I keep hearing people say that “A roles need A players”.  What a load of piffle.  Critical, pivotal or A roles may be performed by B players, or even C players – depending entirely on what the role is.  Think, for example, about those famed street sweepers at Disneyland – apparently A roles for the organization (I believe that, I recently bailed Lee Cockerell up at a cocktail party to verify it), but do they really suit A talent?  Um, no.

The reality is that the talent necessary for any A role (or B, C, or N role, for that matter) is determined by the role, the organization and the context in which the role and organization are operating (discovered by good workforce planning, of course) – not by some hackneyed cliche!

So that begs the question – do you know what kind of talent your A roles need?