KateNasser.com

I wrote a post in 2009 asking if Leaders Are Wearing Corrective Lenses. Since your vision impacts and often determines the ultimate outcome, it’s important that it be sharp at every turn or corrected.

Well isn’t that the purpose of those that work with and for you? To provide knowledge, experience, insight, and accurate updates to clarify and develop the vision? In truth leaders, diverse collaborators are your corrective lenses.

Leaders - Collaborators are Your Corrective Lenses Image by:wormwould

Leader’s Dilemma.
What happens to the vision when you have collaborators with personality types quite different from yours? Highly experienced people with diverse knowledge come in different personality types. Can they still be your corrective lenses if they interact very differently than you do? Consider the following challenges.

If you are a driver personality, you may miss what is right in front of you. Caring primarily about the end-result, you often see the distance better than anyone yet your near vision is blurred. Analytic collaborators have great near vision for all the details. Are you patient enough to work with them?

If you are an analytic personality type, your vision of details is superb yet you may miss the ultimate destination because you aren’t looking far enough ahead. Driver type collaborators can correct this skew. How do you react to them? Do you delay drivers’ input or embrace their drive to the end-result?

If you are an amiable personality type, your desire for harmony creates great bonds yet a team of amiables may falter in the completion of tasks. Your vision can benefit from a more diverse team including analytic, expressive and driver type collaborators. The question is are you put off by their personality types?

If you are an expressive, your collaborators will know exactly what you want yet you may not truly listen to their questions or input. If you can’t hear it, how can it correct your vision?

Solution.
You can balance out your dominant trait to allow these diverse collaborators to be your corrective lenses. They do sharpen your leadership vision and correct your blind spots. Is that enough to justify your effort to learn how to work with their personality types?

If yes, here is a resource for you: GPS Your Brain to Work With Any Personality Type.

What success have you had in working with diverse collaborators of different personality types? How did you do it and what was the value?

©2011 Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, Founder & President, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or re-publish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission.

As a leader, your vision and focus affect, perhaps even determine, the ultimate outcome.  How is your vision of the organization?  Is it a perfect 20/20?  Well I hope you are wearing multi-focal corrective lenses to sharpen your daily vision because many things can cloud the picture.

Personality type. 

If you are a driver personality, you may miss seeing the potential in people if it isn’t straight at you.  Caring primarily about the end-result, you often see the distance better than anyone yet your close vision is blurred.

If you are an analytic personality type, your vision of details is superb yet you may miss the ultimate destination because you aren’t looking far enough ahead to steer others to success. 

If you are an amiable personality type, your desire for harmony seeds great bonding yet your team may falter in the completion of tasks.

If you are an expressive, your team will know what you want yet you may not necessarily hear their questions or input.

If you are wearing corrective lenses, you can balance out your dominant trait with focus on these other important aspects.

Economic Conditions.  Do you make the same wise decisions in tough economic times as you do in good times?  Or is your vision blurred by the pressure of financial impact?  The corrective lenses to wear in this case – a checklist of the questions that have guided you to wise decisions in the past.  Update the list and use it!

A New Team Given to You.  Picture it – you have accepted a leadership position of an existing team you did not previously know.  As you do a quick assessment you sense they are not the right people for these jobs.  If you are thinking, “I would never have hired these people”, your thinking will block your vision for success.  The corrective lenses to wear in this situation are discussions with each person to truly understand what they have to offer.  It is very possible that conditions have buried their talents.  If it isn’t true, your vision for success will still be clearer than had you not worn these corrective lenses.

You Get a New Boss.  There is a shake-up above and a new leader is over your organization.  What is your reaction after you hear her/him say that there will be big changes in how things are done?  Do you sub-consciously or consciously think “Oh s_ _ _ !”   Get those corrective lenses on your thinking quickly and go into creative exploration mode.  You and your teams will enjoy the journey through the changes and your new boss will have an exponentially better view of your value!

Your Customers’ Business Changes.  They say that businesses fail when the market changes and businesses don’t.  Are you in touch with where your customers’ businesses are going?  Are their markets changing?  As a leader, you need to be wearing multi-focal lenses to see far ahead so you have time to re-focus your teams.  For example, if your customers are scientific researchers and their results take them in a completely different direction – it can have far reaching affects on your organization as a supplier or service provider.  Keep your corrective lenses focused on your customers to stay current with their needs.

Remember, multi-focal corrective lenses sharpen your leadership vision and remove the clouds that can block your success.  Is it any wonder that these lenses are known as progressives?

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach