This past Wednesday I joined the Leadership High Point Class of ’15 at Ralph Lauren for a program on Leading Through Change conducted by a former graduate. Since creating catalysts for change is the foundation of Coach MKay Companies, LLC I thought it would be terrific to gain insight from another industry leader. What I discovered reminded me that even a seasoned coach can learn new strategies…
The trainer began with distributing an assessment by Discovery Learning, and although many people moan and groan when they are asked to complete an assessment – this group greeted the task with enthusiasm and I was thrilled it took less than 10 minutes to complete. It revealed awareness of three types of profiles people become when dealing with change. The three profiles are 1) Conservers 2) Pragmatists 3) Originators. Take a moment to think about these three words, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Conservative, Practical and Original where the first three words that came to my mind….I was overboard on the originator scale and what was interesting is that I was sitting next to the Fire Chief and I told him, “Ya, know if I was still working at the hospital, I would have had to answer these questions completely different, as a business owner, there was a lot more freedom in my responses.” Your work environment has an impact on your leadership ability.
The next step was to split into the three groups and on a flip chart paper we had to describe what it was like working with the other two groups….so the task began and it was interesting how we all started with the ‘headaches’ associated with each group. Since I usually am the one leading the session, I tried hard to keep quiet and let others do a great deal of the talking (as Mr. Carnegie said) and then one of our group members started sharing the positives of working with this style…that’s when it hit me! It only takes a spark to get a fire going. Yes, I know –that’s a song we used to sing at camp, but how true the statement is! So when you are contributing to discussions in the workplace, are you the one that is always looking for the headaches, negatives or problems – or a red light thinker? Or, are you the one who is looking at the solutions, possibilities or positives – a green light thinker? Sometimes it takes a blend of all three styles to make an organization thrive.
Here are some of the responses:
What’s it like to work with Conservers?
Annoying, inflexible, boring, planners, safe, slow, resistant, follows rules, detail oriented, stubborn, conservative, implementer, anxious.
What’s it like to work with Pragmatists?
Weigh options, indecisive, mediator, practical, consistent, in-consistent, “Yes” people, middle of the road, great team players, good leaders.
What’s it like to work with Originators?
Challenging, the ‘why’ people, questioning authority, UNREALISTIC expectations, rule breakers, sometimes unorganized, experimenters, off task easily, more fun, talkative, entrepreneur.
GUILTY, even an old dog can validate and learn a new assessment tool. Interested in checking out their learning tools? Visit www.DiscoveryLearning.com
