When you become the most valuable member of your team, you can get a higher salary.
If your boss refuses to increase your pay, more job opportunities will be available to you, allowing you to switch easily.
And imagine right now how much more fulfilled you will be when you are truly confident in your abilities.
This article will break down exactly what an A-player is and how you can become one, so that you get all of these things.
Most people believe the "A" in A-player stands for the rank A, the best. Instead, think of "A" as an acronym for "agency." Specifically high-agency.
The word "agency" comes from the Latin word "agere," which means "to do" or "to act."
"Doing" here means applying specific knowledge, leverage, and accountability, so that you solve problems intelligently. You anticipate issues and resolve them alone or collaboratively with your team without needing constant guidance.
“My #1 repeated learning in life: "There Are No Adults." Everyone's making it up as they go along. Figure it out yourself, and do it.” - Naval
In the teams that I work with, we always filter developers to make sure that every single team member is high-agency.
The degree to which you can have agency lies on a spectrum. High-agency might still be an abstract concept for you, so let me illustrate it.
So how do you go about finding a good solution for a problem? You start with empathy.
Ask yourself: "What does the company / the situation / my team need right now?"
Empathy is the ultimate soft skill because it allows you to understand your environment and the people you work with and for.
You want to understand your manager. Most managers are scarce on time. So ask yourself, how much of your manager's time are you taking up?
“Hire people who just solve problems without even being asked to solve the problem - they identify the problem, they go solve it, they don't even necessarily have to update you every step of the way, they're not asking silly questions, and they're just coming up with solutions. Because building a startup is an infinite set of problems that are being thrown at you.” - Naval
If you're taking up 20% of your manager's time, they can only have 5 direct reports. If you're taking up 5%, they can have 20.
You have two ways to take up less of your manager's time:
1.) Solve problems on your own. You saw a breakdown above and you will learn even more about this further below.
2.) Make your work visible. Make it easy for your manager to know what you accomplished.
You don't necessarily have to update your manager every step of the way. Intelligently pick what is relevant to them.
Make your updates easily digestible. No wall of text.
Understand how humans evaluate experiences. Usually, there are three key impressions: the first, the peak, and the last. Make sure all three are good. This applies to your overall tenure at the company, as well as every day at work and every task.
To understand what your business wants, you need to understand what your clients want. If you have empathy for your customers or users, you give the care and attention to quality required to solve any problem.
Be flexible and willing to take on tasks outside of your job description. You can even go the extra mile and do the role in your free time and show your boss you can do it.
This approach can easily lead to a promotion because sometimes the role the company needs most is still open. By taking on tasks from this role, you create massive opportunities for yourself. Before you know it, this might become your new official role.
You might be asking yourself right now, why should you give so much? What does your company give you back?
There is an expression in the Kabbalah that says:
“In order to prepare the vessel to receive, you have to give.”
Which means, unless you've given, you can't properly receive something.
And this article is about your part in what you need to give if you want to become the most valuable member of your team.
A future article will break down exactly what you need to do to negotiate a raise or a promotion.
And if you help to grow your company and you have a good boss, that boss will share the results with everyone involved.
In business, there is always a competitive and a collaborative aspect. Businesses collaborate by working together, but also compete for resources in the market.
When you improve at your job, your team will like you more, and working with you will be more pleasant. This is the collaborative frame.
On the other hand, sometimes people compete for the same promotion.
Understand these dynamics and see that when you become more valuable you improve your situation in both frames.
But besides getting paid more money, you should also pick a job that you love.
When you love what you do, you are able to outwork others because what feels like play to you looks like work to others.
And as you get better you will become more fulfilled.
... but every job or passion has things that you hate. You need to train yourself to push through them.
Avoid complaining - bring good vibes & gratefulness.
What if you lack the skills or knowledge to solve the problem?
You can't know everything. What makes you valuable is figuring things out and solving novel problems.
“Hiring coders? Look for learning trajectory. How long have they been coding? What have they accomplished in that time? Hire hungry learners.” - Eric Elliott
Look things up (using a search engine or an LLM of your choice).
But you also ask for help when you're stuck and avoid wasting time.
Be optimistic, but don't blindly say yes. Avoid getting yourself, your team, or your company into a situation in which you can only fail.
Mistakes happen. Learn from them. Take accountability.
Your brain tries to save energy. It tries to reduce cognitive load. It tries to put you on autopilot.
Build willpower.
Eradicate entitlement and victim mentality. Never ask for a handout. Never identify as a victim. Cultivate self-reliance.
Be solutions-oriented.
Have a "land the plane" mentality. You are the person who always gets it done.
You are NOT someone who says "I'm going to punch the clock and when I punch the clock I'm going home."
You can do that. Legally, you have a complete right to do that.
But if you want to be someone people trust to land the plane, think laterally until you find a solution.
When you become a person people can count on no matter what and you become a "turn-key" solution for them, that is when you can come to them and demand to be paid more.
Produce so much value that your boss or manager has nightmares about you leaving.
Be the kind of person who accelerates and gets better when you can't quite find the solution.
If you can't find a solution, be seen working harder, escalate intelligently, and collaborate intelligently.
Lateral thinking is asking the most important question of "What else?"
“The tools for learning are abundant. It's the desire to learn that's scarce.” - Naval
Some people either ignore their mistakes and sweep them under the rug. "I put in my hours, so what? I did what you or my manager told me!" or "I can't!"
Or they go into massive self-attack, which is just an excuse to be in a negative state. It is NOT productive at all because it's NOT solutions oriented.
It's okay to sit with your problem and simulate in your mind how bad things can get. Then use that as fuel for creativity to fix the problem before it occurs.
On the one hand, be humble enough to learn from others and know your limits.
On the other hand, be confident. Believe you can solve things.
“There is infinite capital, there is infinite labor, there is infinite compute.
The scarcity is truth.” - Naval
Every problem can be fixed. The only thing missing is knowledge, and you can find out what to do.
Apply what you learn here intelligently. This contains many aphorisms, so apply them in the correct context. If you make a mistake, learn from it.
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