The Perfect Executive Trio: The Starter, The Processor, & The Finisher

In any entrepreneurial journey, you can't do it alone. You'll need others to help not just with their time, but with their unique perspectives that will challenge you.

The Perfect Executive Trio™ includes The Starter, The Processor, and The Finisher managing the progress of your company. And you can't just let anyone fill these shoes; they're a matter of innate giftedness.

If you're a solopreneur, your personal and organizational health depends on you understanding which role you fill most naturally, then either stretching yourself to fill the gaps temporarily or partnering with others as quickly as possible to help on this journey. If you're a small to medium sized business, then you'll want to recognize who in your company is naturally a Starter, Processor, and Finisher and develop them into the right leadership role.

This article describes who these are, how to know which one you naturally are, and how to work together.

The Starter has a giftedness for creating new products/ideas, creating systems to achieve those ideas, rallying people to join in on the ideas, and creating strategies that build the ideas. They have a key giftedness to be a visionary by nature, motivated by brainstorming all the options that could be. They often work well with quality relationships, defining vision, discernment, and leading the company in the right direction.

Their natural Blind Spots, Temptations, or Weaknesses arise in executing the ideas. They often let details slip through the cracks... sometimes fatal details.

What they look like:

The Starter will be chock full of ideas and can be tempted to not execute well. He or she can get distracted creating new ideas and fail to focus on details or less ideal goals. He or she really needs to partner with The Processor and The Finisher in taking the slew of products and get them into the market for business success.

For the long-term, this should be your CEO or President, but be aware that it's not a matter of filling a role. A Finisher can't just become a Starter. It's a matter of their innate giftedness and being sure they're in the right role.

What conflict can look like:

The Finisher thinks The Starter thinks too much.

The Starter thinks The Finisher doesn't brainstorm enough.

The Processor fixes this dissonance.

The Processor has an innate motivation to enjoy the process of development, paying great attention not just on creating new products/ideas, but testing new ideas. This detail-oriented person can perfectly challenge and encourage The Starter without feeling the urgency to execute, thus relieving The Starter of the pressure of executing ideas that have not been well thought out. At the same time, The Processor translates The Starter's ideas into a product that makes sense.

Their natural Blind Spots, Temptations, or Weaknesses arise when needing to dream big for all that could be possible. It's not that these folks can't dream big, ideate big, or brainstorm big (especially periodically), but just that they're going to be most motivated when they get to work out the practical kinks of the product, proving any idea or product to be either good or bad.

What they look like:

This person may operate as CFO, COO, CPO, and similar. Again, think less about filling a role, and more about recognizing who has this in their giftedness. Details, nuts & bolts, functionality, product testing... these things give them motivation. They rightfully take pride in being the one to find a detail that needs to be solved before going to market.

What conflict can look like:

Healthy conflict between each member is acceptable, and The Processor very well may operate as the voice of reason in executive meetings.

The Processor feels that The Starter is too scattered, leaving messes everywhere.

The Starter thinks The Processor is "a no person" where his or her ideas get crushed too quickly, along with his or her motivation.

The Finisher might be able help The Processor in this case.

The Finisher has a giftedness for bringing things to completion, driving across the final touchdown line, winning, and mobilizing the products/ideas. They take the product and figure out a way to translate it to be marketable, sellable, and able to move forward with how the product was intended to be used.

Their natural Blind Spots, Temptations, or Weaknesses might arise when trying to go to market too soon (thus breaking trust to the public with an unfinished product), feeling frustrated with their Starter isn't moving at the speed they'd desire, or pushing things forward with being double-checked (even sometimes against policies or laws).

What they look like:

These might be your closers, your VP of Sales, CMO, and/or the ones creating strategy to run not just the product, but the business forward.

Sure, they can brainstorm, but they're motivated by moving and will push for that sooner than the others. The Finisher takes The Starter's paralysis in analysis and moves things forward. The Finisher helps explain to The Starter what to do next in business development. They get the feet on the ground running. This person likely shines when operating with Sales and Marketing, client acquisition, or branding.

What conflict looks like:

The Finisher can get the team into trouble when not double-checking the work.

The Processor may think The Finisher is too pushy.

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Which one am I?

In order to be certain about your best fit, we recommend completing a Giftedness Report™ with one of our consultants. We help explain not only which role in the Perfect Executive Trio™ you play, but also your whole unique set of innate motivations that you can apply to your whole work, team, life, and relationships.

But for now let's explain where you'll find out which one you are:

Your Giftedness Report™ is crafted after you reflect on your life's stories of satisfaction. Within these stories, there's a section where we ask, "What was the satisfying part behind this story?" After about 10 stories are shared, we find the patterns of motivation behind the satisfying parts. These patterns (also called "innate motivating factors") are completely unique to you, using your own words tied to your stories. These patterns reveal whether you are more driven by starting new things, the process itself, or bringing things to their intended finish.

This section reveals which role you fill in the Perfect Executive Trio™.

In our experience, everyone is mostly one of these three options. Of course, you can dip your toes into either of the other two, but your natural design and sustained motivation are going to be magnetized toward just one.

Conclusion

Career growth doesn't mean promotion, but alignment.

The Starter naturally feeds ideas, products, vision, and people into the system. The Processor tests, fine-tunes, and puts structure to them. The Finisher takes them and creates business models supporting them.

Know which one you are and own it. If you are taking on a new adventure or large-scale project, this model will help you realize in which areas you need help and in which areas you need to stretch yourself.

Most of the population is an employee at a company, not C-Suite. If you find that your boss is The Finisher but currently in The Starter's seat, you probably feel the problems. These problems might be a lack of vision, a disagreement on processes, and/or poor communication lines. If your boss is a Starter filling a Processor or Finisher seat, you probably feel the problems in other ways. Recognize these roles, know which one is yours, and consider if you might help fill a gap in order to help toward a solution.

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