We hire Sarah because she’s exceptional at operations. Detail-oriented. Process-driven. Makes the trains run on time.
Then we put her on the strategy committee and wonder why she struggles to think in broad, ambiguous strokes about the future. We hired her for precision, not vision. Yet somehow, we’re disappointed she’s not both.
Here’s what research confirms: expertise is domain-specific. A study in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes found that functional expertise rarely transfers to strategic thinking without deliberate development. Line managers excel at execution because they’ve built neural pathways for operational excellence, not strategic foresight. These are different muscles.
But we persist in this fantasy. We want our engineers to be salespeople. Our salespeople to think like CFOs. Our CFOs to inspire like visionaries. We confuse what we wish people could do with what they were hired to do.
Patrick Lencioni reminds us that clarity is a form of kindness. When we obscure what success looks like by layering incompatible expectations, we create confusion. When we expect strategic brilliance from those we hired for tactical excellence, we set them up to fail.
The question isn’t whether Sarah could develop strategic thinking. With time, coaching, and intentional development, perhaps. The question is whether that’s what you actually need from her right now, or whether you’re uncomfortable with the idea that people have strengths and limitations.
Your organization doesn’t need everyone to be everything. It requires clarity about what each person brings and permission for them to excel in their zone of genius without guilt about what they’re not.
Stop confusing your desires with reality. Start asking: What did I hire this person to do? And am I letting them do it?
