{"id":1218,"date":"2017-03-19T17:41:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T16:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/2017\/03\/19\/people-in-superstar-mode-want-a-world-they-can-change-those-in-rock-star-mode-seek-a-world-they-can-stabilize\/"},"modified":"2017-03-19T17:41:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T16:41:00","slug":"people-in-superstar-mode-want-a-world-they-can-change-those-in-rock-star-mode-seek-a-world-they-can-stabilize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/people-in-superstar-mode-want-a-world-they-can-change-those-in-rock-star-mode-seek-a-world-they-can-stabilize\/","title":{"rendered":"People in superstar mode want a world they can change. Those in rock star mode seek a world they can stabilize."},"content":{"rendered":"

@FirstRound Warning: This Is Not Your Grandfather\u2019s Talent Planning | First Round Review<\/a><\/p>\n

How to Tell Your Stars Apart<\/b><\/h4>\n

There\u2019s a lot of jargon to describe superior performers on teams: 10x engineer, sales wizard, growth ninja. \u201cSuperstar\u201d and \u201crock star\u201d are also thrown about liberally, but Scott is on a mission to reclaim them \u2014not as labels for people \u2014 but to understand what mode people are in at any given point in time. \u2026
Here\u2019s what she meant:
\u2022Superstar mode: the people on your team who are going to change everything; responsible for Schumpeterian change; a force \u2014and source\u2014 of growth on a team.
\u2022Rock star mode: the people on your team who don\u2019t want their boss\u2019 job; very talented at their role and will keep doing and digging into it for years if a boss doesn\u2019t screw it up; a force \u2014and source\u2014 of excellence and stability on a team.<\/p>\n

People in superstar mode want a world they can change. Those in rock star mode seek a world they can stabilize. You\u2019ll need both.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cBut often when we think about so called \u2018talent planning\u2019 \u2014 we use the word \u2018potential.\u2019 \u2018Potential\u2019 is exactly the wrong word.\u201d
The problem with \u201cpotential\u201d is that when you mark someone as low-potential, you devalue your rock stars off the bat. \u201cInstead, use the word growth trajectory. There\u2019s nothing good or bad about a steep growth trajectory or a gradual growth trajectory. It just references different phases in our career,\u201d says Scott. \u201cWhen you look at your team this way, you identify five different modes that people can be in. They can be in superstar mode. They can be in rock star mode. Or on various paths to reaching or recessing from those modes.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Before you start to write your team into these buckets, let this one lesson sink in: don\u2019t use a permanent marker. \u201cI can\u2019t stress this enough for managers. There are no permanent markers. Don\u2019t write people\u2019s name in a box and leave them there,\u201d says Scott. \u201cDon\u2019t use this as a label for individuals. Use this to understand what a person wants at a moment in time. Remember, these are modes, not personality labels.<\/b> Use this to understand what the dreams are of the people who work for you and to help them take a step in the direction of their dreams, not your dreams.<\/b> Their ambitions, not your ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Superstar mode.<\/i><\/b>
For the people who are in superstar mode \u2014 those who are going to drive growth on your team \u2014 what you want to offer them is new challenges. You want to keep them learning. The last thing you want to do is squash them.
\u2026take note of the lifetime of superstars. \u201cMake sure you identify a successor because you often can\u2019t retain your superstars. They\u2019re going to leave you better than they found you. Make the most of them while you get them, but don\u2019t assume they are going to stick around forever because they often don\u2019t,\u201d says Scott. \u201cWhatever you do, don\u2019t confuse management and growth. Don\u2019t automatically manager-track the people on a super steep growth trajectory. Often, especially for engineers, the last thing in the world they want to do is be a manager, but that doesn\u2019t mean that they are not on a super steep growth trajectory. Make sure you\u2019re giving the right kinds of challenges to the right people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rock star mode.<\/i><\/b>
People in rock star mode want a pasture, not a runway. You\u2019re not giving them a route to take off, but making space to settle into their work. What they need is freedom to do their superb work, not a path to promotion, which may distract them.<\/p>\n

The choice of the manager here goes beyond just one rock star\u2019s role. \u201cDon\u2019t create an organization that is so obsessed by promotion and status that it feels humiliating for the rock stars to stick around,\u201d says Scott. \u201cSet them up as internal experts. Your rock stars love their craft and are great at it. They\u2019re better than anybody in the company and they can help bring the people in the middle along. They can help turn good performance into excellent performance from others. If they have an interest in teaching, by all means, let them teach.\u201d
\u2026give them respect.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that it works out, but only if you respect your rock stars \u2014 and keenly balance your need for growth with stability on your team. Early-stage and high-growth startups will over-index on superstars, but they\u2019ll need to add in rock stars as they grow, guaranteed.<\/b><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Middle performance column<\/b><\/h4>\n

-Low performance, steep trajectory mode. Those in the upper left quadrant are people who ought to be doing great but are failing for some reason.
-Low performance, gradual growth trajectory mode. There will be people who aren\u2019t doing well and aren\u2019t getting better.<\/p>\n

The Best Type of Manager For High-Performers
-One of the biggest mistakes that managers make with the people who are doing the best on their team is just get out of their way. \u2026 It means approaching their work with curiosity and with an aim to be equals in discussing it.
If you\u2019re not a thought partner, you may easily fall into two other buckets when you manage high-performers:
\u00b7the absentee manager
\u00b7micro-manager<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Start of It All<\/b><\/h4>\n

Building a kickass team starts with<\/b> something incredibly simple, not a big company process, but something you already know how to do: get to know people at a fundamental human level<\/b>. This is one of the most important \u2014 and also the most enjoyable \u2014 parts of your job as a leader. Understanding what kind of growth trajectory each person on your team wants to be on, and what motivates them at work, is a concrete first step.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving three different career conversations \u2014 life story, dreams, and career action plan \u2014 is a much better course of action. It\u2019ll help you decode who\u2019s in superstar mode, rock star mode and \u2014 most critically \u2014 who is changing modes,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

@FirstRound Warning: This Is Not Your Grandfather\u2019s Talent Planning | First Round Review How to Tell Your Stars Apart There\u2019s a lot of jargon to describe superior performers on teams: 10x engineer, sales wizard, growth ninja. \u201cSuperstar\u201d and \u201crock star\u201d are also thrown about liberally, but Scott is on a mission to reclaim them \u2014not as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,28,26,29,40,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coaching","category-cosillas-empresariales","category-el-critico-como-artista","category-gestion","category-ideas","category-psicologia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}