You can’t predict an A-player. Period. Matt is reacting to this idea that you should know an A-player from the moment you interview them. He agrees that you should be doing everything you can to retain your best employees, but he’ll explain why this “strategy” is a terrible way to make a good hiring decision.
There are tons of people out on social media giving business advice. Some of it is good advice, but most of it isn’t good. In this series, watch CapForge’s owner react to different advice videos. He’s an expert in all things business and has 20+ years of experience under his belt. Some of the things he reacts to might even surprise you!
Video Transcript:
Business Advice Video:
You know we have A talent, B talent, C talent. C talent is usually not going to hang around too much. You know, how do you know if somebody’s an A talent? I always close my eyes and say, if this person comes into my office tomorrow and says they have to walk away. For a B talent, I’m like, oh man, that’s tough. In my mind, I know we can replace this person. If an A person walks in and tells me that, You go, Okay, wait a minute, what do you want? How do we make this better? And you get scared, you get frightened, because A+ players are almost impossible to replace.
Matt’s Review:
I agree that A players, the top employees, the very best ones, are tough to replace. I don’t know how you know that, though, if you’re interviewing them today for the first time. Other than you can get a certain gut feel, sometimes that’s right, not always. Some people are very good at interviewing, saying the right things, coming across the right way, and then they fail to perform for various reasons. So, I agree you don’t wanna let good people walk away. But just imagining a person you’re interviewing today and know nothing about, have no history with, imagining them walking away and how you feel about it, I don’t think that’s gonna help you make good hiring decisions. It might help you make good retention decisions, but not good hiring decisions. That is much tougher, and I don’t think this is the secret to that.