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BlogIn-Depth Book Reviews

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

by Ron Potter April 28, 2022

As I continue the review of some of the books I’ve read through the years, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni seemed like a natural fit after looking at Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline.

Lencioni pictures a nice pyramid with the following elements:

  • Absence of Trust (as the base)
  • Fear of Conflict
  • Lack of Commitment
  • Avoidance of Accountability
  • Division of Company Results

Absence of Trust

This comes from the unwillingness to be vulnerable and not genuinely open within the team.  This makes it impossible to build the foundation of trust.

The absence of trust comes from several issues but I believe the main one is a lack of being open about our belief system.  It’s good to hold strong belief systems.  But it’s important to remember that each of us is unique based on history and experiences.  While holding too strong beliefs, it’s also important that we be open to exposing our ideas and beliefs to others on the team for scrutiny and building a shared belief system.

I have three siblings.  We grew up in the same household with the same parents.  However, speaking to each other as adults it became clear that we each have very different memories and belief systems.  Think about that for a minute.  Today’s society assumes that if we’re in a particular category then we all must think alike and have the same belief systems.

Oh, you’re a white person who grew up in rural America, therefore you must have these belief systems!  Not true!  Yes, I am white and, yes, I did grow up in rural America, but as I just explained that even with those similarities I don’t have the same belief system as my siblings who grew up in the same household with the same parents.  Don’t let people (or for that matter yourself) be put into a category just because we have some broad-based backgrounds.

Fear of Conflict

The failure of building trust in a team can be damaging because it sets the tone for fear of conflict.

Teams that lack trust are incapable of engaging in an unfiltered and passionate debate of ideas.  Instead, they resort to veiled discussions and guarded comments about people, never allowing their own belief systems to be questioned.

Lack of Commitment

Without healthy conflict, it’s impossible to reach team commitment.  If we lack trust because of fear of conflict, it’s impossible to expose our ideas and beliefs to passionate and open debate.  Team members may sign-up as being committed to an idea or position during the meeting but as soon as they walk out of the room and are questioned by someone who knew they believed something else going into the meeting they may say something like “I don’t necessarily agree with the team goal but I’ll support it until a conflict arises between the team goal and my true beliefs.”  This is not commitment, it’s compliance.  True commitment must be in place for a team to move forward together.

Avoidance of Accountability

This most often happens when team members are fearful to call out other members whose actions don’t align with their supposed commitment.  Not holding each other accountable to the team commitment will quickly break down the trust and commitment of the team.  Being a leadership team means you’ll need to make difficult decisions.  Without the accountability to the difficult decision, you’re not really a team, just a group of people trying to lead on your own belief system without the commitment of a team with you.

Cohesive Teams

Cohesive teams:

  • Trust one another
  • Engage in unfiltered conflict about ideas (not people)
  • Commit to decisions and plans of action
  • Hold each other accountable for the commitment
  • Focus on the achievement of team results
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BlogIn-Depth Book Reviews

The Fifth Discipline

by Ron Potter April 21, 2022

I retired from business travel at age 70.  I just turned 74 and it seems impossible that it has already been four years.  During my business career, I did a lot of reading.  I read novels and business books.  I never talked too much about the business books I was reading because I assumed that most of the business leaders I was working with were also reading the same books.

I Was Wrong

Those leaders were so engulfed in running and leading their businesses they really didn’t have time for outside reading.  Although some of the books are old, they contain many pearls of wisdom about leading and running a business.  I’m going to spend the next few weeks sharing some of the wisdom I picked up from those books.

The Fifth Discipline

This is a book by Peter Senge talks about four skills of great teams then wraps it all together with Integrated Learning, the fifth displine.  He outlines this book into four categories:

  1. Personal Mastery
  2. Mental Models
  3. Building Shared Vision
  4. Team Learning
  5. Integrated Learning
    At the heart of a learning organization is a mind—from seeing ourselves as separate from the world to connected to the world.
    From seeing problems as caused by someone or something “out there” to seeing how our own actions create the problems we experience.

Personal Mastery

Senge talks about people with a high level of personal mastery are people who are able to consistently realize the results that matter most deeply to them.

They do that by becoming committed to their own lifelong learning.

Mental Models

Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions and generalizations of how we understand the world and take action.  This starts with turning the mirror inward, learning to unearth our internal pictures of the world, to bring them to the surface, and hold them rigorously to scrutiny.  People expose their own thinking effectively and make that thinking open to the influence of others.

Building Shared Vision

We are hard-pressed to think of any organization that has sustained some measure of greatness in the absence of goals, values, and missions that become deeply shared throughout the organization.

The practice of shared vision involves the skills of unearthing shared “pictures of the future” that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance.

Team Learning

Team learning starts with dialogue.  To the Greeks, dialogues meant a free-flowing of meaning through a group, allowing the group to discover insights not attainable individually.

Dialog differs from the more common discussion which has its roots in percussion and concussion.  Literally a heaving of ideas back and forth in a winner-takes-all competition.

Fifth Discipline: Integrated Learning

The fifth discipline is the discipline that integrates the disciplines, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice.

By enhancing each of the other disciplines, it continually reminds us that the whole can exceed the sum of its parts.

At the heart of a learning organization is a shift of mind from seeing ourselves as separate from the world to connected to the world, from seeing problems caused by someone or something “out there” to see how our own actions create the problems we experience.

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BlogRegrets

Regrets – Connection

by Ron Potter April 7, 2022

In Daniel Pink’s latest book, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, Pink lists four core regrets:

  • Foundation
  • Boldness
  • Moral
  • Connection

Connection seems to me to be one of the most impactful of the regrets.  It’s the time you never spend on those relationships.

My Friend

I had a friend who was the oldest friend of my life.  Our parents were friends after WWII.  We knew each other from the time we were months old.  Then our lives took different roads.  While I was off to engineering school, he ended up in Viet Nam.  While I didn’t think bad of those guys who ended up there, it did take our lives in very different directions.  Our paths never seemed to cross much after that.  Until one day he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  He ended up at the Univerisity of Michigan hospital near where I was living at the time.  After that, our lives crossed many times as I visited him in the hospital and those old feelings of friendship returned.

Then one day the doctors declared that he was in full remission and was able to go home.  Unfortunately, the cancer soon returned and other seemed to be nothing left to do.  But, I felt very blessed that we had connected again and many of the old memories of growing up returned.

Then I received a call from his son that my friend was dying and only had a few days left.  I immediately headed for his home and got there in time to be with him in his last days.  My friend slept most of the time that I visited and his wife told me that he didn’t recognize his surroundings or the people around him.  However, with I went in to see him and stroke his forehead it seemed to me that he recognized me.  It may have been wishful thinking on my part but I did feel like he knew I was there.  The next day his son called again to let me know he had passed away.

Connections

This is what Pink was referring to when he identified the fourth regret as connections.  They’re fleeting.  They slip away easily.  They take an effort to stay connected.  Here was my oldest friend and, just because our lives took different directions, we lost some of that connection.  I’ve made many new friendships around the world since then but, because I didn’t make the effort, I regret that I let one of my oldest relationships slip away.  Like many of these lists, the last is often the most impactful.  It’s that way with this list of regrets.  Letting connections slip away from us created the most regret in the end.  Don’t let it happen.  Evaluate your connections.  Some of them are shallow and the effort is never made to develop a strong bond.  However, others are worth the effort to put in the time, make that call, and keep the connection alive.

Worth the Effort

As I said, I have worked all over the world and made “friends” in many corners of the world.  But with a few of them, I have developed long-lasting relationships.  I was having dinner with one connection that I cherish and have developed over the years.  During dinner, he began to cry because of a tragedy in his life.  When we finished dinner and he got his emotions back under control, he admitted to me that I was the one person he had cried with about the tragedy.  I felt connected.

Another client was having difficulty talking with me about a certain topic.  She finally admitted that her boss (years ago) had raped her and she had never been able to share that with anyone except me.  I felt connected.

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BlogTeam

Reality Is Constructed By Our Brain

by Ron Potter December 2, 2021

Neuroscientist Patrick Cavanagh says that “It’s really important to understand we’re not seeing reality, we’re seeing a story being created for us.”

Brain Stories

What actually creates these stories?  It’s our backgrounds, beliefs, assumptions that have been formed throughout our lifetime.  Dr. Cavanagh says that “Our brains bend our perception of reality to meet our desires or expectations.  They fill the gaps using our past experiences.”

Our brains see what we expect them to see.  I’ve talked before about how our backgrounds and experiences form our belief systems so that we see what we want or expect to see.  Remember the professor in Florida who had his class write down everything they could remember about the shuttle explosion that had occurred the day before? He collected all of their handwritten reports and then tracked down as many of them as he could several years later.  Not one of them agreed with what they had written because their memory was different.

One student actually read his 14 written pages very carefully and then totally rejected it.  He said the report was not correct then proceeded to tell the professor what “really” happened that day.  His mind had created its own reality in spite of what he had written down at the moment.

Curious About Our Brain Stories

If we know that our brain tends to make up stories so that we see and hear what we desire, shouldn’t we be curious enough to explore what the reality is compared to our brain story?

It’s when we don’t have that curiosity about our brain story and simply accept our perception as the reality that creates problems as leaders and team members.

Intellectual Humility

In a Vox article, Brian Resnick said “Intellectual humility: the importance of knowing you might be wrong.”

This is a great statement: knowing that you might be wrong.

The first part of that statement is “knowing”.  We all assume that our view of the world and circumstances is “correct”.  However, if we mature in our thinking we begin to understand that our view or opinion is firmly rooted in the experiences and history that we have lived.  Having respect for others indicates that we’re beginning to learn that their view or opinion is also firmly rooted in their experiences and history.  And just like snowflakes, no two human beings have exactly the same experiences.

The second part of the statement is knowing that we might be wrong.  I don’t believe that one set of experiences is right and one is wrong.  I simply believe they are each unique.  Building great teams starts with this premise.  With full respect, we start sharing the different opinions and beliefs that we each hold.  Once we’ve shared and understood, it’s then possible for the team to develop a unique response to the situation that belongs to the team.  Not an individual.

Team Unity

It’s when a team reaches this unity that they really begin to become a team.  They made the decision together.  They each had a different view coming into the discussion.  But they come out with a decision that the entire team supports.  Even when others remind us that we had a very different opinion going into the team discussion we can honestly say, “that’s true, I did have a different opinion but as I heard each of the different opinions and listened with respect, we were able to make a team decision that I completely support.”

Team decisions that are made after each person has been listened to, understood, and respected for their opinions are the strongest types of decisions.  Team members all support the decision and people around the team can easily see the commitment to the decision and the trust and respect they have for each other.  This kind of team can lead a company to new heights.

Try it.  It really works!

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Is Criticism Slowing You Down?

by Ron Potter October 7, 2021

As you’ve probably noticed in my blogs, I’m a fan of Aristotle’s philosophy.  One of his quotes makes a great point about criticism:

“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.”

I have seen and met those people.  They are so afraid of what others think that they tend to not do anything in fear of criticism.  Therefore they say nothing that could be constructed as critical or even innovative.  In doing so they become nothing.  They become invisible.  They are never considered for promotion.  They are never considered to lead a team.  Their thoughts are never considered when looking for innovative ideas.  They are nothing.

Criticism Happens

If we think about Aristotle’s quote in reverse:

  • Do something
  • Say what’s on your mind (in a constructive way)
  • Be something.

You are a unique human being.  You bring something unique and different from every other person.  Recognize the value in that uniqueness.

Do Something

Doing nothing can be the result of a boss who is all-controlling.  If that’s the case, look for another position, look for another job, look to a new company.  Being in a position of never doing anything other than what you’re told and how to do it, will suck the life out of you!  You will find yourself a greatly diminished human being that will destroy your self-esteem and it will be noticed by your loved ones.

But doing something will almost always bring criticism.  If you step back and view the situation almost from a third-party position, you’ll often see that the criticism comes from people who themselves have low self-esteem.  The criticism comes in an effort to make themselves look better or feel better about themselves.  It never works.  Healthy people see right through that maneuver and discount the other person, not you.

Say What’s on Your Mind

This one must be accomplished with good self-esteem.  When you’re in that state of mind, you’re not criticizing, you’re just trying to look at things from a different perspective.   Remember that we are all unique.  We all see things from a different perspective.

Teams that can listen and respect each other’s points of view are the healthiest and strongest teams. 

Always stay in a respectful position.  Acknowledge that everyone has a unique perspective and it’s best if we all hear and understand that perspective.  Great teams are not “group think” teams.  We’re not lemmings blindly following the herd off the cliff.  Someone needs to say “I see us heading for a cliff and the results aren’t good”.  Just that simple statement will often get others sharing “you know, I’ve been wondering the same thing.  This just doesn’t feel right”.

Be open, honest, and respectful.  Understand what’s on everyone’s mind.  It can save the team

Be Something

What do you want to be known for?

  • The one who gets the team thinking?
  • The respectful one who always brings the best out in others?
  • The Jerk?
  • The non-existent, silent one in the room?

This is your choice.  Get to know the other team members as human beings.  Help them get to know you as a human being.  We are all unique.  We become the best team when we understand, respect, and use that uniqueness to build a great teams and reach great team decisions.

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Curiosity Killed the Cat

by Ron Potter July 22, 2021

My first reaction is that I’m glad I’m not a cat because I’m very curious.

The saying originally meant don’t be too nosey!  It was related to the term “busy body”: someone who seemed to be nosey about everyone else’s business.

But in 1912 the saying was altered to say—

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back

While curiosity may harm you, the satisfaction of finding knowledge or the truth is worth it. So be curious, strive to find the truth and gain knowledge!

I liked this addition much better.  Curiosity that seeks knowledge and truth brings great satisfaction.  So how do we be curious to seek knowledge and truth while not being nosey?  I think there are two ways of accomplishing this goal.

Blame Game

People who are seeking enough information so they can assign blame (to anything or anyone other than themselves) are nosey.  That’s the kind of curiosity that killed the cat and will kill open and honest discussions.  We know these people.  They want to make sure that it’s never their fault.  They are always looking to shift the blame as an excuse for their bad behavior or poor decisions.  It’s never their fault.

Avoidance Style

Human Synergistics has a leadership assessment titled Life Style Inventory (LSI).  In this assessment, they identify a style they call Avoidance that has similar characteristics.  Their list includes:

  • A strong tendency to deny responsibility for one’s own behavior.
  • Fear of failure
  • A preoccupation with one’s own concerns
  • Lack of self-disclosure that eventually leads to emotional isolation.

If you’re interested in this assessment, find out more on their website.

Being Curious without being Nosey

The other way of satisfying your curiosity for knowledge and truth is to practice Listening with the Intent to Understand.

You’ve seen this concept in many of my blogs.  But the fact that I keep coming back to it is a testament to how important this is as a skill.

When you listen with the intent to understand, people notice.  You’re truly curious about what they think, what experiences they’ve had, and what would lead them to their conclusion.  People not only notice, they feel respected and empowered and want to share to great depths.  And in addition, they become much more curious themselves about what you think.  It’s a two-way street.

Be Curious

Be curious, but be curious to learn, grow, and understand.  If you’re genuine, this will keep you from being a busy body.  Learn, grow, and Listen with the intent to understand.  It brings great satisfaction.

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Thinking on 3 Thoughts Together

by Ron Potter July 15, 2021

My mind is a little bit crazy.  I often find that three very different ideas come together in my head at a particular moment. I have learned to pay attention to and think more about these three things.

It happened to me recently when three thoughts came together:

  1. Commute times.  Working with companies in New York, Boston, and California exposed me to commute times that I was unfamiliar with living in Michigan.
  2. American Express Travelers Cheques division moving from New York City to Salt Lake City
  3. Hearing leaders talk about the increased productivity they’re experiencing in the new virtual world

Commute Times

The first time I worked in New York City as a consultant I showed up at the office on east 42nd street at 8:00 am assuming that was the normal start time.  The office was empty.  People didn’t really start settling into their office until around 9:00.  As I got to know some of the team I would be working with I found out some of them lived in Pennsylvania.  They would take a bus from their community to the rail station, take the train to New Jersey, take the ferry to Manhattan then either cab or walk from west 42 Street to the office on east 42 Street.  It was nearly impossible to arrive before 9:00.

Then the office would begin to empty out by about 3:30 pm as the reverse commute took place.  I had similar experiences in Boston, Chicago, and California.  I always found it amusing in California when I would ask how far it was from one location to another.  The answer was never explained in distance (4 miles) is was always explained in time (2 to 4 hours depending on the time of day).

American Express

I was living in Salt Lake City when American Express moved their Traveler Cheques Division from New York City to Salt Lake City.  As I was reading about the move in the local papers, an American Express Official expressed how impressed they were at the increased productivity that came with the move.

Let’s think about that for a minute—

  • New York City business day: 9:00-3:30.
  • Sale Lake City business day: 8:00-5:00.

And you’re acting surprised by the increase in productivity?

Virtual Meetings

I’m having the same reaction about all of these articles from business leaders (most in major corporations in major cities) expressing surprise and pleasure about the increased productivity they’re seeing from working virtually.

Let’s see—

  • Commute times even in reasonable locations: 30 to 60 minutes.
  • Commute times for a virtual meeting: 3 to 6 minutes.

Increased productivity?  I don’t think so.  Just increased availability.

Teamwork

While this virtual world that we now find ourselves in may seem to be or even be more productive, it still takes more than that to build the kind of teams that will be trusting and innovative.

A client the other day asked me how to build a better team in this virtual environment.  I didn’t have a great answer.  It’s very difficult.  There is something very real about the shaking of a hand or sitting down to talk face-to-face and being able to look into each other’s eyes.

Virtual One-on-One

I believe we can do some of this in a virtual environment but it takes planning and commitment.  I have often done an exercise called “Assessment-Commitment”.  This exercise can be accomplished in the virtual world but it takes time and commitment.

Each pair of people on the team must commit to spending virtual time one-on-one.  Once this is accomplished, the team needs to meet (virtually) to discuss together the learnings that were accomplished in the one-on-one sessions.  This means that the virtual meetings can’t be all about productivity, assignments, and getting things done.  There must be time spent building the team!

Because we now find ourselves in this virtual world, don’t forsake the effort and time it takes to build great teams.  It may take a bit more effort but it will reward you and the company many times over down the road.

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Energizing

by Ron Potter March 18, 2021

Extroversion or introversion. Where do you get your energy from?  In Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) this is known as your energizing function.  More importantly, if you’re making a decision, which side of the pair do you need to be in when you are comfortable or convinced the decision you’re making is right.  We are energized by extraversion or introversion.

Extravert or Introvert Labels

I think this pair more than any of the others has been misused when we label people.  I clearly fall on the extraversion side of this pair.  In fact, when I take the assessment I usually have the highest possible score on the extraverted side.  People often assume that extroverts talk all the time.

Even though I score the highest possible score in that area, I spend a great deal of time reading and thinking quietly.  My amazon statistics indicate that I read somewhere between 50 and 100 books a year.  I spend that time in silence.  I enjoy writing these blogs, creating visuals, both Powerpoints and animations, for my consulting work.

Every month or so I look forward to getting up to my cabin which sits in the middle of 500 acres of wilderness in northern Michigan to enjoy the quiet, solitude, time to think, and time to write.  I spend much of my time being completely quiet.  This is not a trait associated with extroverts.

However, if I’ve been thinking through a concept or a decision I have to make during this quiet time, I must talk it over with someone before I’ll make the decision I’m confident about.  If I make a decision with quiet time only, then I’m always questioning the decision.  I need to talk it through with someone.  I need their thoughts and opposing views to be sure of my decision in the end.  I am energized by my extraversion preferences!

Introverts Can Be Talkative

One of the traits of introverts is that if they’ve had time to think about a topic (which puts them into the introverted preference), they’re ready to talk.  They will be fully engaged in the conversations and willing to share their thoughts.  However, if we extraverts suddenly bring up an idea they haven’t had time to quietly think about they may go quiet.

What I’ve seen happen more often with teams is the introvert will simply repeat what they’ve already said.  It can often sound as if they are saying to us “Didn’t you hear what I just said?  Let me repeat.”  In fact, the extraverts heard what they said, this was simply a new thought.  But springing a new thought without time to quietly think about it doesn’t go over well for the introvert so they repeat what they have thought out.

How to Accommodate Introverts

Let’s face it, meetings are designed by and meant for extraverts.  Why do we have meetings?  To get together and talk.

One of the best approaches to accommodate both the extravert and introvert in meetings is for a wise moderator to:

  • Stop the Discussion
  • Ask everyone to write down what they think the three best ideas were based on the discussion
  • Give them time to write down their thoughts
  • After a reasonable amount of time, ask each member to put their best idea on the flip chart

It’s always fascinating to me to watch what happens during this “writing” time.

The introverts will do something to cut off the “chaos” in the room.  They’ll put one hand over their eyes, or they’ll turn away from the team with their pad or they might even move elsewhere inside or outside the room.  But this allows them to think.  Almost immediately the thoughts clarify and they start writing.  They’ll often write more than the requested three things and then either rank-order them or combine them.

Meanwhile, the extraverts may write the number one thing that was obvious to them.  Sometimes they’ll even write two things but they seldom get three things written down.  What do they do?  They move over to the refreshment area where the rest of the extraverts have gathered so they can talk.  By doing so, they’ll come up with their list of three and then regather at their seats.

The wise moderator then begins to go around the room and ask each person to contribute their number one item to the list.  In doing so, the moderator has essentially kept the environment on the introverted side even though people are beginning to speak.  Once the list is exhausted, the moderator will open it back up to discussion thus moving it back to an extraverted environment.

Meetings are extraverted environments.  They don’t have to dedicate 50% to talking and 50% to quiet time.  However, if you don’t build in some quiet time, you will lose the brainpower of a high portion of the participants.

I’ve often asked the introverts what happens to them as soon as they walk out of the room at the end of the meeting.  They will all say something like “I wish I had said that —It all of a sudden became so clear to me!”  What they’re saying is they didn’t have the opportunity to “think” during the meeting.

We must create an environment that allows everyone to capture their best thoughts.

Archetypes

The statistics on MBTI have proven to be the same around the world.  However, I’ve observed that each culture has its ideal of what type a great leader is or should be.

In North America, we tend to hold up the extraverts as leaders.  They should be outspoken, confident, leading through words, and ready to handle change.

In Asia, it tends to be almost the opposite. Their leaders should be soft-spoken, quietly confident, lead through action and think long term, not reacting to every change that comes along.

In an American office, if someone walks past the leader’s office and sees them sitting quietly, it’s assumed they are not doing anything so this might be a good time to interrupt them with a question.  In Asia, if the leader is seen sitting quietly, it is assumed that they are deep in thought and should not be interrupted.

Statistics

For each of the four pairs, I’ll identify the split in the US Population, Leadership Teams, and Operations Teams.

The US Population is well researched and statistically sound.  For Leadership Teams, I always used the database that I have gathered through the years.  And even though it had a couple of thousand data points and should have been valid, I was always a little hesitant to say that it indicated anything beyond my own file.  Then, one day I was able to see the database collected by the Center for Creative Leadership.  They had tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of leaders in their database.  And to my great relief, their statics were exactly the same as mine.

Operations teams are the teams in the organization that are responsible for the rubber hitting the road.  If the company makes widgets, this team is responsible to get as many widgets out the door as fast and cheaply as possible.  The head of the Operations Team is usually part of the Leadership team.

Once we see the splits of these three data sets, it’s worthwhile to ask if there is anything to be learned.

US Population – Extraversion = 50%   Introversion = 50%

Leadership Teams – Extraversion = 62%   Introversion = 38%

Operation Teams – Extraversion = 56%   Introversion = 44%

One of the things learned here is that Leadership Teams are more extraverted than Operation Teams and a lot more extraverted than the general population.  This is a talkative bunch!

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Myers Briggs Type Indicator: Diversity

by Ron Potter March 11, 2021

We can see almost daily comments about diversity.  It creates great division when it seems to be lacking and it’s talked about in glowing terms when it’s promoted as the issue that will solve all of our problems.  The issue I get concerned about is that we think of diversity in too narrow terms.

Most of the time we are thinking about and talking about race or gender.  While these are very important I believe there’s much more to diversity than those two categories.  Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t be talking about and focusing on race and gender, I’m saying there is more to consider.

Myers-Briggs Helps with Diversity

A couple of years ago I wrote several blogs focusing on the use of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).  I’ve been amazed at how many questions and comments I’ve received from people wanting to know more about MBTI in general and asking questions about specific situations and wondering if understanding MBTI would help.

This is why I’m starting a short series on MBTI again.  I have not gone back and read any of my previous blogs.  I just wanted this series to be inspired by my current thinking.

MBTI is Not a Label

Most of the teams I worked with wanted to label everyone to help them understand the person better.  I always discouraged this practice and I didn’t like to hear about trained professionals who thought labels were a natural conclusion.  They are not!

MBTI checks for preferences.  Meaning, in a given situation what would your natural preference chose?  This doesn’t mean that you can’t train yourself to look at things from many aspects, not just your natural preference.

In fact, the best leaders I’ve worked with have trained themselves to look and behave in the world in almost all of the MBTI aspects, not just their natural preferences.  I’ve even asked people who work for these great leaders to tell me what they think the leader’s MBTI is.  They can’t.  They can see them perform, ask questions, make decisions using almost all of the facets of MBTI.  It’s one of the things that make them a good leader.

I’m not going to go into great depth with every aspect of the MBTI.  I’m going to focus on the four natural pairs, how they conflict and can also complement each other.  I will also look at the statistics I’ve found that show how much of each time is present in the population as a whole as well as in business leadership teams.

Four Pairs

Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at the four pairs that exist within MBTI.  They are:

  • Energizing – Extraversion vs Introversion {EI}
  • Perceiving – Sensing vs Intuition (SN)
  • Judging – Thinking vs Feeling (TF)
  • Orientation – Judging vs Perceiving (JP)

Each person has a “preference” for one unit of each pair.  For instance, my MBTI is ENTJ.  That means that I have a tendency to be Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging.  Thus ENTJ.

Be Careful

I can’t tell you how many times people have said something to me like, “I’ve taken the MBTI many times and I always come out the same.  I’m an ESTP.”

Be careful on two fronts.  The first is that you are not an ESTP or any other type.  It simply means that you have a preference for a certain set of pairs.

Second, be careful what you remember.  For those people who have said that or something similar to me, I’ve asked to see their previous results.  They are almost always wrong.  They have simply categorized themselves into something they like or that resonates with a particular type but they are totally wrong in what they remember as their tested and identified type.

Scientific

There are a couple of other stories I would like to tell you.  I was once asked by the head of the psychology department in a major pharmaceutical company to help her with her team.  I told her I wanted to collect MBTI data of her staff so they could see how each other approached the world.  She agreed.  However, once the letter went out to her staff I received a scathing email from one of her managers.  She wanted to know how I could expect to promote the work of these charlatans who weren’t even scientists with such an esteem group.  I simply said that her boss had asked me to do it and to hang in there.  As we finished the session, this person quietly came up to me and asked if I could do a session with her team.

A Rose by Any Other Color

Another experience I’ve had over the last few years is that clients would say to me, “We don’t use MBTI anymore.  It’s very dated.  Now we use [name of another product].  I said that was no problem, would they please send me what literature or website they had and how their people fit into this “new” chart.  I would read through the data and then in every case, did a full day session with the team to help them understand themselves and the team in more depth.  They were always amazed at how much I had learned in such a short time.  What I often didn’t tell them that the “new” product was simply MBTI repackaged with different words and colors.

Granted, some of the language is dated and could be upgraded for modern teams to understand better.  But the essence of MBTI is solid and extensive.

I hope you’ll enjoy and learn from our journey over the next few weeks.

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2020: The top 10 REVIEW – Part II

by Ron Potter January 14, 2021

Last week we looked at the Top 10 most popular posts from 2020, specifically #10-6. This week, we’ll finish the list by looking at the Top 5.

#5 – Culture: Involvement – Adaptability

Adaptability and Involvement are the two quadrants that make up the left side of the Denison Culture Chart.  This side of the chart identifies “Flexible” cultures.  Cultures that adapt well.  Cultures that respond quickly to customers and markets…  continue

#4 – Character vs Competence

Bob Quinn in his book Deep Change introduced us to the concept of the “Tyranny of Competence.” This is a person that is so good at the skills of their job, leaders will tend to overlook their other flaws in character… continue

#3 – Being Humble is Being Down to Earth

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… continue

#2 – Opposite of Victim

Some people I’ve worked with have what we might think of as that victim mentality. The Leadership Style instrument I use (LSI from Human Synergistics) measures two areas titled Dependent and Avoidance that collectively describe a style that starts with the assumption that they are the victim in most circumstances… continue

#1 — Performance vs Trust

Those are not my words.  Those were spoken by Simon Sinek.  If you have not discovered Mr. Sinek, look up his website.  I read him and Share Parrish more than any other blog writers out there… continue

And now we’re ready to begin to learn more about teams, leadership, and cultures in 2021. Thanks for reading my blog in 2020.

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2020: The Top 10 REVIEW – Part I

by Ron Potter January 7, 2021

It’s good to have 2020 behind us. But before we completely settle in to 2021 and the new possibilities of this new year, let’s take a look at the posts with the most traffic from the year that was 2020. So this week, we’ll review #10 – 6 of Team Leadership Culture’s Top 10 posts.

#10 — Culture: Consistency – Core Values

In just about every company I’ve worked with over the last 30 years, their values were printed somewhere. Some times they’re in the employee handbook or other printed document but the majority of the time they’re printed in a beautiful art form on the front wall in the reception area… continue

#9 — Culture: Consistency Summary

The last quadrant of the Denison Culture survey is Consistency, “Does your system create leverage?”

We first introduced the mechanical image of leverage when we introduced the “fulcrum” of Consistency.  Most people have seen or heard the quote from Archimedes when he said: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”… continue

#8 — Culture: Involvement – Empowerment vs Delegation

Last week my blog post spoke of Empowerment in great cultures.  I need to take a short side trip here to talk about the differences between the words empowerment and delegation.  I’m not going to suggest that the words need to be used differently than they are today, that would be too large of a task…  continue

#7 — Circle of Influence – Part II

I was a little surprised by the number of comments and feedback I received recently about the Circle of Influence post.

The point was to be perfectly clear about the part of the organization you can influence versus those you can’t influence even though you may have concern for what’s happening or not happening “over there”… continue

#6 — Absurd!: The More We Communicate, The Less We Communicate

I’m continuing my series on an in-depth look at a wonderful little book that’s twenty years old this year.  The title is “Management of the Absurd” by Richard Farson.  You may want to consider dropping back and reading the previous blogs about ABSURD!  I think it will put each new one in great context… continue

Next week, we’ll take a look at the five top posts from 2020.

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Thankful and Discouraged

by Ron Potter December 31, 2020

Today is the last day of 2020.  It has completely changed the meaning of 20-20 hindsight.  In fact, I hope it continues to fade in the rearview mirror.

Almost all of our Christmas cards described the rough year that was 2020.  It was a joy to hear the comments about how thankful and grateful people were through all of the difficulties.

Thankful

The things I’m thankful for include my family (all healthy and living around the world), the Lord and his personal love and forgiveness, and all the things that make life bearable or easier.   We are warm, have a roof over our head, and people beyond family around us that love and care for us as well.

Discouraged

The thing that discourages me the most from this year is the loss of human contact.  In public, we have masks between us, are able to elbow bump at the best, and have nowhere to meet.  I used to arrange to meet people for coffee on a regular basis.  And so we rely on video conference.  It’s just not the same.

All of my grandchildren do well with their video schooling.  But what they talk about the most is not being able to be with their friends.  They need human contact.  I went to a small rural school system where most of my classmates were together all the way through graduation.  We still get together annually and I truly do love these people.  We didn’t know each other in the work world where you’re measured on your productivity.  We knew each other because we were together.  We shared our life dreams together.  We share the difficulties with each other.  We encouraged each other.  We were human beings together.

What We Used to Know as Teams

Highly effective teams got to know each other as humans.  We shared together.  We journeyed together.  We accomplished outstanding things together.  If you saw someone on the team who seemed to be struggling, it was easy to take them aside, shake their hand or put a hand on their shoulder and ask, “Are you OK?”  Human touch!  None of that is possible in a video conference.

Today I hear leaders talk about how productive teams are because there is no time for this kind of thing during a video call.  It requires that you get to the topic at hand, receive updates if necessary, set the next goals, and assign the people who will be responsible.  The productivity is great!  But “team-building” is not.  Productivity may remain high for a period of time, but a highly-effective team needing to tackle very complex or innovative solutions will never be built.

Technical Solution

There are no technical solutions to solve this problem.   However, a team I’ve been working with has formed an app called GPS4Leaders to help overcome some of these issues.  While we’ll never solve the lack of face-to-face issues or overcome the need for human touch, we have focused on where the team is starting to breakdown and how to overcome that issue.  The system offers guidance in terms of where-to-look for helpful hints and offers what’s called a “Coach in a Box” to help guide the users in solving the problem they face.  But, there’s still nothing like a true human connection to build trust and overcome issues.

Best Solution for the Moment

While I’ll stand by my statement above that there is no technical solution to this problem, there are some things that I believe could help.

Let’s start with understanding the purpose of the various forms of communication we have available today.

Email

Email is the oldest and possibly the most used communication software.   However, email was intended to pass on information from one person to another or even several people at once.  It was not intended to provide psychological understanding or even humor.  It is a fact-based tool.

Text Messaging

Text messaging has likely taken over as the most used communication software.  I have to convince my grandchildren that it is not universally used and it is probably worse at providing understanding or humor… hence emojis.

Social Media

I believe that social media was originally intended to share thoughts with lots of people but it seems to me that for the most part, it has allowed people to vent and make outrageous statements that they would never consider making when they are face-to-face with someone.

None of these technical solutions is good at building trust and understand.  So what is a person supposed to do in this socially distanced world?

Pick up the Phone!

While a phone is still a technical solution that’s not quite as good as being face-to-face, it does allow for listening.  Listening for emotional clues.  Listening for understanding.  Listening to show respect for the other person.

GPS4Leaders

This is where GPS4Leaders tries to help.  Once issues are identified in the data, GPS4Leaders will encourage the team to talk through their beliefs about the issue or have one-on-one conversations for understanding, respect, and trust.

 

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