Andy Raynor - Beyond the Brief
Andy Raynor's blog
Plastic cutlery?
For a reason I’ll
explain only for a fee, I’ve just completed one of
those online shrink tests that are intended to
reveal your inner axe-murderer.
You know the type of thing – it asks a range of seemingly irrelevant questions and then leaps to the conclusion that, rather than counselling as a career, you’d be better off invading Poland.
The way people react to these is more revealing than the analysis itself. I worked with a man – robust, bright, challenging – who had a mystery illness every time such an exercise was proposed. Eventually, as you probably would expect, we took the textbook HR approach.
We ambushed him.
It turned out that he was truly fearful of his own perception of himself. And that perception was a way distant from what everyone else saw. HE thought of himself as an indecisive manager, blinded by self-doubt and lost in a role beyond him. WE, on the other hand, viewed him as an intelligent, self-motivated leader who was left almost entirely alone to get on with the job.
In this case, a little more support went a very long way. And from the mind of the man himself, the few extra percentage points of confidence were transformational.
So the value in the exercise isn’t in the precision of the result but in our perspectives. We’re not going to change the way someone is, but we can change the way we react to them, and understand more about how they react to us.
The lesson? Self-awareness is something you have to be taught. The impact you have on people may be totally different to the one you intend. I have never known anyone who does not need to know more about their effect on others. Do not be too arrogant to ignore this, or too afraid of the result to avoid it.
Approach these exercises with the belief that there is no right or wrong, there is simply what you are. That is going to be good enough, but it can be better. The more you know about yourself, and what you do to others, the more complete a leader you will be.
Tell me what you think at andy@andypraynor.com
And take a look at what's been said before by looking in the archive:
© Andy Raynor 2013