Build the Team
24 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / September 2019great a toll on their mental
well-being. It’s “wrong” if it
doesn’t allow them to do the
things that truly light them up.
And perhaps most critically, it’s
“wrong” if the job’s demands
don’t match the employee’s
ambitions.
I divide great workers into
two different camps. One group
is hungry for every opportunity
you can throw at them, asking
about advancement from day
one. I call these people “astro-
nauts.” Light the fuse, and
they’ll overshoot the moon. The
second group is content to stay
in their roles. They value detail
and mastery, becoming abso-
lute experts in their area and
setting the standard for every-
one else. You can’t run your
organization without them;
they build the foundation. I call
this group “architects.”
Architects are absolutely
solid in their role; they have
little or no interest in expan-
sion and advancement. This
could be because they have a
lot going on at home, so they
don’t want to add more to their
plates at work. Or maybe they
have outside interests that are
important to them—training
for a triathlon, for example. For
whatever reason (or no reason
at all), architects are dedicated
to their current role.
By contrast, astronauts are
on a steep growth trajectory. If
they don’t advance quickly after
coming aboard, they’re likely to
grow restless. They are “all in”
from the beginning; their man-
ager needs to give them appro-
priate opportunities to take off.
You need both astronauts
and architects. Neither is “bet-
ter” than the other. Without
your architects, where will
other team members turn for
advice? On whom would you
rely to get the job done well?
And without astronauts, how
will you achieve the levels of
success you’re hoping to have?W
hen you hire, you
often think—or
hope!—you’ve
found the perfect
person. You sifted
through résumés,
interviewed dil-
igently, and picked the best of
the best. You feel great! But six
months later, things change.
Your great hire isn’t hitting
their numbers. They seem
unhappy. Maybe they’re evenheading for the exit.
What do you do? Here’s one
thing to consider: You may have
put your great hire in the wrong
role. And it happened because
you didn’t understand what
kind of worker they truly are.
You may balk at this. “How
could he be in the wrong role?
It’s the job we hired him for!”
There are all sorts of reasons.
A role can be “wrong” if it is
unduly stressful and takes tooWho will move your company
forward?
If this classifying system is
helpful to you in identifying
your team composition and
the needs and wants of your
employees, I invite you to use
it. Ask yourself: What does this
architect want? What incen-
tives and rewards are attractive
to her? She may have little
interest in managing. Some
companies reward architects
by making them the “gurus” of
their particular area of exper-
tise. Would this be attractive to
your architects? If not, how will
you recognize their hard work
and competence?
If you’ve got an astronaut,
how will you keep her chal-
lenged and engaged? What
new responsibilities will cause
her to light up? Have conver-
sations with her in which you
chart out where she would
like to be in six months, one
year, and more, and then plot
a course with her to achieve
these goals.
Really, whether your great
hire is an astronaut or an archi-
tect, you need to be having these
career conversations with her—
and with all your team mem-
bers. When you make it a point
to know your employees both
professionally and personally,
you’ll be able to tell if they are
unhappy (which isn’t something
they’ll openly volunteer to tell
you). Recognize that their hap-
piness is your business. While
you can’t take responsibility for
their emotions, you can get to
know them and strive to make
work a place where they are
challenged, engaged, and enjoy-
ing themselves.Excerpted from Elephants
Before Unicorns:
Emotionally Intelligent HR
Strategies to Save Your
Company. Copyright © 2019
by Entrepreneur Media. Learn
more at entm.ag/elephants.Did You Hire an
Astronaut or
an Architect?
If your employee is unhappy, it could be because
they’re misunderstood. Caroline Stokes,
founder of the recruiting agency Forward, explains
the big question you should ask.PHOTOGRAPHBY^ SHUTTERSTOCK/SUDTAWEETHEPSUPONKUL