The "Glue" Employee: How I Build an Anti-Fragile Team at Kanopy
- Kanopy Content Team
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
In the high-octane world of Bangalore real estate, it is easy to get blinded by the "Rainmakers." We naturally gravitate toward the sales manager who clocks 7 bookings a month or the strategist who cracks a massive mandate.
But after 24 years in this industry, I have learned that while Rainmakers bring the revenue, they don't keep the building standing.
There is a different kind of employee. The one who knows how every internal system works. The one whose desk has a line of people waiting for help when they return from leave. The one who quietly fixes a compliance error before it reaches my desk.
We call them Glue Employees. And my job as a Founder is not just to find them, but to ensure they don't become a single point of failure.
Here is the Kanopy Protocol for identifying, rewarding, and managing the people who hold our company together.
1. The "Secret Ballot" Identification
Glue employees rarely brag. They don't send "update emails" about how they helped a colleague fix a CRM glitch. To find them, I don't look at KPIs. I talk to the team.
In my 1:1s, I ask a specific question:
"Who helped you succeed this week in a way that isn't on the scoreboard?"
If three different salespeople mention the same Admin or Ops person, I know I’ve found my Glue. These people have high emotional intelligence and deep institutional knowledge. They are the reason a "Site Visit" turns into a "Booking" smoothly, even if they never met the client.
2. The "Pilot & Co-Pilot" Rule (The Anti-Fragile System)
Finding a Glue employee is great, but relying on them too much is dangerous.
If one person knows where all the "bodies are buried" ; where the files are, how the land liaisoning works, or the specific quirks of a developer ; and that person leaves, Kanopy struggles. That is a fragile system.
To fix this, we implement what I call the Pilot & Co-Pilot Rule (or the Star Wars Rule for the fans):
Always Two: No critical task is ever owned by one person alone. There is always a Master and an Apprentice.
Rotation: We rotate roles. If you are running the "Mandate Acquisition" process perfectly, I might move you to "Post-Sales" for a month.
Why? It forces you to teach your system to someone else. It breaks the bottleneck. It ensures that the "Glue" is spread across the team, not stuck to one person.
3. The "Transfer Meeting" Protocol
When we rotate a Glue employee or move them to a new project, we don't just hand over a password. We do a Recorded Transfer.
We get on a Zoom call/Google Meet, and the Glue employee walks the new person through the process; sharing screens, explaining the "hacks," and detailing the unwritten rules. We record it.
This becomes our Digital SOP. It respects the Glue employee's expertise by capturing it forever, and it ensures the next person doesn't start from zero.
The Founder's Duty
Taking care of a Glue employee doesn't just mean paying them more (though we must do that). It means protecting them from burnout.
When you are the person everyone relies on, you carry the emotional load of the entire office. By using the Pilot/Co-Pilot system, I ensure my Glue employees can actually take a vacation without their phone blowing up.
At Kanopy Ventures, we don't just build teams; we build systems that allow great people to thrive without breaking.
Identify your Glue. Document their genius. And never let them fly solo.
Kauser Ahmedd
Founder, Kanopy Ventures
Consult. Curate. Liquidate.
