The Goldilocks Load
People grow at the Goldilocks load — a little more than they can carry today, light enough to recover from.
A good trainer adds five kilos to the bar — maybe ten, never twenty. Careers work the same way: the job is to keep finding the extra weight that's just right, whether that's a harder problem, a riskier deployment, one more team to align, or a project that runs months instead of weeks. One real example from Hao's team: an engineer who could coordinate inside the team and next door, given exactly one extra team beyond the org — on purpose, as a stretch — aligned them beautifully, and his range and Hao's trust grew together. Finding that weight, one person at a time, is most of the manager's job.
- Add five kilos, never twenty: the extra weight that's just right.
- Finding that weight for each person, again and again, is most of the manager's job.
Transcript
How do you grow a person on your team? Same way a good trainer grows you. They add five kilos to the bar. Maybe ten. Never twenty. Enough that you feel it. Light enough that you recover.
Careers work the same way. The job is to keep finding the Goldilocks load — the extra weight that's just right. In a career, the extra weight comes in a few shapes: a harder technical problem, a riskier deployment, one more team to align, or a project that runs months instead of weeks.
Get the load right, and the person steps out of their comfort zone, learns something new — and still feels neither stressed nor defeated.
Here's one from my team. One engineer could already coordinate inside our team, and with the team next door. The next level: aligning teams beyond our org. So I set it up on purpose, as a stretch. One extra team beyond our org. Just one. He aligned them beautifully. And from that point on, his range grew — and so did my trust. Next time something like this comes up, it's his.
So here is my working theory: people grow at the Goldilocks load. A little more than what they can carry today. Light enough to recover from. And finding that weight — again and again, one person at a time — that's most of the manager's job.