Cameron HeroldFounder of the COO Alliance & Invest In Your Leaders Training

Stop Coaching Your Worst Employees

25 Feb 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:44

In this brief monologue, speaker Cameron Herold argues that most leaders misallocate their coaching efforts by spending too much time developing low‑performing (C‑player) employees. He claims that this approach yields minimal impact on overall company performance. Instead, he urges managers to concentrate their time, training, and development resources on top‑performing (A‑player) staff—what he calls the "racehorses"—because elevating these high‑potential individuals will generate a quantifiable boost to the organization. The speaker suggests that coaching C‑players only makes them marginally better, whereas investing in A‑players drives significant growth.

Chapters

Most leaders have got this completely wrong, and it's completely screwing up your company. So pay attention on this one. It's critical. Most managers and most leaders spend their time training the C players, training the bottom performers, coaching the bottom performers, working with the bottom performers and helping them raise their game. But that really doesn't make a huge impact on your company. Spend time with your A players, coach your A players, grow your A players, develop your A players, give skill time to your A players, spend your time with your racehorses, and that will make a quant in your company. But if you spend time on your C players, it's basically going to make your bad people just a little bit less than the people that they are currently. Spend the time with the best people in your company and growing them.