TRM recognizes four primary roles
Contributor
We are all Contributors.
Contributors own responsibilities. Contributors deliver results. A person may also take on one of the other roles. But they are always a Contributor, first.
The goal of any Contributor is simple – it’s to fulfill their responsibilities and deliver their best work.
TRM helps Contributors through its emphasis on the performance values of Accountability, Alignment, and Transparency. These values make it easier for top performers to deliver their best work and be recognized for their contributions. Ideally, these values are already embedded in the broader performance culture. But even if they are not, each Contributor can embrace these values and place themself into the ‘top performer’ group. TRM shows how.
Lead
Leads get work done through others.
They are also Contributors – they own responsibilities and they deliver results.
The difference is that their results primarily come through the work of others. You might call them a team leader, boss, supervisor, manager or other.
The goal of any Lead is to create an environment where their team – those helping them deliver a result – are in a position to deliver their best work.
You become a Lead when you have a responsibility that you cannot deliver on your own. You need others to help. When you recruit others to help you, you become a Lead with the associated responsibilities.
Leads benefit most from TRM through its simple framework, embedding Accountability, Alignment, and Transparency across their team. These performance values help others do their best work with minimal direct oversight or involvement from the Lead.
Executive
Executives build high-performing organizations.
They are also Leads; they get work done through others. And they are also Contributors; they own meaningful responsibilities.
The difference is the breadth.
Where a Lead impacts their team, an Executive has similar responsibilities for many teams – often the full breadth and depth of an organization.
In TRM, you become an Executive when you add a responsibility for building long-term organizational strength.
Executives benefit most from TRM by using its universal nature to embed performance structures and the associated performance culture consistently, from top-to-bottom. It’s through this consistency and TRM’s SPCS nature that the key traits of trust and engagement naturally arise. These are the two traits that consistently define strong organizations.
Culture Architect
Culture Architects directly design, embed, and maintain the performance structures.
They support Executives by directly owning the responsibility for transforming and maintaining the organization’s performance structures and the resulting performing culture into one that will support high-performance over the long term. Executives provide the insight and guidance. But it’s the Culture Architects who get it done.
While Leads also focus on structures to embed Accountability, Alignment, and Transparency, the difference is in the scope and focus. Leads focus solely on their teams while architects focus on embedding these attributes consistently across many teams – perhaps a department, division, or the entire organization.
Architects also translate and implement the Executive’s intentions by embedding certain organizational values and general culture concepts (e.g., ‘family atmosphere’ or ‘constant innovation’) into applicable structures that directly support these ideas.
Architects benefit most from TRM by using its SPCS blueprint to roll out a consistent approach to performance and culture at all levels. Having a single, unified approach greatly simplifies the process of building a high-performing organization.
