The A Player / B Player Model
A players know work is a game and play it; B players resent the game and stay stuck.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 90%
Johnson divides workplaces into A players and B players, and the divide is informational, not moral. A players typically grew up hearing the unwritten rules of work at the dinner table: understand psychology, build relationships, serve your boss's goals, stay visible. B players believe doing the work is the job. The defining split is that A players recognise corporate as a game and choose to learn and win it, while B players refuse to 'pretend to be someone I'm not' and stay stuck. Her book exists to hand the A-player playbook to people who never inherited it — and the model also runs in reverse as a hiring filter.
Origin
Johnson arrived in the workplace from what she describes as a very B-player background, watching A players talk and behave in ways she didn't understand — 'why are they talking like that? Why are they doing that?' She had assumed she would just do her work and everything would work out. Career Cheat Codes is the result of reverse-engineering what those A players knew.
Core principles
- 01A players understand psychology and relationships, not just craft.
- 02A players find out their boss's goal and help achieve it.
- 03A players understand visibility gets work noticed.
- 04The core difference is that A players see work is a game and embrace it; B players resist it.
- 05If you don't like the game, gain power and change it — don't opt out.
How to run it
- 1
Accept the premise that it's a game
Stop treating the social layer of work as fake or beneath you. Everything in life is a game; you can learn the rules and play to win or be pissy and stay stuck.
Watch out The resistance itself is the B-player tell — 'I don't want to play the game' is the phrase to catch yourself saying.
- 2
Study psychology and relationships
Build strong relationships across the company and with clients. Treat this as a real skill area, not a distraction from your work.
- 3
Adopt your boss's goal as your priority
Find out what your boss is trying to achieve and orient your focus around helping them get it.
- 4
Make your work visible
Apply Working Out Loud — A players understand that visibility is what gets work noticed.
- 5
Amplify your strengths in both games
You will never be the absolute best at your craft nor the most socially intelligent person. Find the combination where your strengths compound.
Pro tip The edge is usually good work plus good politics against someone with great work and no politics.
In the wild
Hala describes high performers who excelled in school, where you take the test, get the grade, and get honors — a clean merit system. They enter corporate assuming the same system runs and never develop the political layer.
→ They lose promotions to colleagues who do merely good work plus good politics, because the differentiating factor at work was never the test score.
Johnson entered the workplace without dinner-table career coaching, watched A players operate in ways that seemed alien, and assumed her work alone would carry her.
→ She reverse-engineered the A-player tips and tricks and turned them into the Career Cheat Codes book so others could skip the ups and downs.
Common mistakes
Refusing to play on principle
'I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not' feels like integrity but functions as opting out. Johnson's counter: if you don't like the game, gain power and change it — you cannot change it from the sidelines.
Mistaking craft mastery for career strategy
Being the most talented person doesn't move you up. The A-player set includes psychology, relationships, boss-alignment, and visibility as first-class skills.
Is it for you?
Best for
First-generation professionals and technically strong high achievers who feel the workplace rewards the wrong things.
Not ideal for
Anyone looking for a purely meritocratic system; this model explicitly accepts that work isn't one.
From the transcript
“The main difference between A players and B players is that A players understand that it's a game, and they embrace the game.”
“If you don't like the game of corporate, just gain power and change it yourself.”
“Everything in life is a game, and we can choose to learn the rules and play to win, or we can choose to be pissy…”
From the episode
Courtney Johnson: Career Cheat Codes to Stand Out, Get Promoted, and Win at Work
Courtney Johnson