In Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, an Apple leader discusses the importance of balancing stability and growth within a team to ensure its proper functioning. To illustrate this, she categorizes team members based on their current career aspirations into rock stars and superstars.
Rock stars are individuals who consistently deliver exceptional results but are on a gradual growth trajectory. They are like the Rock of Gibraltar in a team, providing stability and contentment with their current roles.
Superstars, on the other hand, are those who are on a steeper growth trajectory and would go crazy if they were still doing the same job in a year’s time.