Sometimes a team reaches a high level of performance, and the organization hits a ceiling it cannot break through. When I ask managers in sports what kind of player they are missing, they most often reply: “we need a setter” or “we lack a receiver”. In business, I hear analogous answers: “we are looking for a sales director” or “we need a new IT manager”.
The answer seems logical, but it is superficial. My question was not about an empty position. My question aims at what kind of player the work environment actually needs.
A living organism needs balance
A team is not a simple sum of competencies written in a CV. It is a living organism and a system of communicating vessels. I expect managers to answer not only regarding the candidate’s purely technical skills, but above all, their volitional traits and character.
Hiring another specialist does not always solve the problem. Very often, an organization needs someone who will:
- Stabilize a nervous atmosphere with their calmness.
- Take on the burden of making difficult decisions.
- Act as a natural communication bond between conflicted factions.
- Or, on the contrary, will inject fire, competition, and new energy into the team.
You cannot read this from a job title.
The operational blindness of leaders
CEOs and leaders very often do not know exactly what their team needs to reach the next level. They know perfectly well how they got to where they are today, but the old mechanisms stop working. The paradox is that they often do not even realize their own lack of knowledge.
This is not due to a lack of competence, but a lack of time. Managers spend their days in the operational trenches: they look for financing and close budgets, put out daily, sudden fires, deal with bureaucracy and key client service.
All this leaves them with no space to ask themselves questions that look beyond the “here and now.” Questions aimed at the future.
External calibration
In such moments, it is necessary to pause and look at the team from the outside. The role of an external observer is to ask the right questions that a CEO simply does not have the time for on a Monday morning. Only a precise diagnosis – understanding what gap in the group’s character we really want to fill – allows you to hire a person who will not only perform their tasks, but above all, unlock the potential of the rest of the team.