How Flexible Identity Attracts Top Talent and Accelerates Growth

At PayPal’s founding, early recruits were rarely boxed into single job titles. New engineers and product managers often found themselves switching hats—filling gaps wherever unexpected fires flared up or fresh opportunities emerged. One day, a coder might be fixing security bugs, and the next, standing in front of a whiteboard with designers dreaming up a better product rollout. A customer support manager might end up leading a hiring surge in Nebraska, simply because they spotted the need and raised a hand.

This flexibility wasn’t just tolerated—it was actively encouraged. Leaders knew that rigid hierarchies and inflexible descriptions would slow them down in a hyper-growth, high-uncertainty arena. Adapting to the unknown wasn’t a sign of chaos, but a marker of evolving organizational intelligence. Some hires were originally brought on for one specialty, only to make their real impact in a completely different area months later.

Behavioral science and management research call this 'role elasticity.' Teams who welcome shifting roles and encourage 'job crafting' outperform groups that cling to top-down command structures, especially during times of rapid change. In established organizations, too much rigidity can turn talented contributors into passive cogs. By instead welcoming evolution, organizations harness the creativity and drive of their best people.

Invite the people you’re working with to dream up the roles they’d love to fill as your project grows, and be clear that you expect responsibilities to shift along the way. Model flexibility yourself—volunteering for new jobs when gaps emerge, and asking for feedback on both what you do well and what might be even more impactful. If your team hits a roadblock, pause to check if a fresh division of labor—rather than just a better plan—is what’s needed to break through. When everyone’s allowed to adapt, you’ll move faster and retain more energy for what matters.