In a Nutshell
The most effective managers
appreciate the diversity of their subordinates' personalities. Personality
diversity can make communication and coordination of activities more difficult
at times, but diversity has its advantages. Diverse groups that give
the extra effort to understand and accept each other's personalities tend
to produce higher quality decisions
than groups that are either (a) homogeneous or (b) don't manage their diversity
well.
In This Issue
What Do Semel and Levinson Have in Common?
What do Yahoo! Inc.'s CEO,
Terry Semel (in the photo on the left above), and Genentech Inc.'s CEO,
Arthur Levinson (right), have in common? It's not their decision-making
approaches. Semel is described as "methodical and rigorous in his
decision making," while Levinson is more inclined to "trust his science
'gut' when deciding where to place his bets." What these CEOs have
in common is that they made Business Week magazine's most recent
list of the Best Managers of the Year.1
One of the keys to being
an effective manager is understanding that each decision-making style has
its advantages and disadvantages--there is no single best approach to decision
making for every situation. Intuitive decision making works well
in some situations (e.g., complex or ambiguous situations), and a detail-oriented
approach works well for others (e.g., highly structured situations).
Having a proclivity for one approach or the other doesn't really determine
whether a manager will be successful. A manager simply needs to understand
the advantages of her/his style and appreciate the value of working with
people who have a different approach.
Appreciating Personality Diversity
Personality is defined as
enduring patterns in a person's thoughts, feelings and behaviors across
situations. Personality traits are behavioral predispositions.
Many things other than our personalities affect how we react to various
situations and interact with other people, so our personality traits are
not hard-and-fast rules for predicting our behaviors, but they are behavioral
tendencies. Personality dimensions are the areas in which our personalities
differ. For instance, a bullfighter or an entrepreneur might be very
low on the "risk aversion" dimension. That is, they are willing to
pursue fairly risky courses of action. In contrast, loan officers
should probably be higher in risk aversion. I want the loan officers
at my credit union to carefully scrutinize the loan applications they receive,
and to avoid making risky loans.
Appreciating the diverse
personalities of the people we interact with helps us to understand why
they act the way they do and how to get the most out of them. For
instance, there are advantages to lower risk aversion (e.g., willingness
to be innovative and adventurous) and higher risk aversion (e.g., fewer
errors). Appreciating personality diversity means respecting the
strengths and limitations of each individual, and knowing how to capitalize
on each individual's strengths. There is no "one best way" when it
comes to risk aversion. Some decisions are best approached from a
risk-averse perspective, and others from the opposite perspective.
With regard to this risk aversion example, appreciating personality diversity
means following risk-averse people when risks must be minimized, and following
the risk-takers when it's time to be bold.
Appreciating personality
diversity is the opposite of dogmatically expecting everyone to view situations
the way you do--no matter how successful you have been using your approach.
We don't all think alike, but that's often a good thing.
Practicing This Management
Skill
In many ways, increasing
awareness of personality diversity is a lot like developing self-awareness.
One of the most effective ways to understand the personalities of the people
you work with is to ask them to fill out a personality inventory and discuss
their results with the group. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
is a popular personality inventory. The questionnaire has 100 questions,
and it describes personalities on four dimensions. (Although we often
use the term "personality test," measures like the MBTI do not suggest
that any personality type is better than others. There are no good
or bad scores; just descriptions of the thought, feeling and behavior patterns
of people with various personality traits.) Keirsey has similar personality
inventories on-line at www.keirsey.com.
LeaderLetter subscribers have recommended the inventories at QueenDom.com
to me, but I have not had a chance to look them over myself. Once
you and your co-workers have completed personality inventories, you can
form groups to discuss your results and how your personalities relate to
your work experiences. Naturally, this sort of activity is most productive
when lead by a trained facilitator.
A few cautions are in order
before you start shoving personality inventories at your staff. First,
people can be suspicious of personality inventories. A couple of
years ago someone wrote Anne Fisher, Fortune magazine advice columnist,
and expressed concerns about being asked by a consultant to fill out a
personality inventory at work. Management said that the personality
inventory was going to be used in a training and development activity,
but the writer wondered whether management was actually setting up grounds
for dismissal. My initial reaction to reading that letter was, "How
paranoid! No one would ever lose his or her job over an MBTI score."
But, the concern isn't completely irrational (just 99%). After all,
personality inventories are sometimes used for pre-employment screening
of job applicants. For many people, the last personality inventory
they filled out was part of a job application process. So, it's important
to keep in mind that some people will worry about what will happen to them
if they give the "wrong" answers. Anything that can be done to allay
their fears is worth considering (e.g., confidentiality and self-scoring
the inventories).
Second, some people consider
their personality information too personal to share. Efforts to build
appreciation for personality diversity must respect individuals' privacy.
While most people are willing to share their personality inventory results,
don't assume that everyone is. Encourage people to open up and share,
but don't pressure them.
Finally, I am against automatically
excluding a person from an opportunity because her/his personality isn't
best suited for the challenge. Consider this dilemma: If you were
a sales manager, would you hire an introvert to work on your sales team?
It's a tough decision. All else equal, an introvert would be less
likely to succeed in sales than an extrovert because sales jobs tend to
require gregariousness and assertiveness (behavior traits typical of extroverts,
not introverts). However, we know that there are some top salespeople
who are introverted. Due to superior drive, intellect or something
else, those individuals overcome the disadvantage of having a personality
that's not ideal for the job. It can be difficult and stressful to
overcome a lack of personality-job fit (and sometimes it makes sense to
switch to a better fitting job), but overcoming that lack of fit with extra
effort is possible.
Of course, you don't have
to discuss personalities with others to increase your appreciation for
personality diversity. Simply studying personality traits and thinking
about how they apply to yourself and to the people you interact with can
help you become somewhat more aware of personality diversity.
In Summary ...
People with different personalities
have different inherent strengths and weaknesses. For this reason,
the best groups are made up of members with diverse personalities who learn
to appreciate and put to use each other's strengths. Managers should
promote an appreciation for personality diversity. Discussions of
personality inventories, especially when facilitated by an expert, can
be an effective way to foster such appreciation.
Note
1. The Best Managers. Business Week; 1/13/2003 Issue 3815,
pp 56-68.
Photo Credit
Photo
of Semel: AFP/YAHOO/File, e-mailed to me from Yahoo! News, news.yahoo.com.
Photo of Levinson:
http://www.genentech.com/gene/about/management/images/levinson.jpg, accessed
April 29, 2004.
Sources
Robbins, S. P. (2001).
Organizational
behavior, (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
About the Newsletter
and Subscriptions
LeaderLetter is written
by Dr. Scott Williams, Department of Management, Raj
Soin College of Business, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.
It is a supplement to my MBA 751 - Managing People in Organizations class.
It is intended to reinforce the course concepts and maintain communication
among my former MBA 751 students, but anyone is welcome to subscribe.
In addition, subscribers are welcome to forward this newsletter to anyone
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E-mail Your Comments
Whether you are one of my
former students or not, I invite you to share any insights or concerns
you have regarding the topic of this newsletter or any other topic relating
to management skills. Please e-mail
them to me. Our interactions have been invaluable. I
learn a lot from LeaderLetter subscribers! Let's
keep the conversation going.
To: All staff, Los Alamos National Laboratory
From: Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor
Re: Necessary Security Changes
Due to an unfortunate overreaction by the 9/11 Commission to our minor security problems, we will need to implement a few changes at Los Alamos National Laboratory to increase security.
Effective Monday:
1. The brown paper bag in which we store the computer disk drives that contain the nation's nuclear secrets will no longer be left on the picnic table at the staff commissary during lunch hour. It will be stored in the vault.
2. The three-letter security code for accessing the vault will no longer be "M-O-M." To confuse spies, that security code will be reversed. Please do not tell anyone or write the code on the vault.
3. Researchers bearing a security clearance of Level 5 and higher will no longer be permitted to exchange updates on their work by posting advanced-physics formulas on the men's room walls.
4. Staff members will no longer be allowed to take home small amounts of plutonium, iridium or uranium for use in those "little weekend projects around the house." That includes those of you who have used those materials to help your children with their science fair projects.
5. We are indefinitely suspending our policy of permitting staff members to check out thermonuclear devices for "recreational use." We have not yet decided whether exceptions will be made for Halloween, the Fourth of July or New Year's Eve. We will keep you posted.
6. Employees may no longer "borrow" the AA batteries from the burglar alarm system to power their Game Boys and compact-disc players during working hours.
7. When reporting for work each day, all employees must enter through the front door. The janitor has been instructed to discontinue the practice of admitting employees who tap three times on the side door to avoid clocking in late.
These additional security measures are not intended to be punitive. The goal is simply to demonstrate to the public our commitment to protect the valuable national secrets that have been entrusted to our care. Remember, security isn't a part-time job; it's an imperative, all 37 1/2 hours of the week!
