Imagine if you will four people sat round a meeting table…
A) Daredevil Dan - wants results no matter how they get there. Usually they’ve already made the decision before the discussion takes place - they’re a seek forgiveness not permission kind of person. They get things done.
B) Inspirational Isaac - gets swept away with the idea and goes with the flow, as long as that flow is keeping everyone happy, they love to rally the troops. They take people with them.
C) Steady Sam - likes security in the status-quo, there’s no need to rock the boat unnecessarily. Can be stubborn and slow things down if their point of view isn’t taken into consideration. They will work with the team in mind.
D) Clipboard Cathy - compliance is their priority, so will make sure every i is dotted and t crossed before agreeing to a change. And they’ll be checking in along the way to make sure you haven’t gone off course. They will keep things safe.
Which one feels closest to how you’d behave?
Truth is that we’re all elements of some or all of these people. You’ll have sat in a meeting with them. You probably can recognise yourself in bits of the descriptions.
The categorisation (or stereotypes) might seem crude, but they’re helpful in highlighting that each of us have our own preferences in how we show up at work, how we communicate, how we take decisions, how we interact with others.
Depending on the context each ‘style’ will bring its strengths, but without awareness of their impact they can overplay their approach, turning that strength into a weakness.
And it’s not hard to see how, if everyone stays in their ‘lane’, alignment and decision-making can be affected.
In this week’s How to Take the Lead episode, Carrie-Ann and I explored how personal preferences and interpersonal dynamics can change how teams and individuals approach risk.
We know taking risks is a characteristic of a high-performing - psychologically-safe - team.
But there is a lot of individual work - awareness raising and deep reflection - every member of that team needs to do to get to a place where they can trust each other and start to take collective risks.
It made me reflect on the teams I’ve worked in - how we aspired to high performance but at times we got stuck in that pseudo-team stage.
We said the right things to suggest coherence but our actions showed that we lacked alignment and accountability. Our unspoken words highlighted the lack of psychological safety to take collective risks. Our focus was distracted by our individual contributions, rather than the whole team.
To become a better performing team we had to understand and appreciate the contribution of everyone. We had to agree what excited us as a team so we could bond over a common purpose. We had to identify where individually and collectively we had to work differently to make things happen.
It was hard and uncomfortable. It required commitment - in the room and outside of it. It meant doing the self-leadership work as well.
But I can see how - over time - doing the work led to different decisions being made when it came to risk. When ‘Daredevil Dan’ floated their plans for some major changes - with reputational, financial and safety risks - instead of us all doubling down to conform to type, we came together to find a path to make the right decisions with our people at the heart. We agreed to try a different approach, with alignment around purpose, measures and how we’d manage expectations.
And, whilst it wasn’t smooth-sailing, the risks we took paid off.
After listening to this week’s episode - and reading this article - take a moment to reflect how your natural preferences might be influencing your risk appetite. What inner work might you have to do to move up or down that risk scale?
All the best … Lee
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a reflective exercise to understand how impactful - and risky - your decision-making is
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