Metcalf & Associates Blog

What are the 5 key elements that drive effective Leadership in 2010 and beyond?

We talk a lot about ‘transformational leadership’ as being the kind of leadership necessary to transform organizations but the term is still not commonly understood.  In this post we talk about the key components to consider when discussing, assessing and developing leaders.

Based on years of research, consulting, and coaching, we have developed a model identifying five key elements that work together to deliver exceptional results.  A leader who can effectively transform organizations must have all of these elements functioning in alignment.

Here is the story of a leader who over-emphasized a few elements while under developing others:  meet Dave.  Dave is an exceptionally talented man and has built strong skills in his area of focus.  He rose quickly in the ranks of a large consulting firm on the strength of his intellect, his charisma, and his presence.  He then bought a division of a smaller company and was faced with the challenge of creating a new market and building a company.  He failed and closed the company, losing the company and most of his personal wealth.  His largest mistake was his over-confidence.  In order to create a differentiated offering, leaders and entrepreneurs have to have the confidence to take on what many others would not.  At the same time, they need to be keenly aware of their environment and know when to make changes.  If the leader is too confident, he will miss the subtle cues.  Dave missed them.  Dave had too much hubris and discounted the cues that he was missing the mark.

We introduce all five elements briefly in this post and will go into greater detail about each one in subsequent blog posts.

What are the components each leader must have?

• Character/type – each of us has a type.  This is what we commonly call personality – qualities like introversion or extroversion.  We would measure this using something like the Enneagram or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.  Leaders benefit  from understanding themselves and working with their gifts and limitations.  Self-awareness is key.
• Developmental level – we move through developmental levels as we mature and grow.  This can be deliberately changed with attention and work.  When we are talk about “Level 5” leaders, we mean individuals who have moved up the developmental ladder.  Leaders can progress through higher levels and doing so increases their effectiveness.
• Leadership behaviors – these come in two categories. 
  • Leadership specific competencies involve knowing how effective leaders behave and measure behaviors like mentoring and developing staff.
  • Business skills and acumen is the other critical part of leadership behavior that evaluates industry acumen, skills required to run a business and to make solid business decisions.
• Situational Awareness – in dynamic environments, it is critical for leaders to understand the situation or context they are working in and to make decisions that are appropriate to that situation.  A leader in a bank may make very different decisions after the financial crash in 2009 than before because the situation has changed.
• Resilience – is the ability to adapt and thrive and to take a positive attitude toward the challenges we face as leaders.  Resilient leaders navigate challenges and inspire others to move forward toward success.

The most successful leaders perform well in all of these categories.  A significant deficiency in any of the areas could derail an otherwise talented leader.  When considering how to invest your development time, we recommend spending about 80% of your time building on your strengths and the remaining 20% addressing areas that could be deficiencies.  The exception to this rule is if there is an area that is derailing the organization.  Additionally, if you are overusing a strength to the detriment of developing others, attending to the under-used strengths will also pay dividends.

5 Keys to Being an Outstanding Team Member

It is not enough to be an exceptional level five leader; you must also work effectively with others. Even super heroes work together just like Batman and Robin.

A key differentiator for professional growth is how well you work with others. We can all think of times where we could have accomplished a task easier alone but still needed to work with others. We can probably also see where there was some benefit to the organization by our working with someone else, like they got to learn from us and from the experience.

I worked with a client who saw himself as the expert at everything he did. He was frustrated by working with teams because it got in the way of doing the real work and no one knew as much as he did. This team stuff slowed the work down and frustrated him. He also thought he should be promoted because he could certainly accomplish the work more effectively than anyone around him.

If only he knew and focused on the 5 key behaviors that would have made him a better team member.
In the spirit of being a team player, the balance of this post is located at the blog of our good friend and strategic partner - thoughtLEADERS, LLC. Click here to read further about being a better team member.  By Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf & Associates, Inc.

Upcoming Workshops: Thriving in Turbulent Times

Building Transformational Leadership

Thursday April 30, 2009 9:00 - 4:30 Toolkit for Transformational Leaders

Friday May 1, 2009 9:00 - 4:30

Spring Hollow Lodge, Westerville, Ohio $150 per day or both days for $250

TO REGISTER, visit www.metcalf-associates.com

Transformational Leadership can consistently transform organizations in the face of ongoing change and adversity. In these turbulent times, nearly every organization is facing the need to transform to survive or to thrive. Learn the skills to be a transformational force in your organization!

 

In "Building Transformational Leadership", the Foundation Class, you will learn to:

• Understand Transformational Leadership (Level 5 Leadership, Jim Collins, Good to Great)
• Understand your leadership level
• Identify your leadership goal
• Determine top priority and create personal action plan
• Determine top organizational priority to improve organizational leadership effectiveness

In "Toolkit for Transformational Leaders", Applying the Concepts, you will learn:

• Develop an enhanced awareness of the developmental levels and how to use your knowledge of them to increase organizational effectiveness
• Learn key skills associated with each developmental level in the Level 5 Leadership model
• Experience specific tools and practices to enhance your effectiveness at each developmental level and understand how to apply them in your life
• Understand how to tailor these tools and practices to your organization’s leadership needs

photo credit: choconancy1

By Maureen Metcalf of Metcalf & Associates

Transforming a Leader and his Organization Success Story

We recently published an article, Transforming a Leader and his Organization An Approach, a Case Study, and Measurable Results. We explore the transformation approach Metcalf & Associates uses with clients and Bob shares his experiences and successes. We also discuss what we learned and what we would do differently in the future. To provide the perspective of the client, Robert Weisenburger Lipetz, MBA, the CEO, offers his insight throughout the article.

Excerpt from the Article

CEO: I started my first day on the job with a borrowed card table and folding chair, with $20,000 in seed money, no income and no way to get paid. But, it was the right mission at the right time and I was determined to make it work. I introduced two lines of service to the community that we served that directly supported the mission: hospital accreditation and care provider education. Both of these services became big successes, rapidly growing us from zero revenue to a seven figure revenue organization. After a couple of years of feeling like I was constantly trying to hang on to a bucking bull, I was searching for an effective way to put into place a structure that could support continued growth with less pain. Metcalf & Associates was initially hired to coach the CEO. Over the course of their work together, they all came to believe that the scope of the work should expand to include both leadership development coaching and management consulting to facilitate the transformations necessary for the organization to thrive.

Results

CEO: I’m no doubt a more resilient manager with a better ability to think in terms of strategy. I’ve also improved my listening skills and have not only become a better leader, but also a happier person. It is a pleasure to work with someone of my coach’s caliber. While research indicates that 75% of change efforts fail to deliver the business results they expected, this transition delivered more than promised and established the foundation for ongoing success. In addition to the client’s individual changes, the organization experienced some significant success in their transition that are listed in detail in the article. To read the full leadership transformation article.

By Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf & Associates, Inc

Photo credit: Josh McConnell

Response to Criticism Of Good to Great - No Guarantee

Because I use Collin's Good to Great as an important set of research to inform my consulting and leadership development work, I want to respond to the criticism. I pulled the criticism directly from: Good to Great: More Evidence That "Most Claims of Magic are Testimony to Hubris" via Bob Sutton de Bobsutton le 22/12/08. The bullets below are direct quotes from the article:

Key elements of criticism:

    * There are no magical leadership or organizational practices that will quickly propel your organization to the top of the heap. Even the greatest organizations struggle to stay at the top and are led by fallible people who make many mistakes.
    * There is no such thing as a single breakthrough study. The best and most valid conclusions and advice are based on a series of studies that have survived the brutal peer review process and that result in a consistent set of findings.
    * The hubris and ignorance about the claims about the rigor of the research and the originality of the ideas. There are lots of management books, or parts of management books, that are incredibly useful and inspiring, but don't claim to draw on research.

My analysis - By Maureen Metcalf:

As a consultant who has been working with various tools (models, approaches, and methods) for organizational transformation and change over the past 25 years, I believe there are many approaches, tools and methods that have been successful. Some of them, such as the Malcolm Baldrige assessment are comprehensive and tested by time. Many of the Baldrige winners have sustained success over the years and there have been some who failed shortly after winning the award for various reasons. I would not view any of these tools or methods as the only thing needed to succeed, but as an important part of an overall success strategy. We are seeing now in the current conditions,that companies that appear to do everything right can still fail, but the ones who follow solid principles and business practices - whether Baldrige or Good to Great or others are more likely to succeed. They are also more likely to have built a system that is resilient, that tracks data to indicate when they are at risk, and thus able to change.

Is the book Good to Great helpful? I believe so - it provides one look at what makes companies successful. There have been many over the years and they all had positive and negative elements - none would be - THE TRUTH. My advice to the discerning leader is to select a program that focuses on the basics first then builds on your success. The program should be aligned with the specifics of your strategy and industry. An example could be something like: If customer information is important to customer retention and satisfaction - invest in this and make sure you build a full system to leverage your investment. Make sure people know how to use the system and do so consistently. Make sure the data is kept current. Remove the option to use alternate systems such as spreadsheets so everyone is using and updating the same system. This solution may not be important for other businesses and would prove to have low return on time and money invested.

While the response I posted did not specifically criticize the use of Level 5 Leadership, I would still like to respond to comments I have heard with clients and in MBA classes. The question is "Do we need a Level 5 Leader to succeed"? My response: It depends on your situation - you may benefit from having one but this may not be critical to your success. Companies who have Level 5 Leaders are more likely to successfully transform their organizations. The leader does not need to be the CEO, he or she can be an internal or external advisor. Not all people who test at Level 5 are good leaders. I have a close friend who tests at Level 5 or Strategist using the MAP assessment tool. He is a very talented musician but not qualified to transform businesses. Level 5 as we use it describes specific qualities related to thinking, feeling and doing. These qualities are important in transforming organizations and incomplete. Leaders also need very specific skills related to business, management, and the industry.

Can leaders at earlier levels succeed? Absolutely, we see it every day. Given the various research I have reviewed, between 1.4 - 5% of leaders test at Level 5. If the only way an organization can succeed is to be run by a Level 5 leader we are all in trouble. That said, there are qualities that Level 5 Leaders have that make successful TRANSFORMATION more likely. The qualities include the ability to take more perspectives when solving a problem, the ability to balance many competing goals, the ability to be tough and also show compassion, the ability to make decisions that allow the organization to meet short term objectives while also building toward long term financial and organizational health. The ability to navigate complexity, make tough decisions, and maintain vision and inspire people are all important for organizations undergoing major change.

If I were to pick a public figure who I think demonstrates qualities of a Level 5 Leader, I would select Colin Powell. If I were changing an organization or running any complex organization where I needed a leader who showed solid thinking, an ability to make the tough calls, an ability to engender respect from people at all levels, he is a person I would select.

    * I could take each of the ideas in Good to Great and conduct a similar logic test. They are all solid ideas.
    * Is Good to Great the only way to succeed? Certainly not.
    * Are the ideas helpful? Yes.
    * Is there a one size fits all solution? No.
    * Is there a magic bullet? No.
    * If I follow the principles set forth in Good to Great will I get a return on the investment I spent on making the changes? My experience with clients says yes. While I have limited data, especially over a number of years to prove the value - I have seen clients gain far more value than they spent on their transformation efforts.

I hope my experience and perspective is helpful in considering if the Good to Great approach would be helpful for you. If you are interested, run a small experiment. Try some of the principles in a department or location. Measure the results and see if you are happy with the benefit you are seeing compared to the investment you are making - recognizing that some results will not be visible quickly. While one can question the research methods, the ideas put forth pass the logic test and while they may not make your company great - they will likely make you much better than you are. For many companies - getting better may not ensure your greatness but it will make the difference between survival and failure. Is greatness your goal? Should it be? How does sustainability fit into the picture?

By Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf & Associates, Inc

Photo credits: magic circle by freeparking; beautiful tools by geishaboy 500

Thriving in Turbulent Times - New Workshop Series

We are pleased to announce the first 2 workshops that focus on giving leaders practical tools that will impact your work immediately.

    * Building Transformation Leadership led by Maureen Metcalf

    * Building Resilience led by Belinda Gore, Ph.D.

Workshop - Building Transformational Leadership

March 5, 2009 $100/person

Transformational leadership can consistently transform organizations in the face of ongoing change and even adversity. This is the leadership referenced by Jim Collins in Good to Great as "Level 5 Leadership". In these turbulent times, nearly every organization is facing the need to transform to survive or to thrive. Help your leaders transform themselves and your organization! In this workshop you will:

    * Understand Transformational Leadership (Level 5 Leadership, Jim Collins, Good to Great)

    * Understand your leadership level

    * Identify your leadership goal

    * Determine top priority and create personal action plan

    * Determine top organizational priority to improve organizational leadership effectiveness

At the end of the day you will leave with a workable plan to use transformational leadership to help you achieve your goals! What others are saying about this program:

    * "Now I have a framework going forward. What an exciting future"
    * "Topic and presentation was extremely interesting and relevant to my current situation."
    * "Leaving here today I have a clearer understanding of myself and my future journey of growth."

Workshop - Building Resilience

March 6, 2009 $100/person

Resilience is the ability to adapt and thrive in the face of multiple, ongoing changes and even adversity. In these turbulent times, nearly everyone is facing the need for resilience. Make this current business environment work FOR you! In this workshop you will learn tools and strategies to:

    * Respond to unexpected change with confidence and flexibility

    * Challenge the beliefs and assumptions that drive your decisions and actions   

    * Re-tool your thinking to support resilience  

    * Focus, focus, focus

    * Balance skills with level of challenge

    * Communicate with clarity

At the end of the day you will be able to leave with a workable plan to use turbulence to actually help you achieve your goals! What others are saying about this program:

    * "Great instructor, creative approach, great discussion."
    * "Excellent course!! I'm taking with me several good action items."
    * "Very helpful. I plan to use some of these tools in both job and personal life."

We hope to see you at there!

By Maureen Metcalf of Metcalf & Associates, Inc

Photo Credit Zest-pk

Diplomat Developmental Level

Here is a brief summary of key components of the Diplomat developmental level. Note that while it is helpful to begin thinking about where you perform, it is very difficult to evaluate others accurately. As a reminder the levels progress as follows:

    * Impulsive
    * Opportunist
    * Diplomat - this is where our journey begins
    * Expert
    * Achiever
    * Individualist
    * Strategist - "Level 5"
    * Magician
    * Ironist

To aid in your understanding of the different thought processes and behaviors typical at each level, we’ve created a story about one person’s possible journey through the levels. While the character, Jill, is fiction, she embodies many beliefs and actions that we have experienced as we’ve made our own journeys through development.

The Story of Jill

Jill was the first child to a young couple. Her mother finished law school when Jill was still a baby and became an attorney at a local law firm while her father was a chef at a mid priced restaurant in town. Between the two of them, they made a nice living for Jill and her younger sister, Beth. A normal child growing up in the Midwest, Jill progressed in a pretty typical fashion. Her parents encouraged education and experience so she took piano lessons and played sports. She discovered her talent at athletics, particularly soccer, but was also a good student well liked by her teachers and fellow students.

Around age 14 as she entered high school, Jill started the Diplomat stage. She began focusing on issues such as the different groups at school (nerds, athletes, musicians, etc.), what clothes people were wearing and what accessories were important. Jill began identifying more closely with her peers, specifically the athletes. As such, she pushed her parents to buy her the “right” clothes, accessories and status symbols to match her peers. She began joining her friends in the teasing of those who were lower ranked by status in the school, specifically the nerds. Jill focused on ensuring that those around her and her group knew their status and importance. She kept her own behavior and language within the bounds created by her group. Personal appearance became very important to Jill as she became to believe that a significant part of her value was in her looks. Having the right clothes, hair style, make-up and accessories were critical to her and occasionally created conflict with her parents who apparently failed to recognize their importance. Jill loved to give advice to those around her about how to fit into their world. Her sister enjoyed the help as she tried to navigate junior high school. Anytime Jill “broke” a rule, she felt disappointed in herself and that she let down her friends. She was often concerned with what other people thought about her and those thoughts generally dictated her own self image.

Diplomat Qualities

    * Thinking style -- Concrete operations
    * Focus -- Concerned with social acceptance
    * Interpersonal style -- Conform to the rules and norms of the desired group
    * Problem solving -- Emerging problems often denied
    * Defenses -- Imagine others think and feel the same as they do
    * Coaching style -- Tell others what to do
    * Language signs -- Short stereotype phrases, concrete descriptions and factual information

Questions for Reflection:

    * Who do you work with that appears to have primarily these behaviors?
    * How much do you see yourself in this list of behaviors?

- Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf & Associates, Inc.

Photo credits: Circle of girls - xlordashx Question - alexanderdrachmann

Expert Developmental Level

Here is a brief summary of key components of the Expert developmental level. Note that while it is helpful to begin thinking about where you perform, it is very difficult to evaluate others accurately. As a reminder the levels progress as follows:

    * Impulsive
    * Opportunist
    * Diplomat
    * Expert - As many as 48% of US Managers score at this level
    * Achiever
    * Individualist
    * Strategist - "Level 5"
    * Magician
    * Ironist

To aid in your understanding of the different thought processes and behaviors typical at each level, we’ve created a story about one person’s possible journey through the levels. While the character, Jill, is fiction, she embodies many beliefs and actions that we have experienced as we’ve made our own journeys through development. Jill started moving into the Expert stage as she finished high school and entered college at a state school in a neighboring city. She moved into a dorm with some friends from high school, although her roommate was someone she had never met. Late night conversations with this roommate, an international student with a very different background from Jill’s, pushed her to consider new ideas. While her old friends still held considerable influence, Jill became more aware of her individuality apart from them. Jill learned intellectually and emotionally through her college experiences. She began seeing the many options before her as she considered different majors. Her conversations with her roommate became more meaningful as she explored her new identity. She was thinking more about her role in the world and what traits helped differentiate her from others. As Jill evaluated her skills, she cemented her belief that she was detail oriented and excellent at math. She fell in love with Accounting with its many defined rules and procedures. She quickly became a standout in the department as she studied excessively and rose to the top of the class. Jill started tutoring accounting to get a little extra money. She became well known for her expertise in the field as well as her obsessive questioning of those working with her. She was often found asking why someone took a particular action and defending her own answer. Her professors quickly learned that any deduction on one of her papers would result in an email interrogation about how Jill’s response was correct, if not superior to the professor’s. As she was finishing up her college experience, Jill’s competence attracted the attention of recruiters and she was offered several positions. Jill created a Pros and Cons matrix to evaluate the opportunities but eventually turned to her parent’s for help in making her decision. She took their advice and accepted the job at the Big 4 office in the state capital just a couple hours away from home. Jill settled into her first professional job but did not make friends as easily as she had before. Her first manager seemed to be irritated by Jill’s incessant questioning and her initial annual review was not very good. Indeed, her first review was terrifying to Jill as she was told by those she respects that while her work is fine, she was too intimidating and alienating to those around her to be particularly effective. Her pleasant nature had been overtaken by her perfectionism and it was now negatively impacting her life. In response to the feedback, Jill started to pull back a bit in meetings and watched how other people interact. She still received good marks on her work and her reduced questioning appears to have been well-received. As she evaluated what that meant, she started to transition to the next stage.

Qualities of Expert

    * Thinking style -- Abstract operations, multiple views and permutations
    * Focus -- Expresses individuality in contrast to others: do they measure up to my standards? Can appear perfectionist and judgmental
    * Interpersonal style -- Constant comparison and measuring, perfectionist; Can be critical and blame oriented
    * Problem solving -- Very adept at finding new and better solutions, better ideas, more perfect procedures; Sees multiple possibilities and alternate solutions; May have difficulty evaluating or prioritizing alternative solutions
    * Defenses -- Intellectualizes, rationalizes, and explains away what does not fit their expectations or beliefs; blames structure or tools for not working as they should
    * Coaching style -- As managers, they ask many questions and accumulate facts; Share their opinions freely; Tends to be critical
    * Language signs -- Passive interest in cause (I wonder why?), beginning qualifications and conditions, beginning references to time (sometimes, often)

Questions for Reflection:

Who do you work with that appears to have primarily these behaviors?

How much do you see yourself in this list of behaviors?

- Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf & Associates, Inc.

Photocredits: Scales of Justice - Billogs, Question - Alexanderdrachmann

Achiever Developmental Level

Here is a brief summary of key components of the Achiever developmental level. Note that while it is helpful to begin thinking about where you perform, it is very difficult to evaluate others accurately. As a reminder the levels progress as follows:

    * Impulsive
    * Opportunist
    * Diplomat
    * Expert
    * Achiever -- As many as 35% of US Managers score at this level
    * Individualist
    * Strategist "Level 5"
    * Magician
    * Ironist

To aid in your understanding of the different thought processes and behaviors typical at each level, we’ve created a story about one person’s possible journey through the levels. While the character, Jill, is fiction, she embodies many beliefs and actions that we have experienced as we’ve made our own journeys through development.

Jill is now about 25 years old and working at the Big 4 firm. Her altered behavior has made her more popular although she still doesn’t really understand why. However, with her popularity comes more invitations to join her co-workers for dinner and drinks. As she spends more time with her colleagues, she starts to become aware that her style is not consistent with others. She hires an image consultant to help her appear more professional as this will help advance her career. The restaurants and bars frequented by the group are often filled with designer clothes and adjacent to a parking lot of BMW’s and Acura’s. Jill starts thinking about what she wants out of life and develops a 5 year plan. For the first time since she was a little girl, Jill starts a Journal and writes about her life experience so far. She appreciates seeing the changes in herself. She starts reading biographies as a way to evaluate how other people’s choices helped bring about the lives they enjoyed.

Jill decides that she would like to return to school to earn an MBA. She noticed that many of the senior executives in her company have advanced degrees. Returning to school and getting promoted are part of Jill's 5 year plan. When Jill is not reading or writing, she is working or studying. Her reviews improve as she starts managing her time to better accomplish her 5 year plan. Her task list for each day gets a little longer until she is working 60 hours a week minimum. Her boss notices this and Jill is promoted to the next level. The substantial pay increase allows Jill to buy a house for and her new Audi TT. She is excited about these purchases but has little time to appreciate them. Most of her energy continues to be dedicated to work and school. Jill often attends training events to learn about the latest GAAP or FASB pronouncements. At one of these events, she meets Matthew, an accountant at another firm. As they talk, they find they both value responsibility, family and community. Their courtship is slow as they each work significant hours but they do find time to meet once a week. Jill is delighted as getting engaged was on her 5 year plan and Matthew may be just the right fit for her. After a few years of dating, Matthew proposes. Jill happily accepts and they set a date for another year down the road. Jill’s hours at work reduce just a bit as she plans the wedding but she is still effective enough to receive another promotion. At 31, she is making more money than she thought she could and is about to marry a wonderful man. Jill doesn’t think that life could get much better. The wedding goes off without a hitch and Jill sells her house to move into Matthew’s place as it is quite a bit bigger than hers. They settle happily into married life with both of their careers going strong. About 5 years go by and Jill is still quite happy with her marriage and career. However, the firm she spent her entire working life with is experiencing significant trouble. Indeed, they unexpectedly lay off her whole department. Suddenly, Jill is unemployed.

Qualities of Achiever

    * Thinking style -- Thinks in terms of formal operations, beginning appreciation of conceptual complexity as well as nature of closed systems
    * Focus -- Reasons, causes, achievement, effectiveness, contracts and agreements
    * Interpersonal style -- Has a sense of responsibility and obligation toward others even while they pursue their own agendas and ideas; sees themselves as viable in the larger community, yet separate and responsible for their own choices; conscious of the importance of communication and appreciates mutual expression of differences
    * Problem solving -- Concerned with consequences and priorities; plans their actions; capable of revision and assessment as well as reorienting toward new goals; scientific in orientation, wants to understand why and how and believes scientific solutionsto be sufficient
    * Defenses -- Intellectualizes, rationalizes, suppresses negatives and shadows; concentrates on the positive and what can be done rather than dwelling on the problems
    * Coaching style -- Tends to ask lots of questions; encreasing ability to listen to the experiences of others and play them back without adding their own interpretation
    * Language signs -- Expresses conceptual complexity and explicitly refer to causal relationships, consequences, and priorities; “I” statements are revealing, not cliché and often contain some element of contrast, self criticism, and ownership of responsibilities

Questions for Reflection:

Who do you work with that appears to have primarily these behaviors?

How much do you see yourself in this list of behaviors?

- Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf & Associates, Inc.

Photo credits Achievers - one-fat-man, Question - AlexanderDrachmann

Individualist Developmental Level

Here is a brief summary of key components of the Individualist developmental level. Note that while it is helpful to begin thinking about where you perform, it is very difficult to evaluate others accurately. As a reminder the levels progress as follows:

    * Impulsive
    * Opportunist
    * Diplomat
    * Expert
    * Achiever
    * Individualist - as many as 5% of Business Managers may test at this level
    * Strategist - "Level 5"
    * Magician
    * Ironist

To aid in your understanding of the different thought processes and behaviors typical at each level, we’ve created a story about one person’s possible journey through the levels. While the character, Jill, is fiction, she embodies many beliefs and actions that we have experienced as we’ve made our own journeys through development. The shift into the individualist stage often happens as the result of a significant life change. Job loss is one many people face so we selected this to illustrate how it can cause a shift in perspective.

At 37, Jill is out-of-work and disoriented. She had spent 15 years with the firm that summarily cut her out. She spends the first week after losing her job feeling a bit lost - she is at home all day with no immediate agenda other than figuring out what she wants to do next and this is a question she never imagined she would be asking herself. Matthew is working even more than his usual 60 hours to attempt to ensure he does not meet a similar fate. After a few weeks Jill starts thinking about what this all means for her life. She picks up her Journal and writes down her thoughts about her motivations and choices. She starts thinking about the roles she has made for herself: daughter, employee, boss, wife, etc. Jill withdraws from her social life and becomes more introspective, trying to make peace with what has suddenly happened. However, feeling a need to get up and move, she decides to start karate. She recalls wanting to do karate before but never finding the time. So, she steps in and connects with a new group of people. The individuals in her karate class are different from her other friends and she enjoys learning more about them and their perspectives. Jill talks quite a bit with another man in the class. This other man, Paul, is also a business professional so they have similar backgrounds. However, Paul was laid off several years ago so Jill feels able to relate to her. Paul is back in the workforce, albeit at a different company, and is able to provide a sounding board to Jill as she evaluates her life. Jill starts to deeply value the opinions of those around her, particularly when they differ from her own. This seems new to her as she doesn’t recall input and feedback being so critically important to her before. She is experiencing many things differently as she stretches her mind. She is no longer focusing on what she believes but more on what is happening in the moment. Jill starts meditating to try and capture those in-the-moment feelings. Continuing her relationship with Paul, Jill talks with her about her different selves – she sees how the different parts of herself had taken over at various points in her life. Specifically, how she had weighted the logical, analytical side so heavily during her career that she lost the part of her that loved sports and reading books. She talked with Paul and wrote in her Journal about how to rediscover these different aspects of her personality in a meaningful way. Jill reaches out to her family and spends a couple weeks with her parents asking questions about their beliefs and choices. She is amazed to hear their stories about her childhood and she learned things about herself (and her parents) that she hadn’t known before. For example, as a small girl, she loved to watch her dad cook. She had forgotten that as her focus shifted during her life. In an attempt to re-connect with her younger self, she helped her dad in the kitchen during her visit and was surprised how much she enjoyed slowing down and delving into the different ingredients. It was a sensory, tactical experience that she had devalued during her career when she was focused on all things logical and analytical. As she re-evaluated her perspectives, Jill finds herself becoming more environmentally conscious along with some of her friends from karate. Living in the state capital, she had ample opportunity to join groups focused on environmentalism. Her interest in environmentalism expands and she begins volunteering her time at a nature preserve. During this time period, Jill’s relationship with Matthew became rocky as he was unable to relate to what Jill was going through. Jill spent time thinking about why she got married and what Matthew brought to her life. After much thought and frustrated discussion with Matthew about what she was doing with her life, they sought counseling to work out their differences. While they had drifted apart, they were dedicated to one another and recommitted to one another during this process. Both Jill and Mathew agreed to make changes in their relationship including discovering common activities and making time for one another. During the rekindling of their relationship, Jill began to feel the support she needed to explore options other than returning to accounting. Jill began exploring new career options. She wanted to find work where she could feel satisfied and make a difference in the world. She also wanted to work for an organization that was socially responsible. Her activities exploring different worlds were wonderfully satisfying to her (karate, environmentalism, etc.) but none of them would provide the paycheck she needed to survive.

Jill began exploring what she needed to live. She considered downsizing her house if Mathew would support this choice. She did not want to return to a job that would require her to work so much. She wanted more balance. Her growing awareness of the world around her changed the meaning of all the fancy things and they became just that – things. She felt weighed down by all she had accumulated and wanted to just get rid of it. Jill’s trip to her parents stayed with her and she developed an enduring and unexpected interest in food. She began trying out recipes and finding local farmer’s markets. She started buying organic food and cooking healthy meals. She would often invite her new friends over to taste her food. It took awhile, but she eventually figured out ways to put things like barley and pureed squash together that would win her rave reviews. After developing a whole notebook of recipes, Jill incorporated healthy local dining into her new routine.

Jill decided to take a job as the Executive Director with a large not-for-profit organization focused on developing green jobs in her community. This job allowed her to use her accounting and leadership skills and also work for an organization that addressed a social issue she was passionate about.

Individualist Qualities

    * Cognitive style -- Increasingly aware of systematic thinking and as managers contribute to this broader view; increased appreciation for complexity, a growing appreciation for individual difference, and an ability to think in terms of how complexities and paradox can be integrated into a larger whole; takes into consideration non-linear influences
    * Focus -- Interested in development as an innate human possibility; consciously scrutinizes their beliefs in order to test their assumptions or to relish the novel mental freedom such a maneuver allows; aware that the world is as they see it, not as it is
    * Interpersonal style -- Seeks to respect and understand others; individual differences are respected and celebrated; believes everyone has a voice and should be heard; when managing they can be autocratic or idiosyncratic such that they appear hard to nail down or aloof and unapproachable
    * Problem solving -- Provides creative input to the workplace and novel ways of looking at problems; sees paradoxes rather than contradictions
    * Defenses -- Self deception and culturally biased distortions
    * Coaching style -- Truly appreciates others for their own uniqueness and different perspectives; can have coach or consulting roles to help others become more fully themselves
    * Language signs -- Expresses vivid personal information; rejects should’s and cliche's; moves from “or” or “but” to “and” thinking; explanations contain contingencies, qualifications and contrasting ideas

Questions for Reflection:

Who do you work with that appears to have primarily these behaviors?

How much do you see yourself in this list of behaviors?

 

- Maureen Metcalf at Metcalf & Associates, Inc.

Photo credits: man in rocks - nessman, Question - alexanderdrachmann