Sheriffs and gunslingers

Alex Dinovo discusses the necessary push and pull that keeps a company moving forward. You can read his original publication in The Packer here or keep reading below:

From The Packer on November 20, 2020.

Having a diverse mix of associates from varying backgrounds, with different talents and separate world views, can be challenging. It is often easy for a hiring manager to be biased toward candidates who have backgrounds, thought patterns or appearances similar to them.

This is a common trap that over time can cause a company to become monolithic, stale, and could result in decreased creativity and less progression toward change-influenced growth.

A polarity is something that has two opposite or contradictory tendencies, opinions or aspects. When building a team, the balance of individual strengths, proclivities, etc., will ideally become a type of polarity that should on the surface seem contradictory or even conflict-inducing.

However, this conflict creates pairs of interdependent values that alone would not provide sustained success, but together create a system of checks and balances designed for robustness, strength and progress.

In business and in life, polarities exist all over the place. Too much of one and not enough of the other is a recipe for disaster. Some examples include work and life, margin and mission, candor and diplomacy, tradition and change, etc. Everyone has biases, and it is natural to fall on one side or the other of the spectrum. The key is to not become too heavy on one side and become off balance.

One area within many fresh produce organizations where a healthy polarity naturally exists is between sales and operations. To be successful, every company needs a balance between those who keep the order and those who push the envelope. I have always referred to the primacy of personality traits within each of these departments as sheriffs and gunslingers.

Gunslingers often seek out margin by taking risks and creating variables, and will bend rules to make things happen. Sheriffs attempt to mitigate risk, enforce standards, and reduce variability to increase efficiency. For instance, gunslingers may tend to proliferate stock-keeping units to increase revenue, and sheriffs will likely eliminate SKUs for efficiency.

The polarity between the two is necessary for sustained growth over time. Neither department can exist without the other, and both are better because of the other’s strengths.

I encourage you to ask yourself what and where these essential conflicts in your life and in your business are, and how you can create mutual inclusivity by bringing out the best of both sides.

Are you surrounding yourself with enough people who think differently from you and who will challenge you? Or are you surrounding yourself with people who reenforce your thoughts and biases?

If you are, then you are potentially creating a problem without even being conscious of it. Progress is stifled, both in business and in life, by over-representation of any side of a given polarity. Focus on creating healthy conflicts within your organization to leverage the most out of inclusive opposites.

Alex DiNovo is president and COO of DNO Produce group of companies, Columbus, Ohio.