You, as a leader, have a huge amount of influence over the personality of your organization as a whole, and you also need to seek people who will support your style and big goals.

For small business owners and soloprenuers, building a team can be a challenge. You are big enough to need talented people’s help, but you’re not big enough to need someone full-time. Luckily, the spectacular growth of the gig economy in recent years means that there are a lot of talented people out there looking to help you. A big transition comes, however, when you move from part-time support to needing full-time people.

This question came up while at a conference recently. I had explained our culture types – Connector, Fixer, Independent, Organizer – and a small business owner (I’ll call him Sam) approached me and said, “What does it mean when all of my people are Independents? Is that good or bad?”

Of course, the answer is that it depends. Unsurprisingly, all of Sam’s people were only used on an as-needed basis – essentially for occasional gigs. Of course these humans would all be Independents! They are very tolerant of chaos in their work lives and enjoy being self-directed.

The problem arises when Sam’s company gets big enough to want to hire full-time people. A full-time job can be a major mismatch for an Independent, who, as the name implies, wants to be independent from a formal team or processes. From Sam’s perspective, he needs someone full-time who is steadfast and stable. He will likely need to hire a Connector or Organizer.

An additional challenge for Sam, however, is that Connectors and Organizers like stability, and if they feel like Sam’s small business is too volatile, then they probably won’t want to work for him. He’ll likely need to find a Connector who is more tolerant of uncertainty than most.

From the opposite perspective, on the same day, I spoke with someone from a large federal agency (I’ll call him Bob). His perspective was that for the project he leads, where safety is paramount, there are “thousands of ways to do it wrong, and only one way to do it right.” So, Bob is absolutely looking for Connectors and Organizers. He wants people who will do it the same way every time, who will follow the process to the letter, and won’t try to “find a better way” or seek shortcuts.