Mark C. Winters maps five types of integrators, from tactical operators managing daily work to strategic advisors guiding visionaries. The right match between an integrator's skills, the visionary's needs, and where the company is in its growth creates maximum impact, though roles can shift as the business changes.
Typically, integrators are innately organized. They love details and prioritizing and driving tasks to completion. They have a gift for running the day to day activities of the business and harmoniously orchestrating human energy from all three traditional major business functions. But what that actually looks like in practice varies widely. That's because every visionary will have different needs for an integrator that complements their personality and strengths. And every business will need an integrator who dresses its specific, specific needs. We see these varying degrees of integrator roles falling on a spectrum where a business's needs fall on that spectrum can change over time as it grows and matures. In addition, every integrator's skills naturally fall somewhere on this spectrum, which can also change over time as they grow and mature. The sweet spot happens when these factors align in the same spectrum area. They all have to fit together like a three piece puzzle. On one end of the spectrum, some integrators love to focus solely on managing people processes and and metrics monitoring progress in each area. These integrators operate on shorter time frames with more tactical functional projects. Next, along that integrator role spectrum is the integrator who does best in people development. They love acting as a coach or mentor to help staff develop skills. This integrator is a leader who develops other leaders by gaining an understanding of roles outside their own. Farther along the spectrum, we see integrators who specialize in organizational development. This integrator excels at ensuring the organization has the right structure, the right people and a sense of team cohesion. Then we see integrators who naturally fill a business planning role by developing strategies around market trends, product relevance and service offerings. This integrator is adept at taking big ideas from the visionary and breaking them into executable strategies. And finally, on the farthest end of the spectrum, some integrators can act as more of an advisor. They may serve as a thought partner to the visionary and collaborate with them on the vision for the company. These integrators naturally take a long term view, focusing on complex enterprise wide impacts that are mission critical to business success. Again, all this naturally falls across the spectrum. The best integrators are able to change and grow while continuing to complement the strengths of the visionary and meet the needs of the organization. For example, sometimes during a transitional phase, an integrator needs to sit in multiple seats on the accountability chart because of a period of rapid growth or restructuring. Ideally, that's only temporary because spreading them out will always limit an integrator's ability to impact the growth and strength of a company. To realize their full potential in the integrator seat, they really need to devote themselves to the role. When fully focused and really dialed in, an integrator is operating in their personal core focus and working toward the greater good of the organization. Plus, the more an integrator learns about how to do their role well, the more they'll grow. And we've seen an interesting effect. The scale and growth rate of an organization is often tied to that of its integrator. The important thing to remember is that there has to be a strong fit between the visionary and integrator duo. That fit allows each leader to keep doing what they do best to create rocket fuel for the business. At the same time, there must be a strong fit between the integrator and the needs of the business along that integrator spectrum. Combined, these edges define the integrator seat for a given company.
