A New Generation of Independent Leaders 

It’s the start of your day. Are you focused entirely on what you need to do for others or are you thinking more about how to do it and do it all on your own? People who are naturally more independent of others have no hidden agenda. In fact, what you see if often what you get. They are no-nonsense folks focused on going it alone and getting it done. And, it’s these naturally independent and self-reliant people, who are transforming the world of business today.

Born between 1965 and 1980, Generation X’ers are taking up the leadership roles in organizations and are starting to do some of the heavy lifting being left behind by retiring Baby Boomers and not yet ready to be picked up by the Millennials. And what makes this generation so unique both in its demographics and in its emotional intelligence is a natural inclination toward independence and self-reliance. According to the PEW Research Center, “From everything we know about them, they’re savvy, skeptical and self-reliant; they’re not into preening or pampering, and they just might not give much of a hoot what others think of them. Or whether others think of them at all.”

In the Lumina Emotion personalized assessment, people who are independent of others can be more skeptical and not inclined to trust easily. They like to get to the point, get it done and often like to do it their own way. This attitude may have worked in the past for the Gen X’er, but as leaders taking the reins in business today, it may be time to invite more people to the table and develop the ability to place more trust in others.

If you are generally more independent at work, consider having more regard for others by being on the lookout for things that you value in other people. Acknowledging the strengths and good qualities of other people will help you to be more open and accepting. Try to recognize the way other people react to you emotionally to improve your interpersonal understanding. While you may have the ability to stand alone, there is no need to prematurely shut down others. When you sense that you are getting exasperated easily, make an extra effort not to interrupt and hear others out in full before making up your mind. 

Being independent of others does not imply that you are not a team player. Independent individuals are intrinsically motivated to achieve. For Gen X’ers, it’s this motivation to achieve which will likely make them great leaders and strong managers once they learn they can’t always go it alone. 

For more information on Lumina Emotion, email me at info-us@luminalearning.com or call (888) 827-8855. 

Are Great Leaders Un-Leaders?

 

In a recent interview with Forbes, Kronos Incorporated CEO Aron Ain attributes their Glassdoor 100 Best Places to Work distinction to the practice of Un-Leadership. Ain explains, “Un-leaders are humble. They put employees first. They downplay the status that comes with their titles, preferring to put team members on the same level as they are.”

It seems then that un-leadership is less about what you are doing but more about how you are doing it. In many ways, un-leaders are leveraging the power of their own Emotional Intelligence to suit the changing demands of workers today … no matter what they may be. It’s a process strongly supported by Lumina Learning’s pioneering new model of emotional intelligence that focuses on our agility in understanding, adapting and managing our emotions day-to-day in order to guide effective thinking and meaningful behavior.

At Kronos, having regard for others is critical to their methodology of un-leadership and a keyLumina Emotion personalized assessment, those high in regard for others tend to naturally be more accepting and open. They pay more attention and will listen to fully to ensure they understand other’s perspective. Many are optimistic, upbeat and tend to the see positive in a situation. However, when overextended, they may sacrifice their own needs to please others. It’s a distinction made clear at Kronos, a
contributor to building an organization where everyone loves to work.

In the“All of this is not to suggest that Un-Leaders are ‘people pleaser’ types who shrink from making tough decisions. Quite the contrary: Un-leaders know how to step up and exert their will when they need to,” explained Ain in the Forbes article. “On a deeper level, though, they understand that real power and influence come not from status and a sense of superiority, but from the affection, admiration, and respect we’re able to engender in our team members.”
It’s an understanding derived from self-awareness, and awareness of others; to manage and choose one’s emotional response to any situation. At Kronos Incorporated, they are using this awareness to build “un-leaders” who are creating a best place to work culture. As individuals, we can use this same awareness to examine our own unique patterns of behaviors and how we might tune up or tune down to suit the needs of our environment for greater interpersonal effectiveness.

For more information on Lumina Emotion, email me at info-us@luminalearning.com or call (888) 827-8855.

Learn about Lumina Emotion here

Bring Out the Best in Your People

More and more organizations are recognizing that individuals and leaders who are self-aware tend to be better at managing their emotions, influencing others, and building strong, collaborative relationships.

To help employees develop self-awareness, companies often use one of the various psychometric assessments available on the market.  Unfortunately, many of these tools were developed decades ago and are still using old thinking with regard to individuals and personalities. They focus on categorizing people into specific “types,” without acknowledging the vast complexity of the human personality.

This approach has been widely criticized, especially in the academic world, as being too limiting. In fact, according to a recent Fortune magazine article, personality “typing” has been subject to sustained criticism by professional psychologists for more than 30 years.

One of the key criticisms is that “typing” mistakenly assumes that personality falls into mutually exclusive categories. For example, you are either an introvert OR an extravert. You are either logical OR emotional. Typing assigns an individual all of the characteristics of a trait without any of the characteristics of the opposite of that trait. The danger in this, of course, is that when organizations use these typing tools their culture can become biased toward one type or another. For example, they may associate a particular type with leadership more strongly than other types and may even eliminate one or more types from leadership consideration. The result is that employees who are not this type but want to become leaders will either try to change who they are, or become disengaged, or leave. This is not bringing out the best in people and helping them feel like valued contributors. 

Evaluative bias threatens personal satisfaction and contributes to an organizational culture of disengagement.  The first damages employee happiness and well-being, while the second damages the bottom line.  According to recent Gallup studies, disengaged employees can cost US organizations up to $605 billion each year in lost productivity.

Humans are far too complex to be categorized as either/or, or to be segmented into particular types.  They may display more characteristics of a trait (or its opposite) based on a particular situation. Reducing the complexity of the human personality into such a narrow scope can limit an individual in their own eyes, and in the eyes of others. It is both limited and limiting.

Fortunately, there are emerging, state-of-the-art psychometric assessments that help to eliminate evaluative bias.  These are tools that do not type people, instead they scientifically measure behaviors exhibited or qualities a person utilizes.  Even better are the ones that embrace “and” thinking as opposed to “either/or” thinking. These are the ‘open-system’ tools where you measure each factor individually.  Therefore, a person’s unique gifts and talents are highlighted. 

National Geographic’s publication Your Personality Explained, called the Big5 the cutting edge approach to measuring personality because it doesn’t categorize people as “types,” but rather empirically and scientifically measures each of their 5 personality factors for a more unique and comprehensive picture. Assessments based on the Big5 principle are one step in the right direction.

No matter what you choose to use in your organization to help raise employees’ self-awareness, be mindful of the effects that creating an atmosphere that rewards or limits certain ‘types’ of people can have on employee morale.  Instead, help your employees look for hidden gems and talents in each other; help them see the uniqueness each person has to offer.  Help them feel valued, and watch them contribute.  Bring out the best in your people and they will bring out the best in your organization. 

Cheers to Deeper Diversity,

Rebecca Bales

Global Partner Lumina Learning

Contact us at info-us@luminalearning.com to learn about upcoming Lumina events. 

Discovering Hidden Gems of Talent on Your Teams

As leaders, most of us probably think we know our teams and their capabilities pretty well.  We interview with the intent of matching skills and competencies to job descriptions, and we manage performance based on employees meeting the requirements of their jobs as described. 

And yet, 62% of employees feel that their skills are often underutilized, according to a survey by Lee Hecht Harrison, a career transition and talent development consulting firm.

Employees who do not have the opportunity to fully use their abilities tend to be bored and/or unhappy, less productive, and more likely to look for employment elsewhere. This, in turn, impacts the organization because disengaged employees are not achieving their full potential. Leaders often contribute to this by failing to recognize, explore and/or leverage strengths that employees have beyond what their current role requires.

So how do leaders discover and unlock the untapped potential on their teams?

In my work using the Lumina Spark assessment with teams, we’ve been able to demonstrate tremendous benefits when it comes to finding the “hidden gems” of talent on teams. Lumina Spark looks at three personas: 1) the Underlying, which is how a person behaves most naturally; 2) the Everyday, which is how a person shows up at work based on their role and what’s expected of them; and 3) the Overextended, which is how someone behaves under stress.

Recognizing the Underlying persona and identifying the qualities associated with that persona can reveal some undiscovered talent that may have been dormant because it wasn’t required in the current work environment. For example, a person may show a high degree of “imaginative” in their underlying persona but show much less of that quality in their Everyday persona because in their current role they work more with facts and data. Now, let’s say the team has stalled in coming up with a new approach to a particular process or task. Leveraging that team member’s untapped imaginative quality provides an opportunity to get the team unstuck.   Not only will it help the team, it will help the individual become more engaged and motivated by having the opportunity to use a strength that has been idle.

Take a look at your current team initiatives. What are your goals, challenges, and needs?  Are there hidden gems within your team that could raise your effectiveness in meeting these goals? In addressing some of your challenges? As an answer to your needs?

Would you recognize the strengths someone on your team might bring to the table if, in fact, those strengths seem opposite to their currently recognized strengths and job role definition?  Are you aware of how to find the power of passion for your individual team members?  If you can tap into this, you don’t ever need to worry about employee engagement.

You can learn the answers to these and more questions and begin to propel your team forward with Lumina Spark.  Contact me at info-us@luminalearning.com or 888.827.8855 to learn more.