Leadership - The vision - personalities
The vision - personalities
Directing
When you are arranging meetings to discuss and generate a new vision you will need to manage the people at the meeting.
This in itself requires an understanding of what makes individuals think and act.
You want to get the most out of the meeting so it is a good idea to know how to coax input, allay fears and promote discussion.
You will need an understanding of their personalities.
Extrovert
These people are not afraid to express their views and like to open up discussion and develop ideas. They may have a broad view of what they want without being able to focus on key issues. They have the habit of ‘taking up the stage’ and not letting other views come to the fore.
This can cause resentment in others who feel they have had no opportunity to contribute and hence don’t buy into the process or the vision.
Introvert
Ideas are mulled over internally before a comment is voiced. Their quiet approach can irritate others who feel they are not contributing and hence don’t try to engage them in the discussion. Due to this some very well considered input may be overlooked and they become disinterested.
Visual
Sometimes an individual can easily visualise what is in their mind. However, trying to communicate it to others is either very hard or not necessary in their eyes because it is so obvious.
Logical
You love data and information and without it you find it difficult to assess the current situation and move forward.
An obsession with too much detail makes it hard to take the ‘helicopter’ view and see the ‘big picture’ of a vision. If others don’t see your point of view, based on facts, you are likely to see hurdles and create a negative atmosphere.
This over analytical approach can lead to a detached view at the expensive of the feelings and respect of others.
Social
The impact on people is of prime concern. If there is a conflict with people values the idea is not supported well.
Supporting arguments can be a little vague.
Buy-in
People have a habit of being a little cynical.
To convince people of the vision you must make sure that you promote it enthusiastically and continually.
Beware of a few problems.
- Check that people understand the vision.
- Your own enthusiasm alone will not sell it but without it the vision will quickly die.
- You must live and continually promote the vision at every opportunity.
- Presentations, no matter how good, are short lived in the memory.
Gauging buy-in
You can use a very simple system that will gauge buy-in and get some indirect feedback.
Once you have completed your presentation including replying to any questions that are raised hand around a slip of paper.
Ask the people to write down a number up to 10 that reflects their level of buy-in to the vision.
You are looking for scores of 8 plus.
At the same time, ask them to add any questions or issues that if resolved to their satisfaction would raise the score to 8 plus.
You can then discuss the issues and questions and either allay fears or modify the vision to take into account some of these issues.
If you fully understand your vision you should be able to distil it down into a 30 second or 2 minute version to aid impact.
Communication chain
Remember that the way to influence is slowly.
Start by presenting your vision to key individuals and wait for a period of time to gain general acceptance down the chain of command.
Hopefully, the first level will, in turn, influence their teams.
When the idea has been considered and discussed at a lower level you can present it more fully and officially to a wider audience.
At this stage if you gauge buy-in you will have a lot less problems and better acceptance.