The CEO looked around the conference table at his leadership team.
Every person in that room was talented. Experienced. Loyal. Some had been with him for five, seven, even ten years. They’d earned their seats. They’d proven themselves.
Yet somehow, the business felt stuck.
Growth had plateaued. Innovation was sparse. Meetings felt heavy. The energy that once drove momentum had faded into something else. Comfort, maybe. Or complacency.
He couldn’t shake the question: These are good people. Why aren’t we moving forward?
The Assessment That Changed Everything
At the urging of his board, he brought me in to run a Talent-Driven Growth assessment. He was skeptical. His team was solid. What could an assessment reveal that he didn’t already know?
The results landed on his desk two weeks later.
His team was 80% Organized and Reticent. Perfect for maintaining operations. Reliable. Process-oriented. Risk-averse.
Only 20% were Curious and Enterprising. The profiles that drive exploration, innovation, and growth.
He stared at the numbers.
His team was optimized for stability in a business that desperately needed movement.
It wasn’t a people problem. It was a matching problem.
The Difference Between People and Talent
Here’s what most leaders miss: People and talent are not the same thing.
People are individuals with inherent worth and capability. Talent is people matched to context.
A person who’s a Lifter in one phase can become a Maintainer or even a Drag in another. Not because they got worse. Because the work changed and their fit didn’t.
Think about it:
The VP of Operations who was brilliant at building systems during Mature Growth? She’s drowning now that you need someone to explore new markets and drive innovation. Not because she’s incompetent. Because you’re asking an Organized, Reticent person to do Curious, Enterprising work.
Your most reliable maintenance leader, the one who keeps operations humming, is exactly who you need when stability matters. But when you need someone to challenge the status quo and push boundaries? That’s not their CORE.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth: Your most loyal people might be holding you back.
Not intentionally. Not maliciously. But structurally.
Understanding CORE
Every person has a default mode of operating, what I call their CORE. It’s made up of four elements:
Curious – The visionaries and strategists. They ask “what if” questions, explore alternatives, think long-term. They’re comfortable with ambiguity and love finding new paths forward.
Organized – The operators and systematizers. They build processes, create consistency, establish standards. They turn chaos into predictability.
Reticent – The risk managers and quality controllers. They spot problems, protect against mistakes, maintain standards. They’re the voice of caution that prevents disasters.
Enterprising – The drivers and executors. They move fast, make things happen, improvise through obstacles. They create urgency and momentum.
No profile is better than another. But each profile fits different phases of the growth curve.
Early Growth needs high Curious + high Enterprising. You’re exploring, iterating, figuring it out. Speed and innovation matter more than systems.
Mature Growth needs high Organized + moderate Reticent. You’re building infrastructure that scales. Process and consistency matter more than speed.
Pinnacle needs balanced CORE. You’re maintaining excellence while preparing for the next move. You need all four working together.
Jump-the-S needs high Curious + high Enterprising again. You’re exploring new territory. Back to innovation and agility.
The CEO realized his problem immediately: He had a Mature Growth team trying to prepare for Jump-the-S work. The profiles didn’t match the phase.
Lift, Maintain, or Drag
Here’s the second framework that changed how he saw his team: Lift, Maintain, Drag.
Lifters independently advance your efforts. They take initiative, raise the bar, build momentum. They’re proactive, engaged, and ready for more. They make your job easier.
Maintainers reliably execute what’s asked. They meet expectations, follow systems, deliver consistently. They’re valuable but don’t push boundaries.
Drag/Delayers slow your momentum. They miss expectations, resist change, require constant management. They make everything harder.
Most leaders think in binary terms: good people or bad people. But the reality is more nuanced.
The same person can be a Lifter in one role and a Drag in another.
Context determines talent. And when context changes, when your business moves from one phase to another, talent fit changes with it.
The CEO’s VP of Operations? She was a Lifter when the company needed operational excellence. She became a Drag when he moved her into strategic innovation. Not because she declined. Because he put her in work that didn’t match her CORE.
The Pattern He Couldn’t Unsee
Once he understood CORE and Lift/Maintain/Drag, the CEO started seeing patterns everywhere:
His head of sales (once a superstar Lifter in Early Growth) had become a Maintainer in Mature Growth. Not because he got lazy. Because the role evolved from “figure it out and close deals” to “manage a structured pipeline with forecasting and process.” Different work. Different fit.
His CFO, brilliant at financial controls and risk management (high Organized, high Reticent) was the wrong person to lead their digital transformation initiative. She needed clear scope and defined process. The initiative needed exploration and iteration.
His longest-tenured manager( loyal, reliable, beloved) actively resisted every change the business needed to make. Not because he was difficult. Because his CORE was deeply Reticent, and change felt like a risk.
Person after person. Role after role. Good people. Wrong contexts.
No wonder the business felt stuck.
The Hard Conversations
The CEO faced a choice.
He could keep everyone comfortable. Protect feelings. Avoid difficult conversations. Let loyalty trump fit.
Or he could do the harder thing: realign his team to match where the business actually was.
He started with his VP of Operations. The conversation was uncomfortable but necessary.
“You’re one of my most capable people. But I put you in the wrong role. I need someone who thrives in ambiguity and loves exploring new territory. That’s not your strength and that’s okay. Your strength is building systems that work. So I want to move you back to operations, where you’ll be brilliant again.”
She was relieved. She’d been struggling and didn’t know how to say it.
Next was his head of sales. Similar conversation. “The role has evolved past your strengths. I need someone who can build systems and manage process. That’s not what fires you up. Let’s talk about what does.”
One by one, he had the conversations. Some people moved to different roles. Some transitioned out of the company. A few thrived in new contexts that finally matched their CORE.
It wasn’t comfortable. But it was necessary.
What Changed
Six months later, the business felt different.
Meetings had energy again. People brought ideas instead of just status updates. Projects moved forward without him having to push. Innovation started happening in corners of the business he wasn’t even watching.
Not because he hired all new people. Because he matched the right people to the right work at the right phase of the journey.
His new head of innovation? High Curious, high Enterprising. She was exploring partnerships and new offerings he’d never thought of.
His VP of Operations? Back doing what she did best, which was building systems that scaled. She was a Lifter again.
His restructured sales team? Led by someone who loved process and structure. The pipeline became predictable for the first time in years.
Same company. Different alignment. Completely different momentum.
Your Assignment
Here’s what you need to do:
Step 1: Assess Your Team Through Movement
For each key person, ask honestly:
- Are they independently advancing efforts? (Lift)
- Are they reliably maintaining what’s asked? (Maintain)
- Are they slowing momentum or missing expectations? (Drag/Delay)
Step 2: Evaluate CORE Mix vs. Business Needs
Where is your business on the S-Curve? What profiles does that phase require?
- If you need growth: Do you have enough Curious and Enterprising?
- If you need stabilization: Do you have enough Organized and Reticent?
- If you’re preparing to Jump-the-S: Do you have the innovation profiles ready?
Step 3: Identify the Gaps
Where are people mismatched to their roles?
- Lifters doing maintenance work? (Wasted potential)
- Maintainers expected to drive innovation? (Set up for failure)
- Drag/Delayers in critical roles? (Structural problem)
Step 4: Ask the Hard Question
Am I keeping people comfortable or getting the business unstuck?
Because those are often two different things.
The Truth About Loyalty
This is where most leaders hesitate. “But they’ve been with me forever. They’re loyal. They’ve earned their spot.”
Loyalty matters. It should be honored. But loyalty doesn’t change fit.
The most loyal people can be structurally wrong for where the business is now.
And keeping them comfortable (out of guilt, obligation, or avoidance) doesn’t serve them or the business. It creates slow decline disguised as stability.
The hard truth? Good people in wrong roles eventually become bad for the business.
Not because they’re bad people. Because context matters. Fit matters. And when the business changes phases, fit changes with it.
What Comes Next
If you’re looking around your leadership team and recognizing the pattern, if you’ve got talented, loyal people who aren’t moving the needle, here’s what you need to understand:
Awareness is uncomfortable. Action is harder.
You can see the misalignment. You can understand CORE profiles and Lift/Maintain/Drag. You can even know exactly what needs to change.
But knowing doesn’t create movement. Implementation does.
Next week, I’ll show you why smart leaders get stuck in the gap between knowing and doing and what systematic implementation actually requires to close that gap.
Because insight without execution is just expensive self-awareness.
Want to know exactly what talent profiles your current phase requires?
My book Talent-Driven Growth provides the complete framework for matching talent to lifecycle phases, including detailed CORE assessments and implementation tools for realigning your team systematically. [Get Your Copy]
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