted in appraising them on how they perform. As a manager my job was to get optimal contribution from them. And what I realized was that not everyone has the same potential. I found it was very necessary to know the potential and then map it with what activities are needed to get the right work done by right person. Through my experience in managing people over few years, I learnt to understand this potential of people and I categorized them into three categories which also maps well with kind of horses you see.

Employees can be compared with horses when it comes to their potential and performance. So let me explain what these categories are and how can you apply to your teams to know their potential.

Category A

The first category is of race horses. A race horse is fast and focused. Race horses know what their goal is and they run faster to beat others in reaching their goals fasters. They don’t need directions; they compete with similar breed of horses and get signals quickly to act. Race horses however do not carry weight, they may not work (or run) as hard as other horses but they work smart to build their stamina and speed. It is difficult to not notice them, they emit their personality. I call them A Category horses.

Category-A employees and team members are like race horses. They are sharp, fast and focused. They are proactive, do not need too much directions and look for signals to act proactively. They are always in competition with similar caliber peers to perform better and better. And as anyone would imagine, they work smart, not necessarily hard. They work to advance their career and take new responsibilities.

Both A-Category horse and employee are unstoppable. They need new challenges to nourish themselves. If you keep them away from these challenges for long, they may lose their potency and can become a confused personality. I would not say they will become Category B horse or employee because that category has different properties. I don’t think it will be possible and right to put them in any category. Such employees often become frustrated, inactive and confused when they are forced into an environment which does not let them perform.

Category B

The second category is of those horses that pull carts. You might have seen them pulling carts loaded with people or material, and are means of transportation. These horses carry a lot of weight and obviously run slower than race horse. They work hard and go long distance. They have patience and take occasional directions when their course has to be changed. They do not have ambition to run faster unless forced to. But they run faster for short distance and then come back to their natural speed and potential.

Category-B employees are same as cart horses. They are valuable as they carry a lot of work on their shoulders. They are not as fast as Category-A employees but they make a large project reach the goal. They work hard, execute and deliver results, albeit slow. They are not replaceable by Category-A employees as Category-A employees may not stick to a project for long, whereas Category-B once given the charter, will carry the team to see the light at the end of the tunnel. They may not be as ambitious as Category-A but are valuable.

Both B-Category horse and employee need occasional directions when the course is to be changed. You may find them sometimes working with blinkers and they see what you may want them to see. A lot of them may not ask too many questions or react (sometimes they do) if they are given a comfort zone. They achieve perfection by repeating the same work or route and may not have ambition of going a different path everyday. They should be used to provide repeatable and commodity services.

Category C

The third category is of very interesting horse. This is called as marriage horse, the one you see in Indian marriage on which groom sits and goes to marry his bride. They have an attitude. They can be flashy but will deliver the least. They are neither fast nor carry a lot of weight. They need a lot of attention and always need to be guided on every step. They need to be fed before they start walking and walk short distances. After every few steps they stop, then people dance in front of them, shower money and then they walk again, for few steps to stop again to repeat the process. There is always a master who is holding its leash to give the direction. They will show as if they are carrying a very important  task, but they will deliver the least.

Have you seen such employees? Do you have some of these in your team? These C-Category employee will take maximum attention from you. They will not only work slow but will make others work slower. As a manager you will dance in front of them multiple times to make them perform. After all you are supposed to make everyone perform, but your dance often goes in vain. They are flashy, and will show as if they are the one who are at the center of everything, but the actual contribution will be minimal. And they are expensive. They will have least productivity but will take time and attention from manager and many of other colleagues. They are “minus” resources who reduce more productivity than they add.  Aren’t they interesting? Yes, but not for you if you are the manager. As a manager, you are going to have an interesting time!

Both Category-C employee and horse may seem needed but are not necessary. They neither work hard, nor smart. They neither carry weight nor run fast. They will neither perform not let others perform. They should be stopped but they are difficult to recognize. They will appear to look like Category-A sometimes but you will know only when you sit on them. 

How

should

you act?

Get rid of Category-C first. I know it will be hard, you may want to try them in pulling the cart or run in a race. After all this is what each management book says. But you will not be able to. It is not worth finding exceptions as you will realize only when it is too late.

Category-B will work better if there is no Category-C. Imagine, you put category-C horse in pulling a cart. You will dance, your customer will dance and leave alone the enjoyment that your competition will have while watching this. No one but you will be blamed for putting marriage horse on a cart. You WILL abandon that project or customer will abandon. Result will be same.

Category-B should not be disturbed too much. They know what they are told to do, and let them do that with complete focus. Most projects and customers will depend upon them for reaching where they want to be. After Category-A has won the business. Category-B should be nurtured physically so that they have the strength to keep delivering. That would mean giving them wholesome work. Else they will stale. Category-A on the other hand have to be nurtured intellectually and on specific skills so that they can have will and strength to win. Category-A will want to win different projects or race but Category-B will happily execute the tasks allocated to them. You may win a lot of business on Category-A but you will have to depend upon Category-B for sustenance. Category-A will be sellable but Category-B will finally deliver. Both are needed in an organization to grow. Switch there job and you will see the difference. A sale will not close if Category-B is selling. A project will not get delivered if Category-A is delivering. And if you think that a project is not getting delivery because you have got a Category-C guy but in fact you have put Category-A guy on delivering then You, the manager, need training. You will learn it with experience and that is the reason for some of the Category-C people still in your organization.  God had to create jobs for C people so he created confusion in judgment. Faster you judge, better it is for you. Better the judgment you have, sooner you will recognize them. Sooner you recognize, faster you will make your team perform.

As I write this, I want to go on and on, but then I had limited time in my hand. I hope to take it further and write my experience on how managers should identify, select and deploy A,B and C category people in organizations.

PS: Feel free to send me your thoughts :-)

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