[msglenn]

The A player rhetoric makes it easy to discard an employee without reflecting on how your actions as a company might be affecting that person's performance. The blame for poor performance immediately falls to the employee.

Sometimes the employee truly isn't going to work. But if you're a startup and you have someone who buys the vision of the company, fits the culture but doesn't exactly fit the role, it may pay to reevaluate the specifics of the job in light of the skills you know that person has.

So maybe it's not just about getting rid of the idea of the A player, but reconsidering whether the A player has to come into your company ready made.