🎸Rockstars & superstars 🎬: Defining what you want to be

from The New Yorker

This article was written as a result of the intellectual rigor of a Junto with Megumi DeMond, Erik Hansen, Kyle Harrison, and Timothy Riser.

First things first: this is not a guide to becoming a bangin’ guitarist, the next Angelina Jolie, or even a mere runway model.

This is about rockstars and superstars in the Kim Scott, Radical Candor sense.

(Side note: if you haven’t read Radical Candor, I highly recommend it. Most business books can be a bit stale or feel like they’re repeating themselves to fill up pages. Not the case with this one. If you want a taste, you can check out the First Round Review synopsis on the book.)

💫 Defining the stars

According to Radical Candor, most people have one of two types of ambition.

• Superstars are the ones we traditionally describe as ambitious. They’re the climb-the-corporate-ladder, never-stop-growing-and-aiming-higher, promotions-define-my-success types. They want growth.
• On the other hand, rockstars want to stay where they are. They might have things in their life more important than work (a new child, an ailing parent), they might want to focus on just learning their role for a while, or they’re just damn good at what they’re doing and they know it. Rock stars want stability.

Kim writes:

“Rock stars are solid as a rock. Think the Rock of Gibraltar, not Bruce Springsteen. The rock stars love their work. They have found their groove. They don’t want the next job if it will take them away from their craft. Not all artists want to own a gallery; in fact, most don’t. If you honor and reward the rock stars, they’ll become the people you most rely on. If you promote them into roles they don’t want or aren’t suited for, however, you’ll lose them — or, even worse, wind up firing them.

Superstars, on the other hand, need to be challenged and given new opportunities to grow constantly.”

Being one or the other isn’t a permanent state — in addition to what your personality is, it also depends on where you are in life and the things that you have going on outside of work.