Square Pegs, Round Holes (and Very Large Gloves)

Why filling the right roles matters more than hiring ‘good people’

If, like me, you have been following the New York Mets heading into the 2026 season, you might feel a familiar sensation: optimism mixed with mild anxiety. Scratch that. Severe anxiety.

We have a shortstop recruited to play third base, despite having a third baseman who has played there his entire life. A first baseman who, until recently, had never actually played first base. And we are still missing a left fielder.

Add in Juan Soto in the outfield, glove large enough to qualify as carry-on luggage, where we all collectively hold our breath wondering whether he is going to get to the ball, let alone catch it, and you have a front-row seat to a timeless organizational challenge:

Just because someone is talented does not mean they are right for the role you want them to play.

Baseball is a convenient metaphor because the mistakes are visible. In business, especially advisory businesses, the same mistakes happen quietly, expensively, and over long periods of time.

The most common hiring trap

Many teams do not hire for roles. They hire for relief.

Someone is great with clients, so we make them a manager.
Someone is organized, so we hand them operations, plus compliance, plus onboarding, plus whatever else comes up.
Someone is technically strong, so we put them in a people-facing role and hope personality develops later.

This is not intentional. It is human. We see someone who is good at something and try to stretch that strength across every open gap in the business.

The result? Square pegs, round holes, and a lot of frustrated high performers who suddenly look like underperformers.

The data is very clear: strengths beat fixes

The research leaves little room for debate.

• Gallup has found that teams that focus on employees’ strengths are 6 times more likely to be engaged and show up to 12.5% higher productivity than teams focused on correcting weaknesses.
• Employees who get to use their strengths every day are three times more likely to report having an excellent quality of life and significantly less likely to leave their role.
• Managers who try to ‘fix’ weaknesses instead of designing roles around strengths see higher burnout, lower confidence, and slower performance improvement.

Or, as Peter Drucker put it far more succinctly:

“The effective executive builds on strengths and makes weakness irrelevant.”

That last part matters. Not eliminated. Not fixed. Made irrelevant.

Talent does not equal fit

This is where many advisory firms struggle.

You can have a phenomenal relationship builder who is miserable doing detailed operational work. A brilliant analytical mind who feels drained by constant client interaction. A dependable team member who thrives on process but freezes when asked to ‘just figure it out.’

None of these are flaws. They are signals.

When people underperform, the question is often not ’What is wrong with them?’
It is ’What is this role asking them to be that they are not?’

In baseball, the position matters. In your business, it matters even more.

What ‘right person, right role’ looks like

Hiring and structuring around strengths does not mean ignoring weaknesses. It means designing roles intentionally so that strengths are used daily, weaknesses are buffered by systems or teammates, and expectations align with how someone naturally operates, not how you wish they would. Practically, this means:

• Defining roles by outcomes, not tasks.
• Separating ‘what needs to be done’ from ‘who is best wired to do it.’
• Being willing to redesign roles as the business evolves, instead of forcing people to stretch indefinitely.

It also means resisting the urge to turn a shortstop into a third baseman just because there is an opening.

The hidden cost of misalignment

When someone is miscast in a role, confidence erodes, performance plateaus, and energy drains quietly from the organization. Leaders start managing around problems that never should have existed. Meetings get heavier. Oversight increases. Trust thins. Ironically, the very people you hired because they were ‘so good’ begin to feel like disappointments.

That is not a people problem. That is a role problem.

Bringing it back to your team

High-performing teams are not built by collecting talented people and hoping it works out. They are built by aligning natural strengths to clearly defined roles, then letting people consistently do what they do best.

The Mets may or may not figure it out this season. (Repeat the Mets’ Mantras…Hope springs eternal… it’s the hope that kills you etc. etc.).

In your business, you do not have to leave it to chance.

The most strategic leaders are not asking, ‘How do I get more out of my people?’ They are asking, ‘How do I put my people where they can already be great?’

That is how you stop forcing fit. That is how performance compounds. And that is how teams win, without anyone needing an extra-large glove.

A Practical Next Step: Role Design Before Hiring

Before you turn your next shortstop into a third baseman, use the Role Design vs. Fit Worksheet to help you first design a role around business needs, and then evaluate whether a person fits that seat.

Song of the Month

The Middle – Jimmy Eat World

Because every advisor, leader, and hiring manager needs the reminder:

‘It just takes some time, little girl, you’re in the middle of the ride…’

Hiring, promoting, and role design are rarely clean or linear. But when you slow down, get intentional, and meet people where they actually are, things tend to work out just fine.

Sources:

Gallup (2015) https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236561/employees-strengths-outperform-don.aspx & https://www.gallup.com/workplace/231605/employees-strengths-company-stronger.aspx

Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive (New York: Harper & Row, 1967)

FOR ADVISOR USE ONLY. NOT INTENDED FOR CONSUMER SOLICITATION PURPOSES.

Beacon Capital Management, Inc. is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additional information about Beacon Capital Management is also available on the SEC’s website at www.adviserinfo.sec.gov under CRD number 120641. Beacon Capital Management only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or excluded or exempted from registration requirements.

Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments or investment strategies.

Sammons Financial® is the marketing name for Sammons® Financial Group, Inc.’s member companies, including Beacon Capital ManagementSM.

 

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