people-fit

people-fit — get-it · want-it · capacity

Every role needs all three. When something's off, name which one is missing, because the right action is different for each.

The three factors

• Get-it — Does the person understand what the role requires? The mental model, the trade-offs, the patterns of judgment the role demands. Not "are they smart" — "do they get this?"
• Want-it — Are they intrinsically motivated to do this role? Not "are they ambitious" — do they want to do the actual day-to-day work of this seat, not the title or the promotion or the next thing?
• Capacity — Do they have the bandwidth and the skill ceiling to do the role at the level required? Hours in the day plus ceiling of ability.

If any one is missing, the role isn't working. The action depends on which.

What to do when each is missing

• Missing get-it — coaching and training sometimes fix it. Pair them with someone who has it. Set a clear window — 60-90 days. If they don't get it after real investment, they're in the wrong role. Move them; don't grind them.
• Missing want-it — hardest to fix; usually doesn't. You can't motivate someone into a role they don't want. Don't try. Have the honest conversation about what role they do want, here or somewhere else. Tolerating want-it problems is the most expensive mistake on this list.
• Missing capacity — three sub-cases. (1) Workload — re-shape the role, take things off the plate. (2) Skill gap — development plan, training, time. (3) Hard ceiling — the role needs more than this person can give; move them to a role that matches.

Use the shared language

When you say "performance issue," no one knows what to do. When you say "want-it problem," everyone knows it's a role conversation, not a coaching plan. When you say "capacity ceiling," everyone knows it's a re-role conversation, not a fire. Shared vocabulary makes decisions faster and kinder.

Anti-patterns

• "Performance issues" — vague, no action implied. Force yourself to name which factor.
• Firing for capacity when the issue was want-it — you'll hire the same problem again. Diagnose first.
• Promoting for get-it without checking capacity — they understood the old role; the new role has a different ceiling.
• Tolerating want-it problems — hoping someone will start caring rarely works. The team sees it and starts caring less too.
• Conflating performance with potential — someone can have all three for this role and not for the next one. Re-run the check at each level.

Triggers

Hiring. Performance review. Considering a fire. Role mismatch suspicion. "Something's off and I can't name it."

Pairs with accountability-map (define the role's outcomes first, then check fit against them).