The Demand

This week, you sort every cast member on your roster into A, B, C, or D, and you act on the C Player you have been tolerating because they produce. If you keep the high-performing cast member who poisons the culture, your A and B Players are watching that tolerance and recalibrating what their own effort is worth downward.

The Work

  1. List every cast member. Mark each one A (shares values, high performance), B (shares values, developing performance), C (high performance, values misaligned), or D (neither).
  2. For every A Player, schedule one coaching or development conversation this week. An A Player is an opportunity being built, not a finished product — do not assume they arrived ready.
  3. For every B Player, name the specific gap between their current performance and their potential, and assign one concrete coaching action this week to close it.
  4. Identify your C Player. Name specifically what they produce and specifically what they cost — in team morale, in who will not work with them. Have the direct conversation this week: change the behavior or move them out. Do not let production buy another quarter of tolerance.
  5. For any D Player still on the schedule, ask why before your next scheduling cycle. If you cannot answer with a live improvement plan and a deadline, remove them this week.

This week, you complete the full A/B/C/D sort in writing and you have the C Player conversation before your next scheduled shift together.