Why do I believe that the seat-employee fit has to be an immaculate one?
I think cuz I’ve seen situations where that hasn’t been the case and seen the results. If a person doesn’t want to be there or feels like their potential isn’t being used effectively or isn’t good at the job, then there will have to be swift decisions made.
I believe that if it’s a right fit, then both the person and the position (and the company) can grow. It’s like disgruntled player in sports like James Harden, who may not have liked the culture or everyone else there. Ultimately, the people will either help you or hurt you from achieving your goals.
I think, going deeper, I believe there will always be a perfect fit for individuals somewhere because of my systems thinking. I like to have everything neatly fit into their spots within a system. And since an organization is a system, a seat is a component in that system and when integrated with a variable like a person, it creates a challenge to find that equilibrium. A challenge that I believe is always achievable. It’s called a challenge, not an impossibility.
I think I also believe it because the total can be greater than the sum of its parts. 1 +1 = 3. If a person is in the right seat at the right company, then the value they provide will not just be the tangible work that they accomplish, but the intangible but very real ‘everything else’ that they bring to make the entire company better.
Sports are a great case study for this. Great talents whose potential isn’t fully realized. Lesser talents whose impact is immeasurable. ‘Leadership quality.’ 2013-2014 Spurs. 2015-2016 Warriors (even though they lost the chip). 2003-2004 Pistons. Then on the flip side, supposedly great teams that didn’t come to fruition. 2012(?) Lakers with Kobe, Pau, Dwight, Nash. This year’s Nets. On the flip side, you put Tayshaun Prince on another team and he may have better stats but will he impact winning as much.
I think a fundamental reason here is that I believe in team success will lead to individual success. But everyone wants to have individual success and then endlessly try and hope that leads to team success. The player movement era that we’ve seen in the last 10-15 years has become villainized. But if players who don’t see a future of team success with their current team move to a different team via trade or free agency or what have you, then why should they be persecuted to join a team that has a better chance of winning a championship?
If that’s the case, then that should apply to all industries. Including ironically enough, the sports media one. The people who criticize those like Kevin Durant or LeBron or Harden on networks like ESPN, Fox Sports, etc. are the same people who grew their careers from local media to regional to a recognizable brand name. If they were consistent with their views, then they themselves should have stayed loyal to the first company that gave them a job, even if they didn’t see much company success or personal / professional growth or inspiring leaders or great teammates there.
On the topic of superstars combining to form super teams, why not? No one bats an eye when on the organization level this happens all the time. There’s a whole industry of it: Mergers & Acquisitions.
When a company is ready to hire a new CEO or new CTO, they bring in someone who they believe will give them the best chance of success. In business, it’s usually money. In sports, it’s championships.
Hmm, here’s the downside of sports’ type of thinking if it is applied to the career. In sports, only one team wins a championship every year. That necessarily means that every other team lost, or at least didn’t win a championship. It’s the extreme end of a zero-sum game spectrum. But when we apply that to business, it’s a very dangerous game we’re playing. We want to join a ‘winning company’ by external measures, i.e. brand name, prestige, market cap, salary, position, etc. But a winning company is really any company that you help make better with your presence and involvement. You being a part of a company that may have individual parts that individually add up to 15, but collectively add up to 20. That is a winning company. Because not only are you helping others grow, you’re growing yourself.
And that’s what it’s about. Did I realize my potential? Did I help others realize their potential?
So why do I believe that the seat-employee fit has to be a great one? Because I believe that the company is there for us to realize our potential, others to realize their potential, and all of us to realize our enhanced collective potential.
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