05/18/2026
Mind your Business: The Roles We Play
by Shannon Bond
Explore Mind your Business and other stories on The Regular Joe: https://regularjoepaper.com/mind-your-business-the-roles-we-play/
Everywhere you look, someone is telling you to be more. Start a business. Scale it. Automate it. Disrupt something. If you’re not growing, you’re falling behind. That’s the message. But most people who feel stuck aren’t in that mental space because they lack ambition. They feel stuck because they’re overwhelmed and trying to live someone else’s version of success.
Maybe Work Isn’t a Ladder
We’ve been sold the idea that organizations have ladders to climb. You start at the bottom, climb your way up, and eventually land somewhere that looks like success, usually with more control, more money, or more freedom. Everyone should be a leader, manager, or supervisor. But real organizations don’t work like that. There isn’t a straight path up a rigid ladder. Organizations and the roles we play in them are a system.
You’ve got people who build, people who organize, people who refine, people who lead, and people who support. Take one of those away, and the whole thing starts to wobble. Not everyone is supposed to be the owner. Not everyone is supposed to be the innovator. And not everyone is supposed to be the one taking the risk.
That’s not a limitation. That’s a feature.
The Roles We Play
Just as a character plays a role in a story, our patterns tend to drop us into different archetypes. Before we talk about archetypes, though, the following disclaimer is important: just like the personality test we take in a corporate retreat, we don’t want to define ourselves by one pattern. I’ve seen it more than once. We all take the test, compare notes, and a few of us start to sink deep into whatever the personality test says we are. But the human condition is more than that, and a little self-reflection goes a long way when discussing personalities and roles. That said, what kind of work archetype are you most often? We’re all a little of everything, but we’re looking for the dominant patterns here. As a leader, I always try to identify the dominant traits of staff, and if they aren’t already working in a position that optimizes those traits, I try to orchestrate a position for them. In this way, they’re set up for success, and if your staff is successful, your business is successful.
Let’s look at a few, such as:
The Organizer: the one who brings order to chaos, keeps things moving, and makes sure the work actually gets done. Organizers are detail-oriented, and while they may struggle to see the entire strategic forest, they are great at ensuring all the trees are exactly where they need to be and that all processes are followed. Rules are good, and deviation is hard for these folks, so building in extra time to cope with change is helpful.
The Craftsmen: people who care about the details, the quality, the finish. They don’t just complete work, they refine it until it’s beautiful (but beware the perfectionist). From developers to graphic designers and engineers, these are the folks who care about the heart of the work (or product, website, or whatever widget you’re working on). Like the organizers, they may struggle to hold the broader mission when they are focused on the art, but that’s why every role adds value.
The Innovator: always looking for a better way, tweaking systems, improving processes. These folks thrive on improvement, embrace change, and hate the response “because that’s the way we’ve always done it.” They are ready to find new solutions for… everything. Open source, no problem. Cybersecurity concerns? We’ll figure that out as we go. Sometimes, rules and safeguards are hard for them to deal with, so they need a constant voice of reason, a manager to provide guardrails. If not, an entire process may be wrecked for the sake of a single technology adoption.
The Entrepreneur: comfortable with risk, driven by opportunity, willing to build something from nothing. The challenge for them is the transition to operations. After the thrill of a project, product design, or deal, it’s hard to fall into a routine.
The Caretakers: the ones who bring people together, support the team, and make sure people don’t get lost in the machine. These folks are the cultural glue and help morale and motivation. But for them, the mission or bottom line can sometimes get in the way of caring for people, so it’s important for leaders to reinforce a mission-oriented vision.
This is by no means an exhaustive list; we haven’t discussed the Natural Leaders, Managers, or Presiders (of processes), but we only have so much space. It’s all about how they are positioned within an organization’s system. What is important to remember in our ladder-climbing, look-at-me, growth-is-everything, sell-sell-sell culture is that it’s okay if that’s not your jam. You don’t have to be that uber-successful businessperson on YouTube selling the super-secret book to success. It’s okay to define what success looks like for you, where you are now. None of these roles is inherently good, bad, or better than the others (despite all the “entrepreneurs” online peddling the “grow or die” narrative).
The Pressure to Be Something Else
The modern pressure is simple: become the Entrepreneur. Even if you’re wired to be a Craftsman. Even if you’re at your best as an Organizer. Even if what you actually enjoy is doing good, steady work. This is when we force ourselves into the illusion because we feel we are failing if we aren’t striving to be founders or trailblazers.
We leave stable roles to chase something that doesn’t fit. We take on risks we don’t actually want. We trade satisfaction for the idea of “more.” And then we wonder why everything feels harder than it should. It looks a lot easier online or in the pages of a book.
Take a Breath, Apply Logic
The Stoics believe that the world operates with a kind of logic, a natural order, logos. You don’t have to understand every part of it. But you are part of it. And your job isn’t to fight that structure. It’s about working within it and playing your role well. This might just be the key to finding happiness where you are. Marcus Aurelius put it plainly: do what is in front of you with seriousness and care. Not what you wish was in front of you. Not what someone else is doing. The work in front of you. That’s it. Permission to turn off the feed and stop listening to everyone else’s version of what makes a successful life (professional or otherwise).
That thing you don’t like about your role? Maybe that’s not a glitch, maybe that’s the job. If you’re an Organizer and the chaos drives you crazy, maybe your role is to apply your natural tendency and organize. This will help you and those around you. Create that spreadsheet, gather the analytics to make better decisions, and sort the files. If you’re a Craftsman, find joy in the detail, share your work with others, and mentor those you can. If you’re an Entrepreneur, the uncertainty is the work. Your “archetype” becomes the work, regardless of the task, and when there is friction, there is more opportunity to learn and grow. We tend to think of friction as something wrong. More often, it means you’ve found an opportunity to make a better product, increase efficiency, or learn.
But Don’t Force It
What if everything you try doesn’t work and you’re still miserable? Still doom scrolling, watching the illusion of “success” on YouTube by all the “influencers” telling you just who to be? Well, there’s an idea in Taoism that says things work better when they follow their nature instead of fighting it. Water doesn’t try to be a rock. It flows, it adapts, it finds its path. Asking yourself a version of the following questions might help break the cycle of envy scrolling.
• What kind of problems do I enjoy solving?
• When I have free time, uncompelled by outside forces, what do I do and what do I pay attention to?
• What kind of work drains me (even if I’m good at it)?
• What type of work feels like constant resistance (what do I dread)?
When you’re forcing yourself into a role that doesn’t match how you’re wired, everything feels like resistance. You can still do the work in front of you and find a way to apply your talents; you might even be decent at it, but if it feels heavier than it should, maybe it’s time to look for a different role. It may not be a total makeover, and you certainly don’t have to look outside yourself to know what you are looking for. Once you understand your own tendencies, you may find that the work manifests as an opportunity in your current space or in a different one. And when you’re in the right space for you, the hard work may still be hard, but it will make sense. That’s what happens when we stop trying to fit into someone else’s identity.
Define Success For Yourself
As a culture, we’ve made success a vertical thing. Higher, bigger, more. But a lot of people don’t need “more.” They need alignment. A great Organizer who keeps a business running smoothly is more valuable than a frustrated Entrepreneur burning through ideas. A focused Craftsman who produces excellent work is more valuable than someone chasing every new opportunity and finishing none of them. Success might not be climbing; it might be finding flow where you are or sliding sideways instead of climbing up. But you’ll never know for sure until you take a deep look at who you are professionally and stop buying the illusion of someone else’s version of success.
