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Listening With the Intent to Understand

by Ron Potter January 15, 2015

Image Source: shorpy.com

The next time you’re listening to something, especially on a topic where you don’t necessarily agree, try this experiment: Use part of your brain to pay attention to what you’re thinking when listening to the other person. It’s okay. Your brain has a lot more capacity than your think. You can actually listen to another person at the same time as you act as an observer to watch what your own brain is doing. I know you can.

If you’re like most of us, you’ll find your own brain developing some sort of checklist:

Those two points support my side of the argument so I’ll immediately respond with those.
That point is not supported by fact, so I can instantly discount that.
That reminds me I need to pick up dog food on the way home.
I can’t believe they actually think that point is valid. How could they be so naive?

Then the moment happens. The other person pauses; they may not even be finished with their point of view, but just pausing a moment to collect their thoughts or even pausing a moment before presenting their obviously convincing closing statement. It makes no difference; it’s a pause.
So you jump in:

“Let me reinforce a couple of statements you made earlier because I believe they make my point exactly. And let me also clarify another conclusion you reached that is counter to all the facts we have.”

And on and on and on until you’re forced to pause and the cycle repeats.

If this scenario reflects in any way what you are experiencing while “listening” to other people, then you listen with the intent to respond. Most of us do it. Most of us do it most of the time. It takes a conscious effort and some practice to actually start listening with the intent to understand. But what a difference it will make in your life if you even get marginally good at it.

When you listen with the intent to understand, your curiosity kicks in. You’re not trying to catalog the points you’re hearing. You’re wondering:

I wonder why they believe that?
I wonder what experience they’ve had with this in the past?
I wonder who they trust on this and why?
I wonder what they believe will be the best outcome?

If you’re truly curious and wondering, then your response when that inevitable pause comes will be totally different.
Your first reaction to the pause may be to simply wait to see if there is a conclusion or further thoughts.
You may actually ask if there is a conclusion or further thought.
You may express your wonderment and curiosity and begin to ask questions or clarification or deeper understanding or more background.

Whatever you’re response. If it’s driven by curiosity and wonderment, the other person will immediately know that you’ve been listening to understand. You want to understand, you want to know their viewpoint. This sparks a very different reaction on their part.
A few key things happen from their point-of-view:

Once they realize you’re trying to understand their point-of-view, they become less rigid in their stance and more willing to admit it’s just their point-of-view.
They become more open to questioning their own point-of-view because you’re honestly questioning it in an attempt to understand and not with the intent to control or discredit it.
And most importantly, once you’ve fully listened to and attempted to understand their point-of-view, they’re much more willing to listen to and be open to your point-of-view.

Steven Covey, in his The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, indicates that one of the seven habits is to “seek to understand before being understood.” This is what he was talking about.

Listen with the intent to understand. Practice it. Use it often. You’ll be amazed at how much people are willing to share with you and how much they’re willing to listen to and understand your point-of-view.
Try it. It will be refreshing.

And one more solid point: In my book, Trust Me: Developing A Leadership Style People are Willing to Follow, the number one trait of great leaders is humility. The foundation of humility is the willingness to listen with the intent to understand.

What’s your reaction when someone actually listens to you and truly wants to understand?

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Is the Hero-Leader Hurting You?

by Ron Potter January 12, 2015

Why is humility such a key quality on a leader’s personal resume?

For starters, being humble prevents most of the mistakes that cripple a person who is proud. Consider Henry Ford, for example.

He was an icon of American industry. His revolutionary ideas about manufacturing and design put him near the top of anyone’s list of great American businessmen. Ford carried out his vision with the Model T. The car literally changed the face of America and the priorities of American citizens. By 1914, Henry Ford’s factories built nearly 50 percent of all the cars sold in the United States. Now that’s market share!

There was, however, a chink in Henry’s armor.

He was so proud of his Model T that he never wanted it to be changed or improved. One day, as the story goes, a group of his best engineers presented him with a new automobile design prototype. Ford became so angry that he pulled the doors right off the prototype and destroyed it with his bare hands.

Not until 1927 was Henry Ford willing to change. Grudgingly, he allowed the Ford Motor Company to introduce the Model A. By that time, the company was well behind its competitors in design and technical advances. Ford’s market share had plummeted to 28 percent by 1931.

Image Source: Zeetz Jones, Creative Commons

Henry Ford just could not let go. He had created something, and he was unable to imagine that his “baby” could be improved. Nobody could help him, and he was unwilling to stretch himself to learn how he could make his product better or different.

Consequently, he lost his executives, created havoc in his family, and damaged the company’s market share beyond repair.

Henry Ford’s leadership approach probably resembled what some now refer to as the hero-leader. Many organizations look to a hero-leader to deliver the power, charisma, ideas, and direction necessary to ensure a company’s success. In many cases, the hero-leader does create blips in performance. For a time the dynamic chief is seen as a savior of the organization.

For a time.

In an interview with Fast Company magazine, Peter Senge said,

Deep change comes only through real personal growth—through learning and unlearning. This is the kind of generative work that most executives are precluded from doing by the mechanical mind-set and by the cult of the hero-leader.

Senge points out that the hero-leader approach is a pattern that makes it easier for companies to not change or move forward. The hero-leader weakens the organization and in many ways keeps it at an infant stage, very dependent upon the hero-leader’s creativity and ideas. The people around the leader do not seek or promote change because the hero-leader is not open to new ideas (or ideas that he or she did not originate).

Under the hero-leader, people tend to acquiesce rather than work together as a team with a free exchange of ideas. The hero-leader may take the company in a new direction, but the troops within the organization only go along because it is a mandated change. This type of change is superficial at best.

Despite all of Henry Ford’s incredible qualities, it sounds as if he was a proud rather than a humble leader. In his case, the Bible proverb certainly was true: “Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”

Is your pride getting in the way of doing something you’ll really be proud of? Or, often easier to answer, do you see someone else who could do great things if they would just let go of their pride? Share some stories with us.

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Blog Leadership

Lessons from a Professional Organizer

by Ron Potter January 8, 2015

My wife is a very organized person in most of her life. But like all of us, there are a few areas that just get out of control over time and you usually need help to get it back under control. She hired a personal organizer.

For the most part, I tried to simply stay out of the way, but I admit I was curious. I thought the organizer did a good job of seeing what the issue was, stepping back and looking at the overall picture; noting what was working overall and what portion of my wife’s life felt like it was under control and what portion was not, gaining the bigger picture.

Then she began to dive into the issue and started to ask the very direct, tough questions:
• How long have you had this?
• When was the last time you used it?
• What do you want it for?

After several pointed and pertinent questions, she calls for the decision:
• Trash it?
• Recycle it?
• Donate it?
• Keep it?

If she gets the “keep it” answer, she immediately recycles through some of the previous questions and then comes back to trash, recycle, donate, or keep.

Now here’s what I found interesting, she had provided bins for the three “non-keep” answers and the item would immediately go into one of those bins. At the end of the day, she put all of those bins in her vehicle and she made sure they were trashed, recycled, or donated.

Image Source: Katie Chao & Ben Muessig, Creative Commons

At first I thought this was a nice service she provided, but then she began to explain why she did it. This way the decision was final. No turning back, no rethinking the decision, no second guessing.
This is exactly the issue I was getting at in an earlier blog, “Decide: we’ve got it all backwards.” In that post, we explored the word decide and learned that it didn’t mean figuring out what to do, it means figuring out what to kill.

My wife had made the decision to “kill” certain items into the trash, recycle, or donation bins. The organizer wasn’t going to let those items be an issue any longer—they were gone!

All too often in our corporate decision making, we let things linger, be second guessed, never really put them in the trash or recycle bin. Because of this lack of decisiveness uncertainty thrives. It consumes the resources you need for top priorities. If you will actually “decide” and make sure the paths you’ve decided not to follow are actually killed off, publicly executed, thrown in the trash, you and your organization will become much more productive, nimble and responsive to current needs. We waste a lot of resources because we don’t finally decide.

I remember one CEO saying to me “I’ve tried to kill that initiative three times and it keeps coming back.” His frustration was caused by the continued wasted resources and people’s attention that were being dedicated to a project he thought they were over and done with. But he had never “Publicly” killed the program. He had never made the global announcement that “We are no longer pursuing this initiative!” He simply turned his focus and his team’s focus to the things they had decided to pursue.

I can’t tell you how important this concept is. My clients are constantly looking for resources to pursue much needed projects, changes or new initiatives. But they never really put the needed energy or public face behind killing off the old, outdated, or lower priority issues. Figure out how to decide. It will pay huge dividends.

Take a look at your personal life, home or work; would you share with us some areas that would save you a lot of grief and energy if you simply publicly ended the pursuit? Maybe you do have a very clear corporate situation that emphasizes this very issue. Share with us what caused it and what helped alleviate it (or what should be done to alleviate the issue).

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Blog Myers-Briggs Using MBTI to Great Advantage

Using MBTI to Great Advantage – Perceiving

by Ron Potter January 5, 2015

Using MBTI to Great Advantage is a blog series in which I’ll do an overview of each of the four Myers-Briggs (MBTI) functions and then in subsequent blogs will dig into each one in more depth with some practical applications for creating better dynamics and better decisions making. Click here to read the Series Introduction.

Perceiving (Attending) Overview: Sensing vs iNtuition

We looked at an overview of our Energizing function in the last Myers-Briggs (MBTI) blog. Now let’s look at the Perceiving function.

For many years the MBTI referred to this function as your attending function, “What do you pay attention to? or What is your preferred source of information?” However, more recently they have gone back to Carl Jung’s (MBTI is based on Jung’s original analytical psychology work studying healthy personality types) original description of perceiving, “Through what lens do you perceive the world around you?”

Also note that was not a typo when I identified the second function as iNtuition. Myers and Briggs had already used the “I” indicator for the introverts so chose to use the “N” indicator for intuition. On this function your natural preference will be either an S or and N.

If you happen to be a more natural “sensing” type, you will tend to “pay attention to” facts, figures, what’s in the present, the immediate problem and what’s “real”. This is how you “perceive” the world around you.

If you happen to be a more natural “iNtuitive” type, you will pay attention to the possibilities, how might this play out in the future, what are the implications of the issue we’re dealing with? And maybe more importantly, does this fit into the world as “I believe it should be?”

Decision Making Function. This function is the first “decision making” function. It identifies where and how we gather our information, what information we gather and pay attention to and what information we tend to put more stock in when it comes to making our decisions (which will be the next function we discuss). We all have what is known as confirmation bias (the book Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization by Edward Hess is a good source of understanding) where we tend to look at and accept only data that agrees with our beliefs of how things work (or should work). Understanding your Perceiving function and balancing it with a great team (this one is difficult to balance within us personally so it takes a trusted team to provide the balance) is incredibility valuable to you personally, the team and the company.

Hidden cause of confusion. Like Extraverted and Introverted preferences (previous blog overview) this function is a hidden cause for much team confusion and misunderstanding. Because we use our preferred function to ask and answer questions, if we’re not clear as a team one person may be asking a Sensing question “What is the impact of only hitting 87% of our goal this month?” while someone provides an iNtuitive response “There is no impact at all because the entire market is going to shift over the next three years.” This is like two ships passing in the night. Teams must be disciplined about aligning Sensing and iNtuitive questions with Sensing and iNtuitive answers.

Therefore, the same three rules apply to working more effectively: Balance, Balance, Balance. What I’ve discovered in business is that good leaders have often figured out their need for balance on this one to run a business effectively because if you let this one get out of balance for too long, you will lose the business. It’s great to create balance in the other three functions. It’s critical that you balance this one if you’re running a business.

So remember the three rules:

Balance
Balance
Balance

You can’t be sure of what you’re learning or need to learn unless you balance this function.

Share with us some of your balancing act stories.

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Blog Culture

Dirty Bathrooms and Annual Reviews

by Ron Potter January 1, 2015

Have you ever noticed that the dirtiest public bathrooms are the ones with the log pasted to the wall with the signature of the person who cleaned it and when? In fact, the log itself looks so nasty that I usually give it a wide berth for fear that something contagious might jump off the page and infect me.

Image Source: Anjana Samant, Creative Commons

Why is this so? This culture obviously has rules and regulations and a check list system for accountability and yet the place is filthy! But that’s exactly the point. Is your culture built on rules, regulations, guidelines, and check lists for accountability to make sure people are doing what they’re told? Or is your culture built on ingrained values like, “We want our customers to experience a cleaner bathroom than they would at home!”?

Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many annual review processes work like that bathroom log. The annual review starts with the check list of goals that was created the previous year. Then we check to make sure the employee signed off on each item of the list and the date of accomplishment. There, goals accomplished, bathroom clean!

No discussions about innovative approaches they tried to take to make sure the bathroom stayed cleaner longer. No discussion about lessons learned from failed attempts at trying something new. No discussion about new approaches they are proud of that did work. No discussion about where they would like to apply some of their ideas elsewhere.

Are you really inspiring your employees with values and visions or are you expecting them to do their job and check off their list? How clean are your bathrooms?

Tell us some stories from both perspectives – leaders evaluating people with annual review processes or being the ~~victim~~ (sorry) recipient of an annual review process. What made it great? What made it suck?

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Blog Trust Me

Being Humble is Being Down to Earth

by Ron Potter December 29, 2014

It doesn’t seem to make much sense, but truly great leaders are humble.

The problem comes with how the word is normally used: Humble is thought to mean shy, retiring, unobtrusive, quiet, unassuming. Being humble can seem weak or, horrors, even borrrrrrrriiiiiiinnnnngggggg.

What does it really mean to embrace humility?

Humility is derived from the Latin word humus, meaning “ground.” One way to describe truly humble leaders is that they have their feet on the ground.

Image Source: Fungirlslim, Creative Commons

Imagine for a moment a farmer in his field, sitting tall on his tractor, a wake of freshly turned earth foaming off the blade of his plow. He is sunburned. His arms are as sturdy as fence posts. He’s a man of the humus—the earth. You could call him humble. Does this image suggest a lack of competence or strength? Do you sense it would be easy to take advantage of him? No, this image is one of strength and resilience. Think velvet-covered steel.

Humility is the first pillar of a leader whom others will trust.

A humble person sticks to the basics and is not prone to exaggeration. How much better off would we be today if the leaders of some of our fallen corporate behemoths had kept their heads out of the ozone and their feet on the ground?

Perhaps the most significant quality of humble leaders is their steady, clear-eyed perception of truth. A proud leader is prone to spreading and believing exaggerations—from little white lies to whopping falsehoods. Which high-powered modern leaders, intent on vanquishing foes and surmounting tall challenges, ever want to be known as humble? Not many—until, of course, they find out that humility is a critical first step on the path that leads to leadership success.

How have you defined humility in the past? Has an incorrect definition caused you to avoid humility in your leadership style?

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Blog Myers-Briggs Using MBTI to Great Advantage

Using MBTI to Great Advantage – Energizing

by Ron Potter December 22, 2014

Using MBTI to Great Advantage is a blog series in which I’ll do an overview of each of the four Myers-Briggs (MBTI) functions and then in subsequent blogs will dig into each one in more depth with some practical applications for creating better dynamics and better decisions making. Click here to read the Series Introduction.

Energizing Overview: Extroversion vs Introversion

Unfortunately the two words associated with this function carry a lot of preconceived baggage. We think of the outgoing, gregarious, easy to talk with extroverted type or the shy, quite, retiring introverted type. And while we may see some of those characteristics in this function, that’s not what is getting measured here.

This is your “energizing” function. When you need to get creative, solve a problem, grapple with an issue, deal with alternatives, how do you get energized around the solution?

Extraverts need to talk. While talking our energy seems to grow, ideas start falling into place, internal decisions get made and finally, right during the conversation our fingers snap and our brain says “That’s it. I’ve got it.” The extroverted conversation energized us.
Introverts on the other hand need to reflect. They may do just as much talking with colleagues and others to gather as much input as possible and will likely do a lot more reading and studying but at some point, they just need to let all of that information come together in their head as their introverted thoughts process all that they’ve learned and put it into a structure that makes sense to them. At that moment they express an inward (and sometime outward) smile and their brain says “That’s it. I’ve got it.”

Greatest confusion and misunderstanding.
Because of how these two functions work so differently, it has been my observation that this function is at the root of most miscommunication and misunderstanding between team members and one of the biggest causes of wasted effort in team meetings. I’ll be giving you a lot of examples and solutions for making this function work well for you and the team in future blogs.

Don’t assume you know.
One last thought on the Energizing function. Because we think we know what (or who) an extravert and introvert is, we arm-chair psychologists make the most mistakes with this function. I have worked with talkative introverts and quiet extraverts. Do Not make assumptions on this function. You’ll often be wrong and create more misunderstanding and confusion. I’ll repeat the following statement many times because it’s so important: Don’t try to figure out if a person has an extroverted or introverted preference, just learn to balance your process so that both types flourish and contribute to the dialogue and decision making.

Remember, the three rules for using this function effectively:
1. Balance
2. Balance
3. Balance

Learn to process team dynamics in a balanced way and learn to balance your own preferences. You’ll be seen as a better leader and your teams will be identified as high-performance teams.

Share with us some of your experiences with this function both from a personal understanding or a team dynamic impact.

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Blog Leadership

Email Overload

by Ron Potter December 18, 2014

Scott Adams, the creator of the cartoon, Dilbert recently said on CNBC’s Squawk Box,

“I’m pretty sure [email] has destroyed my soul.”

He described email as a job in itself, which no longer enhances productivity. Although still useful and productive in many ways, Scott’s point is all too obviously valid.

But here’s a trick that will quickly eliminate a substantial portion of email overload and will improve your team at the same time.

You’ve gotten to be a leader because you’ve been good at what you do. You’re a problem solver. You’re efficient. You see the issues clearly. You’ve been the go-to person. You’re the leader.

So when that email comes in, what’s your first instinct? Solve the problem! Give the answer! Clarify the issue! Do what you’ve always done to be successful! But none of that is leading. All of that is doing. You need to lead!

Image Source: BuzzFarmer, Creative Commons

So here’s the trick that will eliminate a large percentage of email very quickly. Your first reply should be, “Why are you sending me this email?” You’ll quickly see that many emails are sent to you because people don’t want to be accountable for their actions. And they’ve discovered if they send you an email, you quickly solve the problem; Clarify the issue; direct the resources; etc.: instant solution. Problem solved. They don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting. If things go wrong, they have the email showing that you took the action. And at review time, they claim credit for the successful completion of projects.

Your first reaction to any email is to ask yourself (and them) why am I receiving this email? If you simply solve the problem by answering the question, you’ve accepted the accountability. You’ve “lost your soul” to email, as Scott says, and your people have not developed because they’re not accepting accountability. You’re a doer, not a leader.

How have you used (or stopped using) email to develop people or increase productivity? Or if you just want to vent about email, send us a comment.

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Blog Favored Trust Me

Favored Are Those Not Full of Themselves

by Ron Potter December 15, 2014

In a humble state, you learn better. I can’t find anything else very exciting about humility, but at least there’s that.
—John Dooner, Chairman and CEO of Interpublic, as quoted in Fast Company magazine, November 2001

The pathway to greatness as a leader begins, ironically, with a step down. We have seen this over and over. It’s not the loud, take-control, arrogant, hotshot “world beaters” who excel as leaders over the long term. No, the really great ones don’t draw that much attention to themselves. They are, well, humble.

Image Credit: S@Z, Creative Commons

To many people, humility seems like a vice, weakness, or disease to avoid at all costs. Isn’t a humble person a wimp or, worse, a cringing and despicable coward? Won’t a humble leader be the object of contempt and abuse, the kind of person who gets trampled by all the aggressive ladder climbers in an organization?

This perception may have seemed accurate in the past, but not any longer. Jim Collins, author of the business book megaseller Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t, has this to say:

Level 5 leaders [individuals who blend extreme personal humility with intense professional will] channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious—but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.

Sounds a lot like humility, doesn’t it?

Humility requires leaders to shed all their prejudices and biases. Humility requires you as a leader to examine who you are and what you have become. Humility requires a completely new way to evaluate people (and yourself). Just because individuals have made it to a higher position on the corporate ladder does not make them any smarter, any more correct in their decisions, or any more valuable than others within an organization. True humility leads to openness, teachability, and flexibility.

Much of the business world still believes that the take-charge, proud hero-leader is the answer to every company’s prayers for a robust bottom line. This thinking may have made sense at one time, but no longer, as some of the world’s largest companies have stumbled in shame under leadership styles that will never be described as humble.

So, can’t an aggressive leader be effective? Of course. However, studies show when an aggressive leader (one lacking in humility) tries to force his or her own ideas on others, the rate of success is not as high as when the leader is open to new ideas and willing to listen, bend, change, and seek commitment from his or her people.

Pride focuses the attention of leaders onto themselves; humility focuses the attention of leaders onto others. The proud leader wants success that brings him perks. The humble leader wants success that brings enduring health to others and the organization. Which leader would you want to work for? Which one would you trust?

Humble leaders may not lead cheers for themselves, but neither are they retiring and shy people. These men and women stand firmly for their core beliefs and values. When you watch them work, their performance is graceful and smooth. They are a joy to talk to because they give no indication that they are an ounce more important than you are. Oh, and one more critical detail: These humble leaders produce incredible results.

Of course, there is more to being a trusted leader than having a humble attitude. There’s a bad-news/good-news aspect to the quality of humility. The bad news is that, to be honest, I have encountered only a few truly humble leaders. If they were an animal species, they would definitely be on the endangered list. The good news is that, if you will learn how to humble yourself, the upside for you and your organization will be substantial. There isn’t that much competition.

The path to greatness begins with a step down to humility.

I’m sure you have worked for both type of leaders. Tell us how you react to each in terms of your trust and your productivity/engagement.

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Blog Leadership

I Am Angry

by Ron Potter December 11, 2014

I recently suffered a minor heart attack during a weekend golf outing with my buddies. On my first day home my wife, daughter and I were taking an evening walk in the woods. My daughter asked me what I was feeling. Notice she didn’t ask “how” I was feeling. [future blog post?] The word that came out of my mouth was “angry”. That surprised me. I wasn’t necessarily feeling angry but when she asked what I was feeling the honest answer was angry.

It immediately reminded me of the sequence that Elisabeth Kübler-Ross taught us years ago about five stages of grief. I’ve used this sequence many times with my clients to help them understand that the stages are very natural and will happen every time we receive impactful feedback. The stages are:

Denial/Shock
Anger/Emotion
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

So if I was experiencing the anger stage, that means I must have gone through the Denial/Shock stage. As I thought back it became very clear to me that as I was standing over a six foot putt for birdie on the 18th hole and experiencing chest pain I was going through the denial stage.

Image Source: RedTail Panther, Creative Commons

“I’m sure I’m just winded from the long walk up to the elevated green.”

“Actually it’s pretty hot out here, I’m probably just overheated.”

“As soon as we finish I’ll be able to get a cool drink, sit down for a while and it will all go away.”

All complete denial thoughts. I left my birdie putt a few inches short. Of course I later blamed that on my heart attack. All a natural part of the anger/emotion stage.

What’s interesting to me is that knowing the stages of grief instantly makes them easier to deal with and work through. I know that I’m yet to face the bargaining, depression and acceptance stages but it’s critically important that I eventually get to the acceptance stage because only then will I be able to take appropriate actions. The sooner I can work through the stages in a healthy way the sooner I can take actions toward a better future.

As a leader, you and your team are constantly dealing with feedback about performance both good and bad. Your job is to help your team and yourself get to the stage of positive, productive action after receiving the feedback. Knowing the stages of grief and what we will be feeling during each stage is the best way to move through the stages quickly and constructively. If you or your team reaches a point of arrested development, stuck in a particular stage, you’ll never get to the action step that comes after acceptance.

Good leaders know the stages and help their teams get to acceptance quickly. People never remember what the feedback was; they will always remember how you reacted to it.

What stage is the hardest for you or your team to get through?
What have you learned that helps you through your most difficult stage?

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Blog Myers-Briggs Using MBTI to Great Advantage

Using MBTI to Great Advantage – Four Functions, Three Rules

by Ron Potter December 8, 2014

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) structure is made up of four pairs of functions. Together they combine for a possible 16 different preference types. Notice that I use the word “preference.” These functions have nothing to do with skill or ability, they are simply different preferences for dealing with the world around us.

Experience Preference. Let’s experience a preference in real time. Take a writing instrument and a piece of paper and sign your name to it. I know, I know, I never actually do this either when a book or blog site asks me to do it but I guarantee you will understand it better if you experience it instead of just imagining it. So pick up that pen and sign your name. Thanks.

Photo Credit: Lucas, Creative Commons

Now, put you pen in the opposite hand and sign your name again. When I do this in a team of people the room immediately fills with nervous laughter and chuckles. It can be embarrassing.
When I ask people to describe the experience of that first signature I’ll hear words like:

Easy
Comfortable
Natural
Without thinking

When I then ask them to describe the second experience (often after waiting quite a while for them to complete the task) they will use words like:

Difficult
Awkward
It took longer
I had to think through almost every letter

This is an example of your personal preference at work. Whether right handed or left, when you’re working from your preference it’s easy, comfortable, and natural and you do it without thinking. Let me suggest right here that if you’re trying to make a decision, maybe you shouldn’t do it “without thinking!” When we force ourselves (individually and collectively) to use our non-preference methods, we’re actually forcing ourselves to think more.

The best teams and leaders. Over my consulting career I have observed many teams and leaders improve their effectiveness by learning to balance their MBTI preferences. The most effective teams are the ones that, either naturally or through process balance their preference diversities and use that balance for better decision making and corporate impact. Also, the best leaders I have ever worked with seem to have no strong preferences when it comes to working with their people in spite of the fact that they and I know that they possess very strong personal preferences. Great teams and leaders have learned to balance their natural preferences.

Over the next several blogs we’ll first do an overview of each of the functions and then in subsequent blogs I’ll dig into each one in more depth with some practical applications for creating better dynamics and better decisions making.

So the Four Functions are:
1. Energizing
2. Perceiving
3. Deciding
4. Work Life

And the Three Rules are:
1. Balance
2. Balance
3. Balance

With the proper use of these four functions and three rules you’ll build better teams and become a better leader.

Many of you have shared this learning with me in numerous MBTI sessions. Share with us some of your “ah ha” moments or deeper understanding that have helped you become better leaders and team members.

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Blog Team

Decide: We’ve Got it All Backwards

by Ron Potter December 4, 2014

I’ve learned this concept from Chris McGoff. In his book, The Primes: How Any Group Can Solve Any Problem, Chris lays out numerous frameworks on how teams work. One of the most powerful for me and many of my teams is understanding the meaning of the word “Decide.”

I’m not trying to be morbid here, but what do the following words have in common?: pesticide, homicide, suicide, genocide? They all end in “cide.” In Latin, the word means kill, killer, murderer, to cause death. One of my clients who was a Latin student said there was even an indication of public execution—to put to death publicly.

So, if we go back to our word decide, it doesn’t mean to figure out what to do, it means to figure out what to kill.

If leaders and teams would actually start killing off the options or directions they’ve decided not to pursue, a great amount of resources could be saved and redirected toward the chosen path.

When you must decide, figure out what you’re going to kill and publicly execute it.

Image Source: Brandon Doran

All too often, we decide what we’re going to do and we muster the resources to pursue that option. But no one tells the many people down through the organization what to stop doing. And in fact, there’s lots of momentum in the life of the organization for people to continue doing what they’ve been doing over the last several months or years. If you don’t publicly execute that work, they’ll naturally continue to do it.

As I was working through this concept with one of my clients, one team member said, “But we’re really good at prioritizing our work.” And she was right. The organization was really good at knowing which issues should receive top priority and the most resources. But as we continued to pursue the concept, it became painfully obvious how many resources were being applied to extremely low priority items. In fact, by deciding to kill off those low priority items it was astounding how many resources would be freed up to concentrate on the things that really need to be accomplished.

When faced with a team or leadership decision, decide what to kill and then publicly execute it and you’ll be amazed at how many more resources you have available to pursue the path of success.

Why do we have such a hard time killing off projects, initiative, lines of work or almost anything that people have been dedicating their time to? I can think of several reasons but what’s your experience? Share with us.

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