A-players — as opposed to B and C — are going to be the crucial drivers in the next year and a half, as organizations push through to recovery. At least that’s how Marc Effron sees it:

You need to have that ninetieth-percentile talent, not necessarily in all of your executive team roles but in the most value driving roles. But the challenge is that almost by definition, most executive teams, and even most key roles in organizations, are not filled with ninetieth percentile talents.

Marc co-authored the HBR best-seller “One Page Talent Management” and advises global companies on getting the best from their people. He talked to Vanguard’s own leadership expert, Ken Banta, in a recent Vanguard Dialogue, and they both told truths that may be hard to hear, but are important for this moment.

Ken: In my experience in management and leadership, there were two very negative consequences of not having the best people around: People started to lose trust, because if you had second-raters in your orbit, either [you’re] second-rate, or we’re second-rate as an organization. And the performance of everybody else started to drop.

Marc: Oftentimes, even though we intellectually understand the benefit of having higher quality talent, we don't have the emotional fortitude to follow through. . . .  The single largest missing element I find at our clients around the world is accountability for good leadership. I mean consequential accountability: If you're not a good leader, not good things will happen to you.

Marc, Ken and our participants had plenty more to say about how to manage talent and HR operations during this crisis. For a quick taste, check out this short digest video, or watch the full Dialogue here.

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