Just because someone is at the top of one of these lists doesn’t mean they are necessarily doing a good or bad job. Rather, these rankings are meant to serve as signals to help your team reflect and ask better questions.

There are healthy and unhealthy reasons why someone on your team might rank highly for any given leaderboard. You’ll need to dig deeper to understand the context behind a given ranking and how you might use that insight to improve your team.

While most central connectors serve the company in a positive way, linking colleagues and increasing productivity, some end up creating bottlenecks that can hold back the informal network. – Rob Cross, in “The People Who Make Organizations Go — Or Stop”

In this article we’ll cover a brief description of each leaderboard and questions you can ask to discover what’s really going on. Let’s dive in!

Bridges

Bridges are the people who enable and control the flow of information across your team. These people are often highly connected or act as one of the few links between otherwise disconnected teams. This leaderboard is calculated using betweenness centrality.

Many times the people on this leaderboard won’t surprise you. They’re your team leaders, executives, and the people who are always interacting in Slack. Pay special attention when someone shows up on this list you didn’t expect — it’s likely he or she is playing an essential but hidden role bridging across silos.

Are the people on this list fostering collaboration and building new connections? Or are they creating bottlenecks?

Do the people on this list feel overworked? Are they struggling to keep up?

How might we incentivize and reward people playing essential yet hidden roles as connectors across the organization?

Scouts

Scouts are the people who can most quickly communicate with everyone across your team. They’re often centrally located, providing input and support to a wide range of people. This leaderboard is calculated using closeness centrality.

These are the people to reach out to when you want to find out what’s happening across your organization. Since these people have the shortest path to all other people in your organization, they’re in a position to sense and spread information quickly (good or bad).

Do the people on this list have a positive influence on your organization culture? Or are they spreading gossip and negativity?

Are people being strategic about who they communicate with? Or are they collaborating with lots of people just for collaboration sake?

Insiders

Insiders are the people connected to other well-connected people on your team. They may not be highly connected themselves, but these people are often the influencers in a network. This leaderboard is calculated using eigenvector centrality.

These people often bring unique, cross-functional expertise that is valued by leaders across the team. Since eigenvector centrality incorporates the number AND quality of connections, these people aren’t always the most connected (but the connections they do have are with influential people).

Do the people on this list message lots of people? Or are they connected to just a few key people?

Are the people on this list highly valued and sought out by leaders in your organization? Or are they seen as people who “bother” others in your organization?

Butterflies

Butterflies are your connectors. They may not be the most active, but they interact with the greatest number of people in the team.

People on this leaderboard are often those engaged with people across many disciplines, tapping into diverse perspectives and expertise. They may also be the sign of an inefficient team structure, requiring many different conversations to get their work done.

Do team members know who to turn to for help? Or do they have to talk to lots of people to get the information they need?

Do the people on this leaderboard get a lot done each week? Or are they spending too much time networking across the organization?

Do the people on this leaderboard hold roles where they should be talking to many people? If not, why might they need something from so many people?

Hermits

Hermits are the opposite of butterflies. Though they may be active, they interact with the fewest number of people in the team.

Hermits are often some of the most valuable people on your team. They’re often specialists who are deeply focused and engaged in strategic collaboration.

Don’t be surprised to see people that are new to the organization on this leaderboard too. As a newbie it’s often unclear who you should turn to for support, and it’s easy to over-rely on the few connections you already have.