Recently, I joined the Work in Progress (WIP) Podcast, hosted by John Lane and Will Barfield. The full episode can be found on YouTube and is embedded below.
The premise of the content discussed on the podcast is based on a personal assessment tool called the OAD, or Organizational Analysis & Design, which began with me taking a personal assessment prior to the podcast. The cliff notes? I'm an high architect, low in extroversion, mid-point in patience, and mid-point in detail-orientedness (a surprise for me).
Below the embedded video, read more about by superpowers and kryptonite based on these findings. Enjoy and drop me a line with your feedback!
SUPERPOWERS
I am undoubtedly self-confident in my abilities, where I have chosen to apply my time consistently, whether that be professionally or personally. I might not have always shown up as self-confident in a professional context but being in the same business for 10+ years now, I feel there are no situations I don’t feel comfortable/equipped to work through an issue.
One of the superpowers from this fact pattern is being a “detail delegator”, and I think that is only possible for me when I feel extremely comfortable with who I am delegating the details to. As an example, once I found administrative support that that could take a request and produce quality output, I would do the work myself. I am thankful to have a team surrounding me that has made me more comfortable delegating critical tasks and processes.
I do not like when processes are not defined or optimized, and my time is wasted. Rather than stay frustrated, I work to figure out the root cause and try to find the proverbial “throat to choke.” I struggle when I am working with others who do not care to improve a process, are comfortable with mediocrity, and who do not drive toward progress.
Though I am not a natural extrovert, I know being an extrovert is a part of my job; I consider myself an introverted extrovert – I can “turn it on” when needed, even if being around large groups of people doesn’t energize me.
Re: being driving, my sense of urgency when it comes to work demands is rarely matched. A top Vaco producer while being a people leader, always return a call in the day it was received, zero inbox at the end of the day, administratively buttoned up, I feel I need to set the tone for what and how others “rise to the occasion” during busy times.
KRYPTONITE
On perception of being cold, unapproachable: Until the most recent years of my professional life, I stopped short of sharing much about myself at work, cautious in sharing feelings or many emotions other than getting the work done. I’ve developed this skill over time, and it has been helped by the fact that most of my team has been together for a long time, so I feel safer in sharing. As my role as grown with Vaco, I know that I need to open up more than when I was an individual contributor years ago.
On perception of being insensitive, aloof: Along the same lines as the last comment, I try to strip emotions from business and personnel decisions and issues management as much as possible. That isn’t always possible, but I try to stay as neutral as possible in issues between team members, issues with other markets, and the rare client issue that arises. I want people to feel heard and that we are working through a solution with an even-keeled approach.
On perception of rigid, controlling, condescending, impatient, intimidating: I am sure that those I work closely with have felt moments where these traits have come out, though not in the norm. Impatient, of these words, is the most likely to come up if you surveyed my team. I don’t think condescending is likely to come up. Controlling and intimidating are areas I am sure people have felt from me over the years when working through an issue, and areas I try to soften before they come out. In my mind, I’m thinking these thoughts more frequently than they might surface.
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