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Download Your Recruiting And Interview Process Flow PDF

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Your opportunity to work with one of the top Scaling Up coaches in the world

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People

People challenges impact your happiness and can be either a source of…

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Strategy

Strategy challenges are indicated by a slowing down in top-line…

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EXECUTION

Execution challenges surface when your increasing revenues not…

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CASH

Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is king. Cash is the oxygen that…

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Scaling Up and
A Player Advantage

As Featured In:

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It all starts with people

Starts with People

MASTER THE ROCKEFELLER HABITS
WITH RICK CROSSLAND

“Nobody has achieved peak performance in any field without a coach. As you look to Scale Up your business, I highly recommend you engage one of our top certified Scaling Up Coaches—Rick Crossland. He is an expert in the key growth drivers of People, Strategy, Execution and Cash. In fact, as the author of The A Player he is an authority in growing and recruiting top people.”

—VERNE HARNISH, CEO OF SCALING UP

WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE
IN SCALING UP YOUR BUSINESS?

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THE PEOPLE DECISION

People challenges impact your happiness and can be either a source of…

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THE STRATEGY DECISION

Strategy challenges are indicated by a slowing down in top-line…

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THE EXECUTION DECISION

Execution challenges surface when your increasing revenues…

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THE CASH DECISION

Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is king. Cash is the oxygen that…

THE DEFINITION
OF AN A PLAYER

“getting more A Players on your team is the best and fastest way to improve the profits and culture of your business.”

Rick Crossland, President of A Player Advantage

What’s the A Player
difference

Better in all 4
scaling up decisions.

Cares More and
Drives Harder.

Powered by the proprietary
A Player Talent System.

Testimonials

5 Star Rating

“Rick has been an executive coach to many of Palmer-Donavin’s key executives since 2016, helping these leaders achieve peak performance through new and more strategic ways to approach the business and lead their teams through his Scaling Up and A Player methodologies. He achieves this through robust and proven “how to” systems that also reinforce our core values. This work has led to very impressive sustained results, process and cultural changes in our organization.
As the author of The A Player, Rick knows talent! In addition to his coaching, his organization has successfully recruited multiple candidates for key executive positions including my successor for the CFO role. He has introduced the Topgrading interview methodology to our company which has improved our success rate in hiring and promoting the right executives.
If your organization is ready to be challenged and energized, Rick will help you get to the next level, by improving your talent and bottom-line. He is a trusted and “go-to” partner for us.”

Robyn Pollina, CEO

The Palmer-Donavin Manufacturing Company

5 Star Rating

“When we started Scaling Up we wanted to get the right coach to fit our company, Kaivac, Inc. We found Scaling Up had a great network of coaches throughout the Midwest and interviewed 6 different coaches. We made the right pick with Rick Crossland. Rick is a world class coach, he pushes and encourages all of my team to be their very best and puts time, energy, and effort into making us better. Rick is highly energetic, wise for his age, quick to read people, very knowledgeable of many and varied business issues, and truly wants us to win! In less than a year, our business is up over 60% in spite of the Corona Virus and other head winds affecting the economy. His book, The A Player and the Scaling Up roadmap are setting the bar for our employees and Rick is helping our entire team to reach our goals. If you are serious about growth and looking for a great coach and adviser, I highly recommend Rick.”

Bob Robinson, Sr. President/Founder

Kaivac, Inc

5 Star Rating

“Rick Crossland’s keynote address on the importance of having a team of A Players captivated and challenged our audience of high-level CEOs. His content and message was spot on for our group. We received excellent feedback and scores from our members on the quality and relevance of Rick’s message. Many plan to put his expert advice into immediate action.”

Kevin Minton, CEO

Chief Executive Boards International

5 Star Rating

“The performance improvement in the executives Rick has worked with has been incredible! The program is a terrific return-on-investment to our business.  His program has helped us build an industry leading apprentice program for sales talent, an internal corporate training university for rising leaders, strategies to dramatically improve labor turnover in warehousing, and an innovative approach to sales management that is driving bottom-line profits.  We have committed to being a team of only A Players and our culture and performance is better as a result.”

Shawn Richard, Vice President Human Resources

The Palmer-Donavin Manufacturing Company

5 Star Rating

“Rick has immersed himself into our business and industry to help us immediately address our challenges.  His strategic approach to our business, specifically the sales process, helped us to develop a digital sales playbook as well as a lead measure tracking system to drive accountability throughout the organization.  Combining these improvements with his approach to attracting and retaining “A Player” talent has been a tremendous asset for our business including the turnaround of a key region, reduction of employee turnover, and the coaching and development of several rising leaders.”

Matt Butzier, Vice President and General Manager

The Palmer-Donavin Manufacturing Company

5 Star Rating

“I reached out to our Scaling Up Coach Rick Crossland asking him if he could help with filling three critical positions that my company was hiring for. Within a week of giving each of my requirements to Rick, he and his team found phenomenal candidates for each of the positions. I quickly hired three new A Players for our team. These three new team members have exceeded my highest expectations. From day one each of these new employees came ready to rock and hit the ground running. To say they made an immediate positive impact is an understatement! These new employees are so good their performance makes your toes curl!

Rick makes the hiring process so much easier for the employer as he and his team specifically target what we need. He personally vets potential candidates and only passes them through if he evaluates that they are truly A Players. The recruiting services he offers his clients are far more efficient and cost effective than job postings when you consider the time he saves your organization and the immediate impact his candidates make to your bottom-line results. In short, the caliber of talent he provides is awesome!  Rick knows A Players! Moving forward whenever my company has a position to fill, I know that my first phone call is going to be to Rick Crossland.”

Chris Miller, Associate Vice President

EduMind Inc.

A Player University Crest

The A Player University

BUSINESS EDUCATION THAT GROWS HIGH PERFORMERS

Engaging and impactful courses that ensure the development of high performers at all leadership levels in an extremely time-efficient manner.

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MODULE ONE NOW AVAILABLE

Building Active Accountability in Your Organization

Course Duration: 50 min.

Massive Discount

For a Limited Time

WHY YOUR COMPANY NEEDS
100% A PLAYERS

How Much Are B and C Players Costing Your Business?

Think about it this way. What percentage of your team would you enthusiastically rehire? Whatever that percentage is, the difference represents the B & C Players costing your business profitability and hurting your culture.

Do you want a B or C Player piloting your next flight?

How about a B or C Player physician for your next surgery?

At A Player Advantage, we know B and C Players should not be working on something as important as your business.

Find A Players

How often have you struggled to find the A Players you need in your organization? How often have you successfully developed your B Players into A Players?

The fastest and best way to improve your business is to learn how to coach up B and C Players to become A Players and how to select A Players in your recruitment process.

Most companies operate under the conventional wisdom and false pretense that their teams should look like a bell curve or Gaussian distribution, and they think they need B and C Players to round out the curve.

The notion that companies must have B and C Players on the team is outdated, and it’s hurting your business’s or organization’s success and culture.

Find A Players
Talented Team

To get the results of the top 10% of the business, you must do what only the top 10% of businesses will do to get better talent on your team.

What if for similar effort and investment your team can look like an all-star team filled with A Players? A Player Advantage is dedicated to helping your organization develop and recruit your best talent ever! We have a range of flexible coaching, recruiting, and talent acquisition models to ensure you find and develop proven A Players who are also great team members and will help your organization thrive.

Meet Rick Crossland

Rick Crossland is an internationally known expert and thought leader on A Player talent. His innovative approach to developing and validating high performing A Players has been published in leading business sites such as Inc.com, Entrepreneur.com, and Fortune.com, where Rick contributes articles as a Fortune Insider—, a network where the most thoughtful and influential people in the entrepreneurial scene answer questions about business and careers.

Rick genuinely walks the talk when it comes to being an A Player. He has almost 30 years of experience developing, recruiting, and leading high performers, and developing high performing cultures at companies. Before founding his very successful executive coaching, leadership, and talent development company eight years ago, Rick worked at Johnson and Johnson, ICI-Zeneca, Planters-Lifesavers, Ford Motor Company, and Limited Brands. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Delaware and an MBA from Duke University. In addition to his writing and consulting, Rick is a dynamic speaker who loves to captivate audiences with his unique A Player approach.

He works with organizations across the country to transform good companies into great companies with his unique A Player approach. Your company will benefit from more aligned and motivated employees who play their game at a higher level. Rick is a highly sought-after speaker who shows employees what greatness really looks like. His almost 30 years’ experience working with high performance teams ensures your organization will be inspired. Rick is the author of The A PlayerLearn More.

IN THE NEWS

Interview with Michael E Gerber

The Complete Interview with Michael E. Gerber

Rick Crossland, author of The A Player interviews a true Legend of entrepreneurship Michael E. Gerber – author of The E-Myth Revisited.

Learn More

How to Manage A Players with Skip Prichard

Skip Prichard, an accomplished CEO, growth-oriented business leader, and keynote speaker, interviews Rick on how to manage A Players.

Watch Now

More from The A Player Blog

Mastering The Rockefeller Habits Checklist™

In 2002, business growth expert Verne Harnish published his seminal, bestselling business book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm. 

Scaling Up Quarterly Theme Planning Tool

Having a great Scaling Up Quarterly Theme is a great way to bring fun, energy and focus to achieving your quarterly goal. A fun, relevant and episodic theme is a great way to focus your team on executing the great work and…

Scaling Up Meeting Rhythm Summary

A key to your company’s success is scheduling consistent “meeting rhythms”, which allow the members of your team to feel the heartbeat of your organization and move faster and smoother in tempo to the beat.

Scaling Up People: 16 Questions to Ask When an Employee is Underperforming

As you are scaling up your business, having an employee who is underperforming can make you start to second-guess your coaching and leadership abilities—even if you are a good manager.

Scaling Up Strategic Execution | Building a Great Strategic Plan Is Easier than You Think

As a Scaling Up Certified Coach, I spend much of my time teaching CEOs how to create elite strategic plans and execute them like clockwork—and how they can pass that discipline on to their executives and teams…

PRAISE FOR THE A PLAYER

The A Player Book 5 Star Rating on Amazon
The A Player Book Cover
Marshall Goldsmith

Marshall Goldsmith,
World’s Foremost Executive Coach and Bestselling Author
5 Star Rating

 

“Very specific and very readable, The A Player is your strategic guide to transforming solid players into champions! The brilliance of Crossland’s book is that it’s for any employee who wants to be a top performer as well as any manager who wants to transform B or even C Players into A Players. It will help your organization achieve the performance you have versus the performance you want. Excellent!”

Brad Smart

Brad Smart,
Founder and CEO of Topgrading and Bestselling Author
5 Star Rating

 

“Topgrading is all about hiring only A Players, and Crossland’s book is a wonderfully practical manual to guide A Players to remain A Players, and it’s for anyone aspiring to be an A Player. Implicit in the book is a mini-MBA degree showing how A Players achieve great results. We at Topgrading, Inc. will use this book when coaching managers to move up to the A Player designation!”

Tom Feeney

Tom Feeney,
President and CEO, Safelite AutoGlass

5 Star Rating

 

“Safelite AutoGlass is a company whose record-setting performance is fueled by our people. We strive to be a great place to work, with impactful leaders and talented individuals … the A Players. This book is a great catalyst to engage people to be their best. It offers a unique perspective on “what the CEO wants you to know.” I recommend it to anyone wishing to be a high performer and challenge his or her team to achieve new heights.”

Jack Stack

Jack Stack,
CEO of SRC Holdings Corporation and Bestselling Author of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcomes
5 Star Rating

 

“Winning in business is all about unleashing the incredible power of people. The A Player is recommended reading for any company that wants to be filled with high performers. Fantastic!”

SHIFT YOUR STRATEGIC PLAN INTO HIGH GEAR BY IMPLEMENTING THE ROCKEFELLER HABITS INTO YOUR BUSINESS.

WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS?

Schedule a conversation with Rick Crossland