Leaders, Diverse Collaborators Are Your Corrective Lenses
by Kate Nasser | 2 Comments »
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.
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers keynotes, workshops, consultations, and DVDs to turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success in business, teamwork, customer relations, and leading change.
Excellent post. It would be a good practice to review these points each week, as we work with staff, clients and vendors.
Thank you Tom. I am very pleased by this comment because I wrote the post hoping that all could use it as an action list.
Best to you today,
Kate