Top ten signs you are an A player

The best employers understand that in order to build a great company, they need the best people. In his book entitled ‘Topgrading‘ Brad Smart outlines the different types of employees an employer is faced with, and classifies them into A player, B player and C player. The simplest definition is that A players are the top 10% of candidates who are available at your pay bracket.

In this list from Scaling Up users Appster, we walk through the Top ten signs you are an A player.

Top 10 signs you are an A Player


AS - a man wearing an average sticker on his shirt
  1. You are passionate about what your area of expertise and really enjoy what you do;
  2. You want to become the best at what you do and are always reading, learning, practicing to become a true Master of your craft.
  3. You profoundly care about the quality of the work you produce and will take extra steps to make sure it is done right.
  4. You hate mediocre work and mediocre behaviour, and people who do “just enough” to get by.
  5. You happily help others who need or ask for help. You share your knowledge and understanding.
  6. You are confident in your ability but are humble about it.
  7. You know that not everything is easy but willingly accept new challenges and are open to new possibilities and ideas.

8. You are a problem solver and thinker. You are not easily discouraged. If you get stuck or bogged down, you willingly seek help and assistance.
9. You know that time is precious and take steps to make the maximum use of your time. You are careful not to cause other people to waste their time either.
10. …and the Top sign you are an A-player is…
11. You are willing to push through difficult circumstances and situations. You know that there can be “no gain without pain”. You are willing to sacrifice today in order to achieve a greater reward in the future!

Top 10 Signs You are a B PLAYER


  1. You enjoy your work but you are not particularly passionate about it.
  2. You are good at what you do but you are not a Master of your craft —or— you are not actively reading, learning or prac- ticing your craft.
  3. You are care about your work but there are more important things in life that you care about more.
  4. You don’t like mediocre work but sometimes you feel like it doesn’t matter if you don’t produce your best.
  5. You want to help others when you can but are concerned this will take too much time.
  6. You are confident in what you know but are afraid that others will criticise your work.
  7. You are willing to accept challenges but have trouble accepting ideas that you think are wrong or silly.
  8. You can solve problems and always keen to try but you need help from others who are more experienced than you or have more understanding than you.
  9. You know time is precious and try to work fast but need more time to complete complex tasks or need help from others.
  10. …and the Top sign you are an B-player is…
  11. You are willing to work hard and even work through difficult situations but only if you are properly motivated or get a good salary hike at appraisal time.

Top 10 Signs you are a C PLAYER


  1. You don’t particularly enjoy your work and have trouble getting out of bed in the morning to come to the office.
  2. You are not particularly good at what you do or you are having serious difficulty improving your skills.
  3. You do not particularly care about your work. It is just a job.
  4. You willing accept mediocre work as a fact of life. You think no one else will notice or care.
  5. You avoid helping others in case they will realise you are not that good or that you have short-comings.
  6. You are not confident in what you do and frequently look to ways to avoid being confronted about it.
  7. You do not want challenges because you are afraid to make mistakes or fail.
  8. You frequently need help to solve problems and often get stuck.
  9. You have no concept of time and you allow tasks to take as long as they take.
  10. …and the Top sign you are an C-player is…
  11. You take frequent emergency leave, even if you are not sick, and you care more about table tennis and the cab picking you up from your front door than making a contribution.
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