Who This Article Is For
- Managers using high-performing specialists effectively
- People responsible for leading a team
- People reviewing organizational roles
Give Star Performers and Leaders Roles That Use Their Different Strengths
Use Kingdom’s Shin and Kyou Kai to distinguish individual performance from team leadership, reduce dependence, and design fair evaluations and career paths.
Published
Combine Individual Breakthroughs With Leadership That Moves the Whole Team
A growing organization needs both exceptional personal results and the ability to mobilize others.
Shin and Kyou Kai from the manga Kingdom provide a lens for these different contributions. Separating the roles changes how people are placed and evaluated.
Stars and Leaders Have Different Roles
An outstanding performer is not automatically an effective leader, and a strong coordinator may not deliver the largest individual result.
Leaving this difference unclear makes placement and evaluation inconsistent. Separate the roles first:
- Stars change a situation through results
- Leaders connect people with direction
- Stars contribute specialist expertise
- Leaders draw out the whole team's capabilities
The roles have different value and need appropriate criteria rather than a ranking of importance.
Two Strengths in Kingdom
Shin and Kyou Kai serve in the same Hi Shin Unit with different contributions.
| Role | Characteristic |
|---|---|
| Kyou Kai type | Results through individual ability |
| Shin type | Moving colleagues and the whole group |
| Kyou Kai type's value | Breaking through difficult situations |
| Shin type's value | Creating shared direction |
The combination gives the group depth: personal breakthroughs work with collective direction.
Value and Risks of Star Performers
Personal Ability Raises the Team's Standard
Strong performers move sales, development, and creative work forward, especially in:
- Difficult projects
- Situations where others are stuck
- Quality-critical work
- Short deadlines requiring results
Their presence can raise expectations across the organization.
Dependence Creates Instability
Concentrating results on one person can slow everyone else's development.
Risks include:
- Knowledge remaining with one individual
- Passive colleagues
- Growing workload for the star
- Major disruption on departure
Preserve the contribution without making the whole business dependent on it.
Evaluate the Contribution Appropriately
Look at:
- Scale of results
- Depth of expertise
- Repeatability
- Positive effects on others
Consider what remains for the organization alongside individual achievement.
Leadership Value and Development
Enable Other People
Leaders create conditions for members to contribute.
Their work includes:
- Showing the goal
- Assigning roles
- Judging the situation
- Maintaining morale
The team can then achieve more than one person alone.
The Difficulty Is Different
Leadership's value may be less visible than an individual result. Weakness here can produce:
- Unclear direction
- Poor coordination
- Unused strengths
- Turnover and stagnation
Coordination supports the result.
Assess Leadership Potential
Individual figures alone do not show readiness.
| Perspective | Question |
|---|---|
| Dialogue | Can the person hear others' circumstances? |
| Judgment | Can they set priorities? |
| Delegation | Can they avoid keeping everything? |
| Progress | Can they help others move forward? |
For promotion decisions, see Reviewing Promotion Through the Peter Principle. It considers a trial period in the role.
Using Both Strengths
Avoid One Ideal for Everyone
Consider:
- Using people who achieve individually
- Using people who mobilize others
- Evaluating by role
- Recognizing success beyond promotion
One mold can erase valuable differences.
Design the Combination
For example:
- A star creates a breakthrough
- A leader moves the whole team
- A star raises the standard
- A leader makes results repeatable
Complementary roles turn individual achievement into organizational performance.
Offer Several Career Paths
A management-only definition of advancement can undervalue specialists.
Consider:
- A specialist path
- A management path
- Roles spanning both
- Reviews at different career stages
Suitable paths add organizational depth.
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About the Author
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Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Should stars become leaders?
A: Not automatically. Developing their expertise may serve the organization better.
Q: Can a leader ignore personal performance?
A: It still matters, but the team's overall results take priority over individual figures.
Q: How can we avoid dependence?
A: Share knowledge, divide roles, and develop others so work is understood by more than one person.
Q: Should evaluation differ by role?
A: Often yes. Different contributions are difficult to judge through one scale alone.
Q: How do I know which role suits me?
A: Review how you contributed in difficult situations: personal results or enabling others provide useful clues.
