I believe that the greatest role of a leader in any workplace is to inspire, influence and guide others. Leaders must relentlessly upgrade their teams and make sure that people not only see the vision, but they also live and breathe it. Business is like sports where a team with the best players wins.

Let me introduce you to a People Management Model I have previously implemented in one of the Organizations I have led: The “A-B-C Model”. This Model requires all employees to be assessed and ranked in three categories according to their performance: A-performers, B-performers and C-performers.

Assessments and evaluations are done basing on a simple technique, developed by Jack Welch – “the 4E’s and 1P Framework”.  1. Energy (ability to thrive on action and relish change); 2. Energize (the ability to energize others); 3. Edge (the ability to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’) and 4. Execution (ability to get the job done). All these 4E’s can be summed up in one word, ‘passion’.

The A-performers are the top players who are critical in taking the organization to the next level and they assist others in meeting their potential. This group of employees should be showered with love, promotions, bonuses, praise and training.

The B-performers are the average players and make up the majority of the employees. The goal is to encourage and motivate this group of people in order to get into the A-category because they are enormously valuable to the organization. That is why emphasis in this group is put on training, positive feedback, and thoughtful goal setting.

The C-performers are the weak ones. These should be candidly appraised while giving them feedback and a chance to improve. If no positive change is recorded, they should be asked to move on. Letting go of people is not the prettiest thing to do but it is inevitable sometimes and could present new opportunities elsewhere for the affected individual.

Managers should perform honest appraisals of people and candidly tell them where they stand, and be very specific with them about how they can improve. People are often misled when they are not told where they stand especially those that are not good enough.

Another key factor is making sure that the right people are doing the right jobs. This reminds me of an old folk story of the duck, rabbit, eagle and squirrel. In this story, the named characters agreed to start a school in order to meet the challenges of the new world. The school curriculum involved running, climbing, swimming and flying.

The duck was excellent in swimming. However, he made average grades in flying, and was very poor in running. Since he was so slow in running, he had to drop swimming and stay after school to practice running but because of this, his feet were badly worn so he became average in swimming.

The rabbit started at the top of his class in running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because he had so much makeup work to do in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing but he encountered constant frustration in flying classes because his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down.

The eagle was the problem child and was severely disciplined for being a non-conformist. In climbing classes, he beat all the others to the top, but insisted on using his own way of getting there.

The key point here is, when you have good people in an organization, assess their strengths and identify where they add the most value. Do not waste your time trying to turn ducks into eagles.

Lastly, there is need for strengthening the HR function. In my opinion, the HR is one of the most important functions in an organization and is the driving force behind what makes a winning team. Unfortunately, in most organizations, the HR function is relegated to filling forms and computing benefits.  The HR should be elevated to a position of power and primacy, and make sure HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers.

Brian B. Mukalazi

CEO, Talis Consults