In sports talk, "floors" and "ceilings" define potential.
A player’s floor is their worst day—the lowest level they’ll ever sink to.
Their ceiling is their best day—their peak, if everything clicks.
A high floor means that even on a bad day, the player is still solid.
A low ceiling means that while they may be OK they don’t have much room to grow.
Combine these, and you get four types of players:
High floor, high ceiling.
That’s your MVP.
Think Jordan, LeBron.
High floor, low ceiling.
Steady, reliable, no surprises.
Low floor, high ceiling.
Flashes of genius but total unpredictability.
Low floor, low ceiling.
Yeah… they don’t make the roster.
The mistake teams make?
Falling in love with ceilings and ignoring floors, chasing high-risk, high-reward players who could be great but often aren’t.
It’s the same in hiring.
Managers get dazzled by big claims, fancy degrees, or one-off moments of brilliance.
They hire the person who once did something impressive, not the one who will deliver solid work every day.
They fall for the best-case scenario while ignoring the worst-case reality.
But teams don’t run on best days.
Take two candidates.
Candidate A is a wild card.
Some days, she delivers world-class work.
Other days, she misses deadlines, makes sloppy mistakes, or disappears into analysis paralysis.
Projects get derailed.
Timelines stretch.
Quality wobbles.
You hope for brilliance, but you live with inconsistency.
Candidate B is steady.
Never flashy, never a disaster.
She won’t blow your mind, but she won’t sink the ship either.
You know exactly what you’re getting, every single day.
She shows up, gets things done and makes the team work.
Who do you hire?
In sports, streaky players are maddening.
One night, they drop 40 points.
The next, they disappear.
Coaches prefer the player who gives you 15 points every game—because you can count on them.
And the team can count on them.
A streaky performer who delivers greatness sometimes but is unreliable the rest of the time will cause more frustration than value.
In a team setting, consistency beats occasional brilliance.
Same with business.
A high ceiling looks great on paper.
“This person built a million-dollar startup.”
“This hire was top of their class.”
“This candidate once had a brilliant idea.”
Cool, but what’s their floor?
When the work gets boring…
When the pressure mounts…
When the client is a nightmare…
Do they still deliver?
Or do they disappear, waiting for their next big moment?
We’d all love to hire an MVP—someone who’s consistently great—but those people are rare.
Most of the time, we’re choosing among candidates who are closer to average.
That’s ok.
You don’t need a unicorn.
By "a rock," I mean someone who's steady, reliable, and unshakable.
Someone you can count on no matter what.
They don’t need constant motivation.
They don’t disappear when things get tough.
They don’t rely on occasional flashes of brilliance to stay valuable.
They just show up and deliver—every single time.
In a team, that’s gold.
Hiring based on ceiling alone is a gamble.
Look for predictable performance under unpredictable conditions.
Ceilings get the hype.
Floors get the job done.
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