2 employee roles

Two broad employee roles

Organizations tend to want all employees to fit one competency profile.
Even though there is recognition that people have different strengths.
And that teams are best composed of complementary strengths.
In addition, it is important to recognize that all organizations need, broadly speaking, two types of people for two quite different types of role.
This corresponds to the two broad tasks facing all organizations.
- To discover and initiate new directions through innovation and leadership.
- To execute existing directions as efficiently or profitably as possible.
This is contrary to the popular view that organizations are moving inexorably from a managerial to a leadership culture, as if the former were no longer needed.
But, we need both - leaders to create the new and managers to achieve today's results.
Leaders need to be entrepreneurial, willing to challenge the status quo, cast aside the familiar, take risks and constantly re-invent ''how things are done around here.''
By contrast, managers need to maximize efficiency, consistency and predictability.
HR professionals need to enable organizations to develop and live with this split personality, ensuring that people are in the right role - leadership or managerial.
If you like to get things done efficiently, in a timely manner with a minimum of waste, the task of execution might best suite you. Conversely, if you prefer to start new things, think creatively, promote new ways of doing things, then you may be best suited to the role of inventing the future.
For more on these two organizational tasks see organizational renewal.