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Ron Potter

BlogTrust Me

Thick-and-Thin Togetherness

by Ron Potter
Image source: Insomnia Cured Here, Creative Commons

Image source: Insomnia Cured Here, Creative Commons

On cable television, almost twenty-four hours a day it seems, you can catch sight of a sheriff and his deputy demonstrating core principles of how to develop another person. Yes, Sheriff Andy and his deputy Barney on The Andy Griffith Show have this mentoring thing going on.

In many episodes Andy tried to patiently teach Barney about work, love, and life. Then, invariably, Barney struck out to tackle the problem at the core of Andy’s teaching, and messed up royally. In spite of Barney’s bungling, however, Andy always stood by his friend and coworker, exhibiting a bemused yet persistent patience. Andy was always there for Barney. (But we don’t think Barney ever reached the place where he was ready to receive more than one bullet for his gun!)

Although developing your own strengths is important, an equally important task in leadership is maximizing the strengths and potential of the members of your team. If you don’t do this well, you may experience a measure of success, but you will also end up very tired and frustrated that so little is getting done. There’s just too much to do these days. We all need help.

The old African proverb says:

If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.

Everything is going fast today and you must be nimble.   The trick is to go far in a rapidly changing environment.  That requires building great teams that go together.

What does Mentoring Look Like?

What image comes to mind when you think of the term mentor? You might picture two people sitting at a table in a restaurant, the older person, his or her head topped with waves of shimmering, gray hair, waxing eloquent while the younger listener is furiously scribbling notes on a legal pad. Although this scene may warm our hearts, it seems just a bit out of sync with the real world.

We would like to offer an alternative image of mentoring: Picture two people sitting across from each other in an office. Obviously, an important project is under discussion. The interaction is animated, intense, and often humorous. These people obviously know each other well. Speech is direct and honest. Mutual respect is readily apparent. Some coaching is occurring, but the protégé is not restrained in sharing some insights on the performance of the mentor as well. This relationship is built on trust.

With this picture in mind, we like to define mentoring as a long-term, mutually supportive and enhancing relationship rather than as a relationship in which a highly advanced human being tutors another who stands a step or two below him or her on the developmental ladder.

What is Mentoring?

Another way to envision the mentoring process is to compare it to parenting. In corporate settings we frequently witness nonexistent or very poor “parenting” skills. Executives and managers often fail to recognize that even the most highly qualified person may have significant blind spots or personal or professional characteristics that are awry or underdeveloped.

Rather than understanding the need to mentor appropriately and taking the time to discipline, train, coach, or partner with their employees, weak leaders simply hire people and turn them loose to do their jobs.

The basic definition of mentoring implies that the leader and the protégé want to build something that will last a long time, that will go far. It suggests sticking together and being patient as the learner and the mentor navigate the learning process.

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BlogCulture

High Tech, High Touch

by Ron Potter
Image source: Mathew Bedworth, Creative Commons

Image source: Mathew Bedworth, Creative Commons

I’ve referred to that line, “High tech, high touch,” from Alvin Tofflers book Future Shock often. Toffler defined “Future Shock” as “A personal perception of too much change in too short of time.” He also coined the term “Information overload.”

His term “high tech, high touch” lead into his discussion of one of the antidotes to dealing with future shock and information overload. His point was that as we deal more and more with this intrusion of the globally connected, instant on, information overload, we must also make sure we increase the “high touch” right along with it. This high tech world will not work without high touch, trusting, and personal relationships.

Now another influential voice from the past is adding to the chorus. Ray Ozzie is the inventor of Lotus Notes. Lotus Notes was the first successful and commercially viable email system that Ray and Mitch Kapor brought to the marketplace in the mid to late 1980’s. Ray is the grandfather of email.

One of Ray’s latest ventures is “Talko” that is described as an app that combines text messaging, phone calls, voicemails, videos, and picture messaging.

Why does Ray want to combine all of this text, sound, and pictures? The stated goal is richer communication whether the team is around the world or next door. But one statement of Ray’s really strikes me:

“one of the things I’ve learned over the years about collaboration is that one of the most important elements is empathy.” (Emphasis added.)

Now I’m not going to discount Mr. Ozzie’s ability to come up with a technical solution to empathy. And quite honestly, I hope he makes a good run at it. But my guess is that it will take years of refinements (if at all) to be able to “understand and share the feelings of another” as one definition puts it.

I agree with Ray that empathy is one of the most important elements of collaboration and team building. I just don’t believe you can develop empathy while you’re working remotely on a project regardless of the technical capabilities. Even if “remotely” means you’re in the same building but conduct all of your communication electronically.  I believe you have to spend time face-to-face being human beings, not human doings. Establish trust and understanding, then you can function remotely and or electronically and collaborate well. But like any muscle, trust and empathy atrophy over time and must be renewed on a regular basis.

Build trust—then collaborate well.

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BlogLeadership

Letting Go: Embracing Failure

by Ron Potter
Image source: John Athayde, Creative Commons

Image source: John Athayde, Creative Commons

Developing your own untapped and unrefined potential is a bit like remodeling an old house: First, you have to tear out some things—like pride or extreme self-sufficiency or bullheadedness or trying to overcontrol people or ___________ (fill in the blank with some attitude or behavior of yours that makes you say “ouch!”). Today I’ll continue the discussion of letting go of perfection and look at embracing failure.

Letting go will often appear counterintuitive. Let’s imagine you are grasping a rope that is dangling you from a window of a three-story house, which happens to be on fire. Hanging on for your life makes sense only until the firemen come and are stationed below to catch you. Now it makes sense to let go.

Setting the Bar

Rather than setting unrealistic expectations, leaders should expect people to fail and be ready to forgive and move on. Leaders can help an organization learn from its mistakes and push ahead to new innovation and creativity. This idea has been referred to as “failing forward.” People learn from each failure, and the lessons learned are quickly channeled into modifying the plan, design, or strategy.

One of my clients is especially good at learning from failure. This man never seems to be interested in who is at fault but is simply interested in what the current situation is and how to move ahead. That keeps the situation positive as well as focused on learning and making improvements. The person who made the mistake or failed is not forgotten but is mentored and developed for future growth. Or at times the person who failed is assisted in finding another job elsewhere in the company or even with another firm where there’s a better chance for personal success. But the failure is always seen by this effective executive as a learning opportunity rather than an occasion to assign blame.

The irony is that seeking perfection and setting ridiculously high expectations is almost a guaranteed means of lowering performance. It makes everybody uptight. And people “playing tight” are mistake-prone. Failing may become the norm.

You don’t want yourself or others to become dispirited, unable to create or innovate because something deep inside whispers, “What’s the use? I’ll fail anyway.” The way out of this trap is to win some small victories so that confidence returns. Small successes, as they accumulate, can morph into large victories and help restore individual and team trust.

The Flashback Failure

Some leaders are stuck in the past. They may have won big “back in ’09,” and now that shining moment is enshrined in their mental hall of fame. A huge past mistake can have the same result; leaders no longer trust their judgment and can’t move ahead boldly.

Rather than dwelling on past mistakes, leaders need to use those experiences to create new and different solutions.

Do yourself a favor and don’t just become acquainted with failure: Make it your friend.

Get a Grip—Let Go!

Every leader is constantly making choices. Is there a way to make more correct turns at each crossroads we encounter instead of taking long, circuitous routes that cost us time and productivity?

Of course the answer is yes. In fact, once you grasp the concept of letting go, you will be well on your way to successfully developing great qualities in yourself and others.

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BlogTeam

Essence of Empathy

by Ron Potter
Image source: aotaro Creative Commons

Image source: aotaro Creative Commons

I’ve written about and will continue to write about the elements that help create great teams. Two aspects of great teams is patience and kindness. I believe you can combine those two words to roughly reflect the meaning of the word empathy.

Geoff Colnin in his September 2014 column for Fortune Magazine exposes some research by the University of Michigan and University of Rochester Medical Center that says, “Empathy among American college students has declined significantly over the past 30 years.” The chart shows about a 13% drop since the early 90’s but indicates a much more rapid decline in the last 10 years.

Another telling factor in Colnin’s column was identifying that a significant number of online postings for jobs that paid more than $100,000 per year listed empathy or empathetic traits as job requirements.

I have been emphasizing the need for strong face-to-face relationship building for years with my corporate clients. One line from Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock from years ago has always stuck with me. That line was, “High tech, high touch.” His point was not to assume that the increase in technology was going to diminish the need for personal relationships, the need for personal relationships was going to increase right along with the technical capabilities.

Colvin summed it up nicely with, “we have evolved exquisitely to connect in person. Consider what happens when you’re near someone and his or her face displays an emotion fleetingly, through a so-called micro-expression. Your own face mimics that expression within milliseconds, and the other person, in turn, detects your response.  You have empathized without either one of you being aware of it.”

You are obviously aware of it, just maybe not consciously. But you’ve connected. It’s personal. It’s real. And it doesn’t happen through email or text or Facebook or whatever electronically. It happens personally. It happens humanly.

To build great teams we must be patient, we must be kind. We must empathize with each other. And that only happens face-to-face.

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BlogLeadership

Letting Go of a Bad Idea

by Ron Potter

In a previous post, we looked at bad attitudes that leaders must let go of to lead well. There is something else a growing leader must let go of that’s so important it has been assigned a category of its own. It is the enormously flawed idea that in making your way through life, only success is of any value.

The truth is that one of the most “successful” things you can ever learn is how to profit from a good failure. Let’s face it, reality teaches us that failure is inevitable. Since this is the case, we had better learn how to accept failure and make the most of it.

Image Source: mark sebastian, Creative Commons

Image Source: mark sebastian, Creative Commons

Everybody makes mistakes, including great leaders. Nobody—repeat, nobody—normally gets it right the first time. (Most of us don’t get it right the second, third, or fourth times either!) Winston Churchill said it best: “Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” This was born out in Churchill’s own life and in his political career in Great Britain when he blew one assignment after another. Finally, as prime minister during World War II, he faced the greatest leadership challenge of his career as he tried to hold together a struggling nation under the constant threat of bombings, lack of provisions, and fear. Having learned from past mistakes, he rose to the challenge and saved his country.

Consider the record of several successful people who maintained great enthusiasm while failing repeatedly:

  • Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times. He also hit 714 home runs.
  • “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison
  • Abraham Lincoln failed twice in business and was defeated in six state and national elections before winning the presidency.
  • Theodor S. Geisel (Dr. Seuss) had his first children’s book rejected by twenty-three publishers in a row. The twenty-fourth accepted the manuscript, and it sold six million copies.

Why is it that with all that is written about the benefit of failure so many leaders struggle to allow their people or organizations to “fail successfully”? The following reasons have been given at one time or another.

“It has to be somebody’s fault.”

Many organizations fear failure and make attempts to cover up mistakes or failed initiatives. To compensate for their fears, leaders often create a culture of blame. Something goes wrong, and immediately the leadership looks for someone or something to blame. Nobody takes personal responsibility; it’s much easier to find someone to blame. This is everywhere—in large corporations, small businesses, charitable organizations, government agencies, even in churches. If there is a problem, a scapegoat must be found to bear the blame.

Denial

Perhaps the most widely embraced delusion in business today is that it’s possible and even desirable to create organizations in which mistakes are rare rather than a necessary cost of doing business. The problem with embracing this fantasy is that it encourages you and your associates to hide mistakes, shift the blame for them, or pretend they don’t exist for as long as you possibly can.

“Small mistakes are great learning opportunities,” says Dennis Matthies, a Bellevue, Washington–based learning consultant. “They show ‘cracks’—areas of vulnerability—where you don’t pay the price now but might later.”

Too Tall of an Order

“We expect perfection.” Although most leaders certainly grasp the possibility if not the inevitability of failure, they still don’t like the concept. In their hearts they simply cannot tolerate anything but an absolute zero-defects mentality. They really seem to believe that if their people really try they will not fail. The leaders are either embarrassed by failure, too proud to admit failure, or do not want the “mess” that some failures can cause.

Tom Peters advances a more sane approach:

The goal is to be more tolerant of slip-ups. You must be like [Les] Wexner [Limited founder] and actively encourage failure. Talk it up. Laugh about it. Go around the table at a project group meeting or morning staff meeting: Start with your own most interesting foul-up. Then have everyone follow suit. What mistakes did you make this week? What were the most interesting ones? How can we help you make more mistakes, faster?…Look to catch someone doing something wrong!

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BlogLeadership

Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little and Hope

by Ron Potter
Image source: Paul K, Creative Commons

Image source: Paul K, Creative Commons

Once again, my favorite blogger Shane Parrish at Farnam Street Blog exposed a wonderful little piece.

He talks about E.B. White, the author of the above books, writing to someone who had lost faith in humanity.

In White’s letter, he says, “Hope is the thing that is left to us. In a bad time I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock as a contribution to order and steadfastness.” Now my mind tends to go to something deeper (or higher) on Sunday morning than a clock, but his point is a good one. Keep on keeping on. We have hope for the future.

One observation I’ve had of myself and every team I’ve worked with through the years is that for whatever reason the human mind tends to project in straight lines. When things are going bad we can only imagine them getting worse.  When things are going good, we seem to think the good times will just keep rolling.

Maybe this is why it bothers me that people don’t seem to know history as much anymore. It doesn’t take much historical examination of our personal lives, our companies track, the fate of nations to realize that life runs in cycles, not straight lines. Part of the reason for knowing this is hope and preparedness. Hope that the bad times will be followed by good and we must be prepared for the down turns that eventually come.

E.B. White ends his letter with “Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.”

Keep adjusting your vision and keep working toward it.

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BlogMyers-BriggsMyers-Briggs In-Depth

Myers-Briggs In-Depth: Decision Making

by Ron Potter

MeyersBriggsIn-DepthDon’t be an Arm Chair Psychologist

One of the things I always caution my clients with is “You don’t need to remember what your Myers-Briggs Type is and you certainly should not try to remember what type everyone else is.”  For one, you’ll be wrong and secondly and more importantly, that’s not what you should be remembering.  What you should be remembering is what type of team or decision making process should I be conducting so that every type is fully engaged?  Full engagement from everyone involved will help the team become the best at decision making.

Decision Making Function

The two “middle” functions of Perceiving (Sensing vs iNtuition) and Deciding (Thinking vs Feeling) are considered the decision making functions.  Each of us cycles through these two functions on a continual basis from the time we get up to the time we go to bed.  When I first looked out the window this morning (in April) I perceived that it was snowing!  Therefore, when I went out the door for my morning walk I did not decide to wear my spring jacket.  This cycling process continues on all day through minor decisions and major decisions.  What do we perceive about the decision we face, how do we then decide?

Balance, Balance, Balance

I hope that phrase, Balance, Balance, Balance, has been seared into your brain through this series on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).  This is the key to good decision making both personal and team decisions.

On the personal basis continue to grow in your ability to think outside your personal preference areas.  Often having a partner who has a natural preference set different from yours can be a great way of accomplishing this goal.

On the team side it can often be accomplished by simple discipline of staying focused on one preference at a time.  For instance, if you and your team are faced with a difficult or important decision to make, break down the issue into the four decision making functions:

Sensing: Ask the team to stay totally focused on the Sensing issues for the moment and ask questions like:

  • Do we know all the facts and what are they?
  • Do we have a clear understanding of the situation? Are we looking too narrowly?
  • What has been done already or what has been done in the past?
  • What is each part of the team doing at the moment? Are the efforts coordinated?
  • What if someone from a different industry came in, what would they see?

Intuition: Once you’ve exhausted the Sensing questions, move on to a more iNtuitive view:

  • Are there possibilities that we haven’t explored?
  • What are some other ways of solving these types of problems?
  • We know all the facts but what is the story or the implications?
  • Is this similar to a problem that other industries face?

Thinking: Once we’ve exposed all the facts and our intuitive reactions to them, begin to look at logical questions:

  • What pros and cons do we face with this issue: Shareholders, Customers, Employees?
  • What would be the logical consequences of each possibility?
  • Do we know the cost and/or revenue expected from each possibility?
  • What are the consequences of not acting at all (that is indeed a decision)?

Feeling: Finally but not least (this is often the more powerful of the four functions) begin to ask the feeling questions:

  • How does each of us feel about what we’ll gain or lose with each option?
  • What values do we need to pay attention to with each option?
  • How will people concerned (Shareholders, Customers, Employees, ourselves) react to each outcome?
  • Who is committed and capable of carrying out the solution?

And don’t forget to stop and reflect (Introversion) at each step along the way with our open discussions (Extraverted) about each issue.

And, use your Perception to make sure there’s an openness to all aspects of the problem while at the same time setting reasonable time tables (Judging) for advancing through the process.

Myers-Briggs In-Depth is a blog series in which I dive into each MBTI function with more detail, providing some practical applications for creating better dynamics and better decision making. Click here to read the entire series.
Interested in an overview of each of the four Myers-Briggs functions? Click here to read the Using MBTI to Great Advantage series.

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BlogCulture

The Power of Stepping Back

by Ron Potter

In Warren Berger’s book, A More Beautiful Question, he writes

“The term stepping back is often used when we talk about questioning—step back and ask why, step back and reconsider, and so forth. But what are we stepping back from?”

Image Source: Tim Green, Creative Commons

Image Source: Tim Green, Creative Commons

Later he says:

“It’s necessary to stop doing and stop knowing in order to start asking.”

I have noticed—as has Warren—that the stop doing part is actually the hardest in the business environment. In another blog, I write about a destructive attitude that I see in the business world today. That’s the attitude of quick deciding. When we enter meetings with the attitude that we must decide quickly we tend to shut down the diversity of thinking and questioning that may “slow down” the deciding process and yet it’s those diverse thoughts and “why” questions that most often lead to better, more innovative decisions.

Stepping back from the fast paced, globally connected, task oriented work world is difficult.

Years ago one of my CEO clients asked me what key elements I had observed in building great teams. I was pretty quick to answer because I had seen the pattern so quickly and consistently.

Teams need to be BUILT.

Teams that get offsite twice a year to focus on team building and leadership continue to improve year over year. But, it’s critical that during these meetings you have to put down the bats and balls. You can’t be reviewing the business and the numbers. You’ve got to kick off your shoes, get real with each other and deal with each other as human beings, not human doings.

I can elaborate later on the importance of these meetings and the things that tend to sabotage them, but for now, notice that this is a way of stepping back from the business in order to gain clarity about the business. I’ve experienced time and time again that stepping back from the numbers, pressures, and routines of the business and focusing just for a couple days on team, leadership, and culture brings a tremendous amount of clarity about the business.

Management is about providing answers; leadership is about figuring out the right questions. Are you and your team stepping back enough to see that questions that will propel you in the future or are you simply frazzled trying to come up with answers day after day? Step back! You, your team, and your company need it.

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BlogLeadership

Letting Go of Bad Attitudes – Part II

by Ron Potter
Image source: Hernán Piñera, Creative Commons

Image source: Hernán Piñera, Creative Commons

In Part I of Letting Go of Bad Attitudes we discussed Pride, Judgmental Attitudes, Uncontrolled Will and Stagnation.  We continue the Bad Attitude section with….

Insensitivity

Insensitive leaders are unconcerned about others. They have no empathy and are uncaring. They do not listen—not because they are prideful but because they lack compassion. They are so hardened that they can unknowingly hurt people and kill ideas and creativity.

Compassion, on the other hand, develops as a result of treating your neighbor as yourself. It involves serving your employees, team members, and customers with empathy. It means taking the time to understand coworkers and team members. It involves genuine listening.

Dishonesty

Dishonesty involves more than cheating, lying, or stealing; it is rooted in deceit. Dishonesty happens when a leader denies reality or seeks gain through deviousness. It is about game playing, manipulation, and pretense.

Dishonesty always destroys the fiber of a company—regardless of how good the numbers are. Integrity overcomes dishonesty. Leaders of integrity strive to avoid the deceitfulness of appearances. They are genuine, sincere, authentic, and trustworthy—qualities that build the confidence of coworkers and employees in their leaders.

Divisiveness

Nothing can destroy a team or an organization like a divisive leader. Fear, anxiety, and confusion rip apart relationships and teams. Shared vision and values are trashed. Divisiveness can create an us-versus-them atmosphere that separates workers from management, management from executives, and executives from the board. It literally is war.

Great leaders build great teams where the level of trust and mutual respect is so high that team members can openly, and even strongly, disagree with one another and then work toward effective solutions. Confrontational behavior enables team members to fully explore and understand the differences. Then everyone knows that each point of view has received full consideration before a decision is reached.

Avoidance of Suffering

Leaders who avoid suffering always choose the easiest solution or decision. They avoid problems, responsibilities, and difficulties. They lack perseverance, endurance, and courage. They have lost the will to grow.

Leaders who are “avoiders” make decisions that avoid suffering today without regard for the future, and as a result, their people are always scrambling to keep things together. Leaders who choose avoidance completely miss out on the opportunity to grow through adversity.

Instead of choosing to avoid suffering, leaders who persevere will gain experiential knowledge and confidence. These valuable qualities can be passed along to benefit others in the organization as well.

That’s quite a list! Just think how your quality of life will improve (it won’t happen overnight) if you loosen your grip and let go of each of these bad attitudes. You will increasingly be a leader of influence whom others will trust and follow.

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BlogLeadership

Power of Integrity

by Ron Potter
Image source: Phalinn Ooi, Creative Commons

Image source: Phalinn Ooi, Creative Commons

 

Recently I’ve had the opportunity to join a very small elite group of people. Thankfully the number of members is small because we’re among the few that have contracted one of the rare antibiotic resistant bacteria’s found in hospitals.

A few well-meaning friends have asked if we will be suing the hospital over the infection. Without hesitating, my immediate answer has been “no.” However, it’s been necessary for me to analyze my answer. Why have I reacted to a legitimate and meaningful question this way?

Overall I believe our society as a whole has become way too litigious and it’s harmful to be suing so easily over every issue. (It’s not healthy that we graduate more lawyers than engineers every year.) But that’s not a good enough reason.

As I began to examine my response in more depth, it seemed to boil down to a single reason why I’m not considering suing over this costly error:

The personal integrity of my doctor!

I’ve been reading Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality by Dr. Henry Cloud. In this book, Dr. Cloud explains that integrity is something far beyond personal honesty. It includes the dimensions of:

  • Establishing trust
  • Being oriented toward truth
  • Getting results
  • Handling the negative
  • Being oriented toward growth

In his chapter on establishing trust, Dr. Cloud speaks to connection between people; listening to understand, empathizing and connection. Here’s a quote from the section:

“Medical malpractice lawsuits are avoided when a doctor listens and understands what the patient or family has experienced as a result of an error.”

Whether an error occurred or not, I don’t know. But I do know that our doctor has been with us every step of the way with full transparency, understanding, listening, empathy, and personal sacrifice on his part. This is a man of true and deep integrity. The power of that integrity comforted and calmed me and helped me through the hard times of dealing with this infection.

Have you ever thought about how much your personal integrity impacts the ability of your people to be productive and calm as they weather the storms of corporate life?

There is a chapter on integrity in my book Trust Me and I have always helped my clients understand the power of integrity by claiming,

“If I don’t believe you have integrity, I’m not interested in being influenced by you. Leadership is only influence. If you surrender your integrity, you lose your ability to influence and lead.”

Integrity needs more than just protecting; It needs nurturing, growing, and developing. Those of the greatest integrity will be the greatest leaders.

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BlogMyers-BriggsMyers-Briggs In-Depth

Myers-Briggs In-Depth: Judging vs Perceiving

by Ron Potter

MeyersBriggsIn-DepthWork or Play

I have set up the following two signs in a team meeting:

  • I have to get my work done before I can play.
  • I can play anytime

I then ask the team to position themselves along the spectrum between those two signs.  Once positioned it almost always correlates between their Judging vs Perceiving preference on this scale.  The J’s have a much clearer definition (and more differentiating) of what’s work and what’s play.  The P’s have a less clear and differentiating definition of what’s work and what’s play and certainly don’t believe that play has to wait until the work is done.

Business World Imbalance

Although not to the degree that we saw in the Thinking vs Feeling imbalance, my data base includes about two thirds with a preference for the Judging side and about one third on the Perceiving side.  Often this is a trained function.  The Judging function includes words like:

  • Plan the work and work the plan
  • Get things decided, settled, and finished
  • Dislike surprises
  • Decide quickly and expect others to follow through

While our Perceiving preference includes words like:

  • Enjoys flexibility
  • Take time to search for options
  • Like adapting to last minutes changes
  • Expect others to adapt to changes in direction

Much of the business world prides itself with the Judging approach to the world and even those who may fall more naturally on the Perceiving side have been trained and disciplined in the Judging functions.

How do you like your Vacation Structured?

One of the best ways for me to get at the true personal preference on this scale is to ask people what their ideal vacation looks like.  The more natural Judging types (like myself) want the schedule and events settled and planned in advance.  I want my airline tickets in place, hotel reservations confirmed, specific days and times for sightseeing, playing golf, relaxing, having “spontaneous” fun.  Did you notice that?  Scheduled spontaneous fun!?!  Yup, that’s us J’s.

Our Perceiving friends and family members on the other hand would tell us, don’t bother me with any of that detail, let’s just get up see what happens.  Maybe we’ll do nothing, maybe we’ll decide to do something, we’ll figure out what sounds like fun in the moment.  In the personal world you can easily see the different types.  Not so easily in the business world.

Hidden Preference

However, one thing that doesn’t change in the business world is the deeply ingrained beliefs about the purpose of meetings.  Our Judging types like to do their “judging” or deciding in public, in their extraverted world of meetings.  In other words, why do Judging types come to meetings? To DECIDE!  However, our Perceiving types like to do their “perceiving” or learning and exploring in public.  Why do Perceiving types come to meetings?  To LEARN and EXPLORE!

Lesson Learned

So the lesson to be learned her is that if you don’t put the purpose of the meeting clearly at the top of the agenda, the Judging types will enter the meeting assuming the purpose is to decide something.  The Perceiving types will assume we’re here to explore and learn which will lead to a decision at some later date.

Always Identify Purpose

Now, if you actually explain the purpose of the meeting up front, the Judging types don’t mind coming to a meeting where a decision is not expected but every effort is going to be put into learning and exploring.  And the Perceiving types are thrilled to come to a meeting where a decision is expected.  Just don’t leave either group guessing as to the purpose of the meeting.  One side or the other will be incredibly frustrated with the outcome when they don’t have a stated purpose.

 

Myers-Briggs In-Depth is a blog series in which I dive into each MBTI function with more detail, providing some practical applications for creating better dynamics and better decision making. Click here to read the entire series.
Interested in an overview of each of the four Myers-Briggs functions? Click here to read the Using MBTI to Great Advantage series.

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BlogTeam

Idiots and Nobodies: Gaining New Perspective

by Ron Potter

“I’ve learned more from idiots and nobodies than from professionals of this or that.”
–Henry Miller from his book, On Turning 80

Photo Credit: Matthew Hoelscher, Creative Commons

Photo Credit: Matthew Hoelscher, Creative Commons

I certainly don’t work with idiots or nobodies. The people who are successful at the top of corporations where I work are energetic, and highly motivated. But I find something very interesting about Millers quote.

The etymology of the word “idiot” says: “From Ancient Greek’s idites, a private citizen, one who has no professional knowledge, layman.”

If we put Miller’s quote together with the etymology, it suggests that we learn more from the non-professional non-expert than we will from the pro.

Now on the surface that’s ridiculous. Our experts and pros spend years and careers understanding aspects of our business world. There are times when I feel like I need every brain cell I can muster just to hang on to a casual conversation between two experts on a given topic.

But here’s the kicker: our world is changing, shifting, and evolving rapidly. The things that I was an “expert” in 20 years ago in the computer industry are essentially worthless and meaningless today. Now, that’s not to say that our experts and pros don’t grow and develop and evolve as well. They do. But by becoming experts we’ve seen it all; We know what to expect; We know how things work. And therein lies the problem.

We may need Innovation more than Experts

When we need innovation or change or we’re facing a disruptive event in our industry, we often have to take new perspectives or think about our business in totally new ways. Experts become victims of their own knowledge. When our brain has an expectation of what we’re going to see, we miss all kinds of interesting things going on around us.

There’s a wonderful experiment where the participants are asked to view a video of two teams in a gym bouncing and passing a basketball. The participants are given the assignment of counting how many passes are made by one of the teams. While watching the video and accomplishing their task, the majority of participants miss the fact (completely don’t see it) that a man in a gorilla suit walks right through the middle of gym. They were too focused to see the bigger picture.

To see things differently and gain new perspective, bring in some idiots (not professional knowledge) and nobodies and listen to them. They’ll see the gorilla in the room when the pros won’t.

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