Hiring individuals with complementary skills can help your company scale up and grow faster than you’ve imagined in your wildest dreams. Understanding the different personality types and how each employee works best will help you gain insight into how to place each employee in the business area he or she will excel in. A recent LinkedIn article by Bill Gross talks about four different employee personality types as defined by Ichak Adizes: the entrepreneur, the producer, the administrator, and the integrator. Each of these roles can play a critical part in your business, and you need all four in order to be successful.
The entrepreneur, is, well, just that – entrepreneurial. They have big ideas and they’re the ones, even at the bottom, who are coming up with innovative ways to position the company in order for it to grow and be successful. Generally, these people are the founders of a company and serve as C-Suite level executives and board members early on in the company’s growth.
The producer is the person who takes the entrepreneur’s idea and executes it in a well, thought-out manner. This can be a developer or a product person who has a keen eye for how to implement the entrepreneur’s vision. This role is one of the most critical pieces of the puzzle. Without producers, the company would only be an idea.
The administrator is the gatekeeper: the one who makes sure things happen on time and efficiently, and that the business side of the company is running smoothly. They collect the money, pay the bills, and keep the lights on, literally. Administrators are the “business thinkers” of an organization. They understand how companies run and the best way to run them from a business perspective, and they make sure the right people are in place to make things happen. These people usually rein in the entrepreneurs and kill those too-big dreams that aren’t feasible for the company at any given point.
The integrator plays the role of “middle man” among the other roles. They make sure that the entrepreneur, producer, and administrator get along and work well together. These positions make great company leaders because they’re able to understand everyone’s needs and work together in an efficient manner. Integrators are called the “glue” of the company.
These four personalities play well together, but in a company’s lifecycle, they each have a specific time in which they are most effective taking the lead in setting up new policies and goals to ensure the company’s success. The entrepreneur and developer are always the first two needed. The administrator comes in afterwards to create standardized work processes, and then the integrator follows by keeping everything working by playing the “middle man.”
Where is your company in its lifecycle? Have you been able to identify who is who in your company? Which personality type are you?
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3 Comments
Are there any mixed types? I like to think up new ideas for business and often help my colleagues to speak to each other. Sometimes I invent and sometimes I integrate. So what type do I belong to?
A 22-year-old guy on my team is a great inventor and innovator. He’s a talented person, but we have a lot of other people who can bring new ideas and have a lot of experience with this. I understand that he is not 100% productive in his current job, but I don’t want to lose such a person. Are there any ways to shift people’s inclination or to develop some new personality sides?
Great advice! Now I will change my attitude to teamwork and assignment of tasks. Also, it would be great if there were some tests for distinguishing personality types. That would help me to understand what my colleagues need. Where can I find some?