Balance rock stars and superstars or your team will wobble

A fast‑growing team kept promoting its best individual contributors into management, assuming that was the only way to reward them. Within six months, quality dipped and two new managers looked exhausted. One of them quietly said, “I miss building things.” Meanwhile, a restless analyst started automating reports on their own time, hinting at a hunger for more scope. The leader noticed the mismatch one evening, fingers tapping a cold mug on the desk.

They tried a reset. First, the leader asked each person, “In the next year, do you want more scope or more mastery?” One stability‑seeking engineer lit up at the idea of owning reliability and teaching others. The eager analyst became a project lead for a new product line with a mentor. Promotions slowed, recognition diversified. They added ‘guru’ badges for experts who taught and published internal guides. The team newsletter began highlighting both big launches and the “boring” wins that kept customers happy.

Three months later, incident count had dropped 40 percent and onboarding speed improved because the guru was teaching common patterns. The new project lead shipped a beta on time with fewer surprises, backed by a steady partner who knew the ropes. The manager who had missed building things moved back into a senior technical role and started smiling again.

The principle behind the shift is simple but easily ignored: teams need both stability and growth to stay balanced. Using “trajectory” language reduces ego and bias compared to “potential.” It invites honest conversations about pace, not worth. Behavioral science calls this matching person and context, not trying to change the person to fit a role they don’t want. When you align work with the right trajectory, you prevent burnout, avoid the Peter Principle, and keep excellence compounding in place.

This week, ask each teammate where they want to be on pace for the next 12 to 24 months—steep scope growth or deeper mastery—and listen for energy and hesitation. Sketch a simple map of roles that fit both speeds, then make one visible change that honors a rock star’s mastery and one that stretches a superstar. Add non‑promotion recognition so steady excellence is celebrated, and set a calendar nudge to re‑ask quarterly, because life changes the speed people want. Try the first two conversations by Thursday.