When we’re intently focussed on reaching the A Grade, we tend to aim for quick fixes – get the medal, get the trophy, win the acclaim, bask in the glory. But in this process we tend to overlook some very important questions.

What was lost in the process of ‘getting there’?

Once you make the grade, can you actually survive? Are you really A Grade material? Will your team make it all together? Or have you got one star and a team full of averages…

The suburban football clubs of Melbourne often recruit retiring AFL players and pay them big bucks to bolster the strength of their team. I call it a massive shortcut to success.

Have you ever thought if you’re investing in the wrong players? Wouldn’t you be better off spending that quick-fix budget on your grass-roots team members—the the talented ones that have been with your club since Under 10’s?

Because it turns out that making it to A Grade and surviving A Grade are:

TWO.  VERY.  DIFFERENT.  STORIES.

Ask yourself what will happen when your star player moves on to bigger and better things, or demands double their salary because they are the one that got you to the top and there are a host of other clubs lining up to take them…

It’s quite possible that your business is A Grade on the surface but B Grade deep inside… and there is nothing wrong with that.

Being honest about your company’s strengths and shortfalls is the first step in advancing your business by encouraging and developing a wide range of players.

By buying into the hype of a highly-priced super-star who promises to ‘get you there’ you are likely to be overlooking your home-grown talent; the people who have made you, your most loyal team members, the ones who have built your company from the ground up. These are the employees who create an average turnover with healthy profit, and whose reliability and predictability means you are able to pay the bills and stay afloat, probably enabling you to afford the exuberant salaries you are paying your quick-fix stars.

As with so much in the business world, it all comes back to company culture.

Ask yourself what kind of company you want to create. Think about it long and hard. Because a work environment that values only the trophy, and cares not for the safe and supportive growth required to hold on to the prize, is setting itself up for failure. Workplaces like this are stressful, unrewarding, and usually act as a ‘station’ of sorts, a place where employees can jump on or off whenever it suits their interest – not yours or your company’s.

SO.  DEVELOP.  THE.  ONES.  WHO.  WANT.  TO.  LEARN.

Those employees who want to acquire new skills and want the same trophy that you are chasing. When an employee is nurtured in the right way, your company becomes their company, and together, you’ll make the A Grade… and stay there.

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