Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve

by Whitney Johnson

What's the secret to having an engaged and productive team? It's having a plan for developing all employees--no matter where they are on their personal learning curves.

Better morale and higher performance happen through learning, argues Whitney Johnson. In over twenty years of coaching, investing, and consulting, Johnson has seen that employees need continuous learning and fresh challenges to stay motivated.

The best bosses know this, and they know how to make it happen by thoughtfully designing people’s jobs around the skills they have today as well as the skills they'll need to be even more valuable tomorrow. That's how entire organizations stay competitive in an unpredictable, rapidly changing business environment.

In this book, Johnson explains how to become one of those bosses and how to build your A-team by:

Identifying what your employees already know and what they need to learn
Designing their jobs to maximize engagement and learning
Applying a seven-step process for leading each person up their learning curve
We all want opportunities to learn, experiment, and grow in our jobs. When our bosses work with us to help us leap to new challenges, the result is a team that knows how to thrive, no matter what the future holds.

Genres: Leadership, Business, Nonfiction, Management, Audiobook, Self Help, Psychology

208 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 2018

About the author

Whitney Johnson was named one of the world's fifty most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50 in 2017.

She is the author of the forthcoming Build an A Team (Harvard Business Press, 2018) and the critically-acclaimed Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work (2015). Publisher's Weekly described it as "savvy...often counter-intuitive...superb" while the Boston Globe called it the "'What Color is Your Parachute?' career guide for the entrepreneurial age."

Through writing, speaking, consulting and coaching, Whitney works with leaders to retain their top talent, to build an A team, and to help them earn the gold star–be a boss people love.

She formerly was the co-founder of the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Harvard's Clayton Christensen, where they invested in and led the $8 million seed round for Korea’s Coupang, currently valued at $5+ billion. She was involved in fund formation, capital raising, and the development of the fund’s strategy. During her tenure, the CAGR of the Fund was 11.98% v. 1.22% for the S&P 500.

She is also formerly an award-winning Wall Street analyst. She was an Institutional Investor-ranked equity research analyst for eight consecutive years, and was rated by Starmine as a superior stock-picker. As an equity analyst, stocks under coverage included America Movil (NYSE: AMX), Televisa (NYSE: TV) and Telmex (NYSE: TMX), which accounted for roughly 40% of Mexico's market capitalization.

Whitney is a frequent contributor for the Harvard Business Review, she has over 1 million followers on Linkedin, and her LinkedIn course The Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship has 1 million+ views.

She is a member of the original cohort of Marshall Goldsmith's #100 coaches.

Reviews

[Eric Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good light read that talks about important leadership topics that others gloss over eg playing to the strengths of your people , understand the learning curve of each employee, consider potential and failure in both the job and recruitment

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author is a wonderful speaker but I found this book to be light on substance and new insights. Super short book that can be read quickly.

[Garry Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite simply, this book is stunning as evidenced by me reading it in one day - a very rare occurrence.

Whitney offers comprehensive, yet accessible insight as to build your optimum team. I particularly enjoyed the fact that so many of the solutions to this VUCA world that everyone is talking about, can be solved by being disruption-ready.

Some key takeaways for me include:

Allowing people to take a side or even backward moves at work.

Supporting deeply human and vulnerable leadership.

Investing, proactively, in people at the bottom of the S-curve and taking a longer term bet on people, not just short term.

Giving people the opportunity to craft the role around them vs squeezing into a tightly defined job spec.

This really is a book that keeps on giving and I feel, a critical resource as people to step into this future of work that indeed is already here.

Thank you Whitney an easy 5 stars.

[Myra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the in the top 5 best business/personal development books I've ever read.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed, concrete steps to take as a mentor/boss to foster engaged and loyal employees. Will be referring back to this book!

[Rick Yvanovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the S curve analogy and totally agree with this approach.
This could be transformational for a lot of organisations to change to this.

[Singalongalong · Rating 5 out of 5]

ALL OF IT. YESSSS. majorly practical insightful helpful hits nail on the head of manager/leader challenges i see/voiced around me.

[Natalía Papadopoúlou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicely written and easy to read book. What I kept is that the learning curve is something to consider across all levels of working people (entry level to seniors) and not just beginners. For each level you can manage how you can either help someone move along their learning curve or even how you help someone move into a new one. Not too unexpected material but it did give me few new points to consider.

[David Fredh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book especially focused in the dynamics in a team, important of balance and diversity and also importance of coaching and growing - where timing is key. Love the s-curve thinking

[Guyzen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of good advice for managing people and helping them achieve their goals. The book is supported by several anecdotes, mainly from executives and how the lessons they have learned support building a good team. The book leans a little too heavily on C-Suite level experience to illustrate the main points. There’s not as much feedback from the common worker and how these lessons apply to them. Ultimately, it’s an interesting read for anyone in a management position who is interested in building an ideal team.

[Jean Pace]

Good to read even if you're not a manager

I enjoyed Whitney Johnson's last book, Disrupt Yourself and was excited for this one. To be honest, I hadn't realized who the intended audience was ( managers and bosses). I am self employed and no one's boss so I wasn't sure this book would be the right fit for me. And in some ways it wasn't. But I was surprised to find that in many ways it was. As I read I got several good ideas and flashes of inspiration for my own business-- ideas where I could possibly help others, ideas about jumping into a less comfortable zone. The book was inspiring in thinking about careers, moving forward, upwards, sideways, or backwards, but moving and avoiding boredom. In fact, if i had to pinpoint what I liked about this book, that would be it. Avoiding boredom and trying fresh new things and ideas, even if you stay in the same field. It was a great read for anyone in big or small business. But also for anyone working and wanting to stay fresh and enjoy pushing themselves in different ways.

[Chen Ann Siew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than her other book "Disrupt Yourself". The same concept of an S-curve is used here, on an individual's growth in a career - from the slower-end of the learning curve, to the sweet spot of rapid growth and finally to the plateau of mastery leading to boredom and complacency. The book suggests having a team of 15%-75-15 spread over the S-curve, with further suggestions on how to manage individuals on different parts of the curve. Useful to read too, for anyone who's keen to manage his or her own career more proactively.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to read this book because I really loved Whitney Johnson's other books. This book, however, being all about building a team of employees was less applicable to me and so less interesting. I am not a manager or supervisor. I did read the book right as I was changing my own role at work as I had hit a plateau, so did relate to the idea of timing being important in achieving our highest productivity in a given role.

[Nadya Ichinomiya · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word- incredible.

Ok, a few more.

One of the most relevant and timely books on being a talent magnet, servant leader, and positive disruptor.

Plus my friend Carol Fishman Cohen is profiled in the book with her hugely impactful iRelaunch program, getting people back into the workforce after a career break.

HIGHLY recommend this book and her other one, Disrupt Yourself. Whitney ROCKS!

[Tomas Conefrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have just finished listening to this audiobook and really enjoyed it and also learned a lot from it. Because it was audio I intend to listen to it again once I've looked up Whitney's website for some of the diagrams mentioned.

[Stephanie Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great insights just when I needed them as I build a new team at work. Engaging and challenging at the same time, I am eager to disrupt my leadership style and work to become a a talent developer.

[Honey Badger Has Opinions · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book presented an interesting concept but was bogged down with too many real-world stories trying to prove it. I think a better format would have been a long article or a series of shorter blog posts. Good concept though.

[Karen Catlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I wish I had earlier in my career!

[Simona · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I found this book through Brené Brown.

There are some excellent ideas. For example, I like the idea of the S learning/disruption curve and how it relates to recruiting (e.g., hiring 'non-traditional' employees).

The idea of semi-retirement is also interesting and, I think, valuable for more experienced and junior employees. It could create an easy knowledge transfer.

Overall, lots of great ideas on how to build an A-Team. However, as mentioned by the author herself, ideas can be excellent, but it all comes down to execution.

Nonetheless, I like how this book emphasizes infinitive learning and improvement whether you're a junior, mid-level, or C-suite employee. You must remain in constant learning mode; otherwise, you will deteriorate.

Some tiny ideas/quotes to reflect on :

- Time + Competence = Boredom
- Every single person is… A LEARNING MACHINE.
- Learn, leap, repeat cycle.
- When building a team, hire toward the low end of the learning curve.
- We need friction; we need challenges.
- We tend to ignore people and things when they’re working.
- Anytime we look at one of our big failures, that failure is the seed of some great successes.
- "If I can disrupt the current version of me, I can change my world and the rest of the world just a little bit."
- "Everything is a head game; if you can change how you think and feel – that’s going to make all the difference."

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reasonable book about using the S Curve of Learning (something the author is known for) in the context of developing your employees. A good team has people at all points along the curve -- 15% new learners, 60% sweet spot of growth, and 15% at the high end -- and she goes into more detail about how to work with each segment to keep people engaged and growing, even if it means sending them to a new curve elsewhere (which is what high-performers want and need). Most of my notes come from the first half of the book. It got a bit tiresome to read examples of good managers and/or high-performers the way she presents them: name dropping and resumé pitching as if she is doing product features, advertising their amazing accomplishments. I suppose it might be inspiring for some people, but they're the top 1% of the workforce, so I found their mountain peak achievements unrelatable. (Which is also why I stopped listening to her podcast.)
Some gems, but also a lot of what you'd expect. In a rush? the first fifty pages will probably get you what you want to learn.

[Peter P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid enough read on keeping employees motivated and engaged, without really providing any groundbreaking perspectives or, surprisingly, particularly interesting stories. We are, Johnson writes, "consumer(s) of talent" and susceptible to the dangerous of rinse and repeat, a scenario anathema to growth and development. The author rightly calls out the oversight in looking beyond the norms in hiring, to look at women who may be returning to the workplace, military veterans, people changing direction mid-career, and non-degree people. Another important point in the book is the need to proactively disrupt our best people after they have ascended to the top of the S curve, and before they disrupt themselves by leaving the organization. Again, all good counsel without really increasing this reader's pulse.

[Letty Ma · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s so refreshing after reading this book despite you are on the lower or upper learning curve in learning on how to disrupt yourself, leading a team or a self-reflection. This book is highly recommended to keep it on the shelf or as a gift to your next level managers and team leaders. Once you start reading it, you cannot stop yourself & keep nodding your head. One of the good book I read in 2022; I also read ‘Disrupt Yourself’. Both are good, but I prefer ‘Build an A team’ especially when we are facing global recession & constant challenges in the biz world. We need A team to navigate through the peak & the plunge moment.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent read on hiring and developing employees. It felt like a very fresh take, backed up by research and reinforced with practical tools and clear processes. Johnson strikes the balance between being overly simplistic and overwhelming the reader with "and also this." I am walking away feeling like I need to do some significant processing and there are a small handful of immediate action items I feel equipped to take immediately. I highly recommend this for anyone supervising people or aspiring to do so!

[Zuhair · Rating 4 out of 5]

If listening to business books doesn't make you want to gouge your ears out, you'll find that this one's pretty decent, with useful ideas on how you should manage your employees or subordinates at work and prime your teams for success. Also contains insights on why people get bored of their job and how you can prevent your best people from wanting to leave, without concocting some nefarious designs.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Succinct and really solid. Really helpful stuff. I don’t always love business books because they’re usually one relatively simple idea bloated with over-wrought detail. This was the opposite - good quality ideas on every page. I took a ton of notes and was able to put together a solid action plan while reading the book. Highly recommend for people who lead teams in a corporate environment.

[Marco Greenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful book that elaborates the challenges that leaders face developing their team members. The presented approach offers a compelling viewpoint how to maintain high performers engaged.

Do you know why WD-40 is called that? The story of this name contains a powerful message shared in this book.

[Helfren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Putting an all star high IQ team is a big mistake. Instead develop a team of high EQ players and they will get along just fine as well as the organization to the right direction. Similar employee have the same curve so makes sure different employee have difference and makes sure your best player don't get bored by incrementally upgrade their work and job.

[Anthony Gargiulo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid book for any leader of people. While the perspective of the book is for the leader to be better aware of how their employees grow and develop and their needs along the "S" curve, it may be an epiphany for leaders themselves. How could their own development have been different? How could it be different going forward?

[Phobean · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 for introducing me to the 's curve' idea as a frame for thinking about hiring and retaining staff. I deeply disliked the tendency to reach for Benjamin Franklin quotes, etc. The book can stand on its own (admittedly corporate) merits without needing to borrow from the tired tradition of reaching for the 'great words' of 'innovative white men'

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read on leadership. Understanding your people and their strengths will help build your team. Understand the S learning curve and how many people should be in each area at any given time is another important principle taught in this book!