The right people in the right roles

Roles and role-players form much of the structure of businesses and other organizations.  In fact they can be seen as the fundamental building blocks, along with agreements about how we will work together.  Roles exist in various types, including customer, employee, regulator, sales or distribution channel, and supplier, as well as more general types such as performers, managers, and recipients of various types of results.  What we're talking about here are the roles that you as the business leader are responsible to fill -- the roles that define the abilities and performance that produce results on behalf of your business.

A role, as we use the term here, implies a set of responsibilities and may be formal (such as a job title) or informal and temporary (such as committee member, or team member).  Job titles generally group a number of compatible roles and responsibilities.  Roles exist in a number of complex relationships to each other:  In your business you may determine that some roles require other roles (the role of a store manager can only be played by someone who is a regular employee), while some roles preclude other roles (a teller may not be a loan approver).

The key issue for you as a business leader is the assignment of appropriate individuals to roles.  This requires a kind of pattern matching that lines up abilities needed by the role with the abilities of the person to fill that role.  Those abilities may come in the form of raw talent, skill, expertise, or experience.  Raw talent is what we see in a child prodigy at the piano keyboard or the chess board.  This is typically not enough for business needs.  Generally we at least need skills, that have been developed by teaching or observation, and practiced to an adequate level.  Expertise definitely comes with practice, and probably a lot of experience.  And experience may involve very specific situations, such as a commercial real estate agent who has worked with clients in the fast food industry.

A key aspect of matching people to roles has to do with attitudes, personalities, and interests that go beyond the pure technicalities of work.  Some of this has to do with what we might call cultural factors.  This is not limited to national or regional cultures, although such factors may be involved.  Much of this can be learned, but it is important that any mismatches be addressed, rather than simply ignored.  A worker, and particularly a manager, whose attitudes and expectations wildly differ from the culture of the workplace will contribute to an unhealthy situation for all involved.

One good way to think about this is Jack Welch's quadrant, that rates performers and managers along two scales.  In one scale is performance, and along the other is values.  Clearly high performers who have a high match with the values of the organization is the ideal situation.  Just as clearly, the folks who have low a match with the actual work requirements (performance) and ability to "get with the program" (values), should be moved along to better matching situations.  The people who have a high match with the values of the organization can possibly be trained in the actual work performance skills.  But the most difficult situations where skilled people just can't or won't match important values of the organization, such as "The customer is always right" or "We don't punish failure".  As Welch himself said on CNBC, these are the candidates for "public hangings".

Getting and keeping the wrong people in the wrong roles, can seriously damage the health of your business.  Knowing the skills and values that are required, and making effective matches, is critical to maintaining business health.

To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.

To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, here.