The "Squeaky Wheel" Trap: Stop Giving C-Players Your Best Time
By Shawn Hamilton, M.S., DBA(c) Shawn Hamilton is a leading sales leadership advisor and doctoral researcher at the University of Houston, specializing in Sales Leadership.
The "Squeaky Wheel" Trap: Stop Giving C-Players Your Best Time
As a sales leader, your time is your single most valuable asset. Where you invest it sends the clearest possible signal to your team about what you value.
So, look at your calendar for last week. Who did you spend the most time with?
If you're like most managers, your calendar is dominated by two groups: your new hires (which is appropriate) and, most insidiously, your C-Players.
Your bottom 10%—the "squeaky wheels"—demand a disproportionate amount of your energy. They are the reps who consistently miss targets, require constant deal inspection, and pull you into last-minute firefighting. You spend your 1-on-1s, your evenings, and your mental energy trying to "fix" them.
Meanwhile, your steady, reliable B-Players and your high-flying A-Players get almost none of your time. You've left them on autopilot because "they're doing great."
This is the "Squeaky Wheel Trap," and it's a leadership catastrophe. You are systematically neglecting your best assets to over-invest in your worst.
The True Cost of Your Time
This isn't just bad time management; it's a flawed leadership philosophy. In their landmark book, First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman (1999) make a revolutionary argument based on decades of Gallup research:
Great managers do not try to "fix" their people's weaknesses. Instead, they invest in their strengths.
Average managers believe everyone can be good at anything with enough coaching. They spend their time trying to turn C-Players into B-Players.
Great managers believe each person's talents are unique and enduring. They spend their time turning B-Players into A-Players and A-Players into Superstars.
When you spend 80% of your time on a C-Player, you might—might—get an incremental 10% improvement. When you spend that same time with a high-potential B-Player, you can unlock a 100% improvement. Your ROI on time spent with top talent is exponentially higher.
Furthermore, this behavior is toxic to your team culture. Your A-Players see you rewarding underperformance with your most precious asset (your time), while their own hard work is "rewarded" with neglect. As we discussed two weeks ago, this is exactly why your best employees leave.
Actionable Takeaways: How to Re-Allocate Your Time
Flip Your 1-on-1 Schedule. Starting next week, invert your calendar. Give your A-Players the longest and most frequent 1-on-1s. Use this time not for pipeline review, but for strategic career pathing (the "Career Lattice" from last week). Give your B-Players the next-longest slots, focusing on behavioral coaching to build their skills.
Put C-Players on a "Get-Well" Plan. Your C-Players should not be on a coaching plan; they should be on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). This is a formal, time-bound (e.g., 30-60 day) document with 2-3 specific, non-negotiable metrics they must hit. This moves the conversation from "coaching" to "accountability."
Perform a Time Audit. For one week, track every 15-minute block of your day. At the end of the week, categorize that time into three buckets: A-Player Development, B-Player Development, and C-Player Management. The data will shock you, and it will be the catalyst you need to change your behavior.
Your job as a leader is not to be a firefighter who tends to the squeaky wheels. Your job is to be an investor who allocates capital to the assets with the highest potential return. Stop coaching your C-Players and start managing them. Use the time you save to turn your B-Players into your next generation of stars.
References
Buckingham, M., & Coffman, C. (1999). First, break all the rules: What the world's greatest managers do differently. Simon & Schuster.
