Preston Smalley

As part of my leadership course at UC Berkeley I recently took a hybrid self-assessment, facilitated by CPP, which combines the power of Myers-Briggs’ MBTI with a less well known assessment called FIRO-B.

First introduced by William Schutz in 1958, the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation (FIRO), analyzes the dimensions of Inclusion, Control and Affection. It also probes on behaviors you tend to express as well as those that you wish others to demonstrate. Recently repositioned by CPP this tool is now rising in popularity.

The assessment and analysis uses the three FIRO dimensions to further color the factors used in the MBTI. The tool really helped me better understand my leadership style. It outlines areas of strengths as well as potential challenges I may face. Finally it provided a detailed action plan that I could utilize in developing my career plan.

Whether you are trying to better understand yourself or are looking for a tool to use in developing a career plan for someone you manage, this assessment is worth a look.

Take Assessment [Cost = $120 for 3 reports Leadership, MBTI, and FIRO-B]

I have to admit I’m a junkie for the Gallup Press line of business books and Tom Rath’s latest Vital Friends is no exception. Rath asserts that we all are motivated and deeply affected by the friends that we keep. They play a key role in how happy we are, whether we stay at our current job, and even the success of our careers.

Vital Friend: noun 1. someone who measurably improves your life. 2. a person at work or in your personal life whom you can’t afford to live without.

Rath goes on to define eight types of vital friends:

• Builder - Motivator and Coach
• Champion – Stand up for you and show loyalty
• Collaborator – Shares a passion with you
• Companion - Always there for you
• Connector – Helps introduce you to others
• Energizer - Help motivate you and make you smile
• Mind Opener – Expand your horizons and introduce new ideas
• Navigator - Advice you on future direction

I’ve found it incredibly useful to reflect on the friends in my life and understand the role they are playing. For example, my wife is my companion, collaborator, and champion. It is important that I appreciate this fact as it has a tremendous influence on my outlook at work.

People with a least three close friends at work were 96% more likely to be extremely satisfied with their life.

Also for people managers out there, understanding the importance of your team members forming vital friends at work is critical. Having them contributes to job satisfaction while the absence can often lead to attrition.

Employees who have a close friendship with their manager are more than 2.5 times as likely to be satisfied with their job.

So stop what you’re doing right now and go make a friend.

In reading What Makes a Leader? (Goleman) I learned that while technical skills and IQ are important for senior managers to succeed it is emotional intelligence that is actually the most critical. As a long-time believer in soft skills I did not have any difficulty believing this assertion.

Emotional Intelligence’s Five Components:

1. Self-Awareness: The ability to identify and name one’s emotional states and to understand the link between emotions, thought and action.
2. Self-Regulation: The capacity to manage one’s emotional states — to control emotionsor to shift undesirable emotional states to more adequate ones.
3. Motivation: The ability to enter into emotional states (at will) associated with a drive to achieve and be successful.
4. Empathy: The capacity to read, be sensitive to, and influence other people’s emotions.
5. Social Skill: The ability to enter and sustain satisfactory interpersonal relationships.
   Above as defined by Daniel Goleman & Peter Salovey.

Personal Reflection

In thinking of some of the most effective leaders that I’ve worked with over the years, I definitely see that they have shown strengths in emotional intelligence. And conversely as I think of hot-head or sell-absorbed leaders who were less effective–they obviously would score low on this assessment. Fortunately for all aspiring leaders most of the leading thinkers on this topic believe that while some EI is innate, much can be improved or learned with time.

For example, I am not always a great listener which hurts my ability to emphasize. Thru conscious effort I hope to improve in this area. If you know me personally, let me know how I’m doing.

Want to know more?

• Article: What Makes a Leader? [$] (HBR Nov-Dec 1998)
• Assessment: Emotional Inventory [$] (HayGroup) – Basic Quiz [FREE]
• Book: Primal Leadership (Goleman)

In the article How to Play to Your Strengths I learned about a career planning technique that focuses on 100% positive feedback—that’s right no “constructive feedback”.

The article outlines that it’s human nature to focus on the negatives (when asked people remember four negative memories for every single positive one). And yet far too often, we as managers focus on developing weaknesses in ourselves and our teams. I’m a firm believer in the philosophy put forward by Gallup Researchers Buckingham and Clifton in Now, Discover Your Strengths which, as the title suggests, focuses on the positive qualities in yourself and your teams.

Reflected Best Self (RBS) Exercise

Unlike most performance exercises, this one focuses entirely on positive feedback—no negative or “constructive” comments. Here are the four steps to this process:

1. Identify Respondents and Ask for Feedback
   Gather feedback from a broad set of sources, including people you don’t currently work with (e.g. family members, friends, teachers). Avoid conducting it alongside traditional evaluation methods which include a negative focus
2. Recognize Patterns
   While the sources of input will be varied, try to identify common themes.
3. Compose your Self-Portrait
   Take the patterns that emerged and your own self-observations and write a prose narrative that describes “When I am at my best, I…”.
4. Redesign Your Job
   Based on what you learn about yourself you may change how you work and what tasks you delegate to your team.

The self-portrait developed out of this exercise seems like a useful tool to motivate and align one’s efforts at work.

Want to know more?

• Article: How to Play to Your Strengths [$] (HBR Jan 05)
• Assessment: Reflected Best Self Exercise [$] (Univ. Michigan)
• Book & Assessment: Now, Discover Your Strengths (Buckingham, Clifton)

Peter Drucker is a firm believer in “feedback analysis”, the process of comparing your past expectations with the actual results. In his article Managing Oneself I learned that this approach was actually popularized by John Calvin and Ignatius Loyola in the 16^th Century and helped contributed to the success of the Calvinist and Jesuit movements. The concept of feedback analysis has four elements:

1. Concentrate on your strengths
2. Improve your strengths
3. Overcome intellectual arrogance
4. Avoid areas of weakness

Understanding how I perform and learn
Drucker first asks whether you are a reader or a listener? I’ve known for years that I’m a reader and visual learner. He also asks whether you perform best as a decision maker or an advisor. For me I excel in the advising role and love all the analysis and preparation that goes into a recommendation for a decision maker. Drucker would recommend that I focus on honing that ability rather than assume that I would also be good at decision making saying also that it is very difficult to change oneself. Many people over the years in the Number 2 role fail when promoted to the Number 1 position.

Understanding your values
If you are working somewhere whose organizational values are in direct conflict with your own values, then you will constantly be frustrated in your role there. Some examples:

• Short vs. long-run company goals
• Hiring philosophy (promote within vs. hire outside)
• Quantity vs. Quality

Hense the importance of knowing your strengths.

On Being Ready
What Jack Welch calls “luck” and Guiliani calls “being ready”, Drucker points out how to be successful we must be prepared for opportunities:

“Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunties because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values. Knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person—hard-working and competent but otherwise mediocre-into an outstanding performer.” – Peter Drucker

Which leads us to Drucker’s important question which resonated with me: “What should my contribution be?” In today’s society this is not dicated to you as it once was perhaps 100 years ago. We must choose our path and ideally that path is a natural fit with our strengths and values.

Want to know more?

• Article: Managing Oneself [$] (Drucker, HBR Jan 2005)
• Book: The Effective Executive (Drucker 2006)