Driver Leaders’ Success: 3 Threats to Remove
by Kate Nasser | 6 Comments »
Being a driver personality has many advantages and they are not all selfish advantages. Drivers give strength when others are crumbling. As coaches, they give momentum when others stagnate. As leaders, driver types bring success to organizations through a keen focus on end results.
Driver leaders have a natural inner propulsion system that keeps efforts moving forward to reach the goal. They are undaunted by challenges and rally to surmount them.
So why do driver type leaders have a bad reputation? Well not all do — only the driver leaders who haven’t removed the three threats to success.
Driver Leaders' Success: Remove 3 Threats
3 Threats to Driver Leaders’ Success
- Assuming All See the Value of Driving. Driver leaders believe that everyone believes you must drive to reach success. This assumption is such a powerful blind spot for drivers, they are dumbfounded when they realize that others do not hold this same fundamental belief. By then, drivers have left a negative impression.
Tip From This Driver to All Others: Communicate to connect before driving. Even a simple communication about the goal, what it means to you, and how much you value their efforts turns negative driving into positive inspiration. To you, it may feel like a detour that delays success. The fact is it is part of the main engine that boosts success.
- Driving Without Engaging Others. When leaders drive without engaging others they rob success of necessary resources — like talents and knowledge — that they don’t have. Moreover, when extroverted driver leaders drive without engaging others, they earn the (often unstated) and infamous reputation of being a slave driver. When introverted driver leaders skip engagement, they earn the unfortunate reputation of not being a leader.
Tip From This Driver to All Others: Avoiding engagement under the guise of time constraints or personality type is a costly mistake. The only way to reach success through the efforts of others is to engage them. So unless you are a complete one-person show with no need for anyone else, accept the fact that successful leadership means engaging not just directing others.
- Passion Has Power to Confuse and Even Repulse. Drivers are passionate about success. They can taste it before they get there. Yet passion can isolate when it is not shared. Thus it can leave everyone feeling disconnected from the driver leaders and the journey. Disconnection does not yield results; it breeds confusion and even repulsion as the leaders’ blind passion discounts the value of other people.
Tip From This Driver to All Others: Cultivate passion — don’t expect it — if you want to reach success with and through others. A singular focus on the end result is the folly of a driver’s comfort zone. This tunnel vision does not deliver success more quickly; it delays it as others wait for the leader’s connection before they contribute.
Driver leaders who remove these three threats reach success with inspired engaged teams. Those who have done it replaced their singular focus on the end result with a focus on people to reach the end result.
Instead of being driven by the fear of missing the target, these leaders drove to success through engaging others. They came to realize that they weren’t giving up the end result they were ensuring it through engagement. That’s a comfort zone based in reality!
Offer: If you are a driver type and want to make this change like other successful drivers, let me know. I have been through it myself and have coached many to reach success this new way.
From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™
Related Posts:
Driver Leaders, 6 Positive Replies to Turn Complaints into Action!
Leaders, Avoid These 7 Common Causes of People-Skills Mistakes
©2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
Have had the “opportunity” to see many results driven leaders achieve their goals but with significant casualties along the way. The P/PC balance (Covey) is critical to sustainable results. If the organization only rewards the what and not the how the driver will not see the value in bringing people along for the ride and will see them as a means to an end rather than the key to real success. Great post Kate, thanks for sharing! If only the “Drivers” I know weren’t too “busy” getting things done to read it. 🙂
Thank you Scott. Great phrase: “means to an end or key to real success”. As for the drivers who are too busy to read this post (LOL) … feel free to pass it along!
Warmest thanks for your contribution.
Kate