7
Personality and Leadership
Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.
—Eleanor Roosevelt
Have you ever said something like this to describe a boss or colleague: “What a micro-manager!” “He shoots from the hip” “She's so disorganized!” “Why can she just speak up more so that people hear her wonderful ideas?”
These are examples of how personalities play out at work. Your personality is the final component in your leadership mix. In the past two decades, the science of personality measurement in the workplace has developed rapidly. Research reported by the American Psychological Association and The Society for Consulting Psychology confirms that “personality is the most important factor in explaining the individual differences between leaders.” 1
SCENE
Albert is a successful executive; he has built a great team and is promoted to run a large division, but within a year the CEO who he reports to is disappointed. Albert's staff says that he doesn't make decisions, and he analyzes things forever. Productivity is beginning to suffer. A coach is called in to work with Albert. During the first meeting, Albert explains that he is disappointed in his staff. He wants them to work as a team, brainstorm, and collaborate on important division issues. Instead, they prefer to interact with him individually and ask for his decisions when they need them. Albert knows the value of group innovation and creativity and holds to his guns by pulling together staff meetings where he asks them to discuss current business issues. He is puzzled with their lack of participation. They are puzzled by his insistence on wasting time in group meetings. They like one-on-one interaction with him and don't see any value to sitting in a room together.
Albert is confused; his approach was extremely effective in his last job, where there was a great team spirit and excellent business results. The coach used a personality profile to help understand Albert. The profile showed that he was introverted and scored fairly low in conscientiousness, which on this profile meant that he wasn't very organized and preferred to consider many options before coming to closure.
He had a wealth of technical skills, great stress resistance, and a willingness to embrace change. However, he found it difficult to enthusiastically communicate his vision for the business or the group, partly because his underlying tendency was introversion, and he had never learned effective influencing skills and behaviors. He often failed to get complete closure on issues, thinking there was one “better” option available. While individual meetings might seem, at first glance, his preferred way to work, Albert actually preferred staff meetings; he had learned that in a group setting he could play off all the discussion and get to closure more quickly.
With some help, Albert learned that he needed to make his vision clear to his team. He worked on influencing skills and asked his assistant to help him with agendas and meeting management. He learned that the team hated coming to meetings unprepared. It turned out that Albert rarely let anyone know what he wanted them to discuss, so they were not prepared to provide input or help him make decisions. He had to get more organized and learn how to set up meetings so that he got the results he wanted.
This story sheds light on the issue of personality and leadership. Personality data helped Albert to understand his strengths and weaknesses and then to learn some tools and skills to manage the things that were not working well for him. Psychological assessment results provide a vocabulary for describing tendencies and a view of the “whys” behind the behaviors. This information sets the stage for more effective employee selection, succession planning, team building, and professional development.
The combination of scores produces a very accurate and helpful profile of a leader's way of leading. Consider another case.
SCENE
The leader, Cory, had been told many times that others said things like, “Not sure if he listens to us,” “Not engaged in the process.” When Cory received his feedback on a personality assessment, he had no visible reaction—he was the proverbial deer in the headlights. When the coach asked him what he was thinking, it took Cory a while to stammer and think his way through his reaction. Suffice it to say he was crushed. He recited word for word what went on in every business meeting he had attended over the last few weeks; he gave insightful analysis to the dynamics of his team. He could not fathom that people thought he was not listening in meetings.
What's going on? Clearly, Cory is an introvert. Extraverts want to talk everything out and in the workplace, extraverts are winning the leadership positions. In the general population, introverts and extraverts are evenly split with 49percent of the population extraverts and 51percent introverts.2 But in the management ranks of Fortune 1000 executives, even those leaders that rate themselves as introverts at home operate as extraverts in the workplace with 71.6 percent scoring as extraverts. Often introverts are mistaken for shy or socially awkward; one of the most common misconceptions is that they are not able to give presentations or speak in public (think Johnny Carson—a famous introvert). The good news is that you can shift your behavior if you want to.
Coaching Tips for Introverts
Leaders need to be able to show that they are engaged in the process. So if you are an introvert or you manage one, here are some coaching tips that might help with this issue:
- Send agendas in advance so that introverts have time to prepare and think about topics to be discussed.
- Make sure you ask more thoughtful (internally processing) people for comments during the meeting.
- Allow for input after the meeting.
- If you tend to be quieter in meetings, make sure people know you are engaged by individually connecting with key team members before or after the session to comment on the content of the meeting.
- Thank leaders at the end of meeting and add something like: “I have some further thoughts on this. Could I send you an email when I have a chance to synthesize my ideas?”
- Learn how to interrupt more talkative people so you get your voice heard in the room.
“Derailers”—When Good Turns Bad
Leadership coaches need to help people turn weaknesses into strengths. But what happens when strengths go too far? Is it possible to have too much of a good thing?
One coach worked with a general manager, Ruben, who was a Harvard MBA. Ruben's team liked him, and management respected him for the way he managed the team and did the numbers, which was one of his strengths. But put Ruben under stress and he became obsessive, often working numbers over and over. When the company wanted to merge Ruben's division with another, the manager did not see how it could work. He did analysis after analysis to prove the idea was a bad one for his division.
Meanwhile, absent management attention, his team was in crisis. The team needed a leader to help with the people issues of a merger; they feared losing their jobs. Leadership research describes a strength-like number analysis that is overdone as a “derailer.” It is the good turned bad. We all can have these traits, but some need help to manage them. Self-confidence can become arrogance; independence can turn to aloofness; conscientiousness can become worry. Here are some ways to identify and manage an asset so it doesn't become a liability.
Step 1: Identify your “derailers.”
Step 2: Learn to “pause” before you act.
Step 3: Come out of your comfort zone—try a new response.
Step 4: Get balance—avoid the extremes on the scales.
In the situation above, Ruben would close his office door and run the numbers over and over again, while his employees listened to the rumors and feared the worst. Through coaching, Ruben was able to move out of his comfort zone and face the problem head on. Rather than avoid his team, he met with them and dealt with their concerns. It's important to realize how your strengths can derail you.
You do not necessarily need coaching or an assessment to identify your derailers. You may know yourself well enough to know if you use any of these techniques when you are under stress. It might help to look at a list of derailers with their corresponding strengths.
| Derailer | Corresponding Strength |
False advocate (passive resistance)………………. Calm and dependable
Worrier………………………………………………Analytical, prudent, wise
Cynic…………………………………………………Risk aware
Rule breaker…………………………………………Innovative, flexible, creative
Perfectionist…………………………………………Excellence
Egotist………………………………………………. Self-confidence
Pleaser………………………………………………. Great people skills
Hyper-moody………………………………………. Exciting
Detached…………………………………………Calm, reserved, quiet
Upstager…………………………………………. Impressive impact
Eccentric…………………………………………. Innovative and creative
Source: CDR Assessment Group. (1998). CDR Leadership Risk Assessment Report®. Tulsa, OK: Author. Used with permission.
Does it help you to find the derailers most in your comfort zone? These patterns will show up time and again when you are in a crisis situation. For example, Ruben, the analytical general manager, was likely rewarded at the Harvard Business School for his analysis. However, as a general manager, the behavior was no longer an asset, and he was out of balance since he did not connect with his division and provide leadership during a crisis.
If you are promoted, you should be aware that things that worked in the past might not fit in the new world. The tricky part is that you likely have had positive or no feedback on these behaviors early in your career, then suddenly they will surface as derailers. Leaders often fall back on the traits that brought them success earlier in their careers rather than develop the skills that will work at the higher level of leadership. Sometimes a trait that was seen as innovative or creative early on comes across as aloofness or eccentricity as the leader gains success. Can you see why a big ego works in a sales role to help manage the constant rejection, but as a Vice President of Sales that same ego seems like arrogance and ignoring the troops? According to research done at the Center for Creative Leadership, 30 to 50 percent of high potential leaders get off track in their leadership—that's an incredible statistic.3 Failure among CEOs is even higher. A personality report can help you so you don't get on the derailment track.
SCENE
You need Abigail Sample to do HR work. She is assigned to a group and is to provide hiring, benefits, compensation, succession, and training support. The personality report shows that Abigail is intense, self-critical, and doesn't work well under pressure; she is not at all interested in taking on a leadership role. However, she is outgoing and enjoys social interaction. Abigail is task-focused and not empathetic to others; she is potentially creative, adaptable, and inventive. She is clever and imaginative, as well as a fairly hands-on learner. How might these strengths become weaknesses under stress? Abigail is motivated by a good time. She has a good sense of humor, she definitely is creative, and you have noted that she loves technology. She has told colleagues that she likes HR because she makes a positive difference in people's lives. Can you picture Abigail developing a technology approach to meeting some of the needs of her customers? Do you see her taking on the social events for HR? Can you imagine that she could manage the administrative side of her job more effectively if the systems were there to support her?
Abigail has been part of a selection process for a new leader of the technology area. The leader is coming from a job in a local university where he has been very successful; however, he has not worked in a corporate job before.
One way to avoid the pain of derailment is to plan the transition into a new job with more care. Human Resources may provide a service called “Team Assimilation.” Here is an example of a how Abigail, the HR manager, could help the new hire, Rami, assimilate. Abigail welcomes Rami to the organization and does quite a bit to get him on board and working effectively with his team. She uses a leader assimilation. Nine months later, she thinks it might be a good time to reevaluate the situation. In the team assimilation meeting, the team communicates that they think Rami needs to do less individual decision making, be more visible to his direct reports, and that the team needs to “connect” with Rami more on an informal basis, so they have more opportunities to talk.
Abigail sees an opportunity to strive for excellence by taking the process to the next level. She asks Rami if he would be interested in taking a personality profile. She feels that the personality information would be enlightening to Rami. She is correct. The profile shows he rated a 10 out of a possible 100 on a Sociability Scale. Rami clearly did not enjoy social interactions. Conversely, he rated a perfect 100 on the scale that measures “Detachment,” which means Rami has a big tendency to withdraw, preferring to think things through on his own. The combined set of data allows Rami and his team to truly understand their issues and work toward change.
Assimilation Process
If you want to plan a new leader and team assimilation, here are the steps for doing it.
Step 1: HR contacts the new leader to recommend and explain the assimilation process.
(If HR doesn't contact you, go see them; see if you can introduce the idea to the organization.)
Step 2: The new leader invites the staff by letter (email) to attend an assimilation meeting and clarifies the objectives/reasons for having it.
Step 3: The new leader usually kicks off the assimilation, explaining the objectives and reasons for having the meeting.
Step 4: HR facilitates the meeting, which provides feedback on how the leader is perceived.
Step 5: It is possible to partner with a consultant and develop a personality profile.
If you haven't been able to identify your own risk factors, then pay attention to the impact you are having on others and notice when you get “ineffective” responses. You might be able to identify what needs to change. You are likely experiencing the risk factor as a positive because you were rewarded for that behavior earlier in your life. One executive actually looked at the feedback and commented about the negative feedback this way, “Oh, he must have been having a bad day that day. This can't be what he really thinks.” A few months later, she left the company.
Career Enhancement Tool Resiliency
Setbacks come in all sizes: They can slow you down and cause you to lose focus, self-confidence, and the ability to produce the best results.
When you experience a setback, you need to recover, to get back to normal; the longer you stay in a less-than-optimum state, the more it affects your ability to perform. Athletes train for dealing with setbacks. Resiliency can make the difference between success and failure, between moving forward and standing still.
Unfortunately, in the corporate world, a series of setbacks takes an employee out of contention for the next level. In reality, successful careers are shaped by both personal and professional failures. Leaders who can help their employees respond with resilience ensure their unit's successfulness. Much like an athlete's coach, at the worst times, leaders provide a difference.
SCENE
One of your teammates, Bridget, comes to talk; she is devastated. A few months ago, she had her second child, and she cut back to three days of work per week with two of those days from home. At a company social event last night, she learned that her boss and other people on the team interviewed a really great person to work in her department. Bridget knows that if this person is hired, she will be demoted. What really upsets Bridget is that no one told her about these interviews or the open position. Now that she works from home, she gets left out of a lot of important information. No one seems to want to include her in the information that is critical to the department. She works harder than she ever did when she came into the office every day, but it seems to go unnoticed; instead, the boss pressures her to tell him when she can increase the number of days in the office. Bridget feels that her future with the company has ended. The company allowed for the flexibility of working at home but now they are not supporting her or the policy. As Bridget's teammate you want to help.
Reframing
The first thing to do is help Bridget reframe the experience. Look at the facts with Bridget. This is a skill where leaders move employees from pessimism to optimism. Pessimists always latch on to the worst of all causes for any event. By moving toward a more optimistic outlook, a leader helps his or her employees see that maybe there is a way to reframe this event in a more positive light. You ask Bridget, “How do you know that you will be demoted?” “Have you talked with the boss about this?” In other words, you help the person check out the facts: How did she arrive at the beliefs and consequences she has?
People often resort to a distorted interpretation of the situation; your goal is to offer a new lens to view the situation. When someone comes to you upset about something, notice what she has made prominent. So often managers say things like, “Bridget, that's just plain silly, you are not going to get demoted.” Try to avoid discounting the person or attempting to talk her out of her position. Instead, reframe the discussion from the negative to the positive. “It sounds like you are upset that we have not talked with you about the departmental changes we might make.” This will allow your employees a chance to become more resilient.