10 key behavioural competences of people to understand what is going on. Small sample of my collection.
These are 10 type of people , regardless their rank
Radiators. A good warm feeling about them and around them. They tend to create a pleasant environment. They are welcoming, generous and grateful. They also tend to create a good energy around.
Escalators. They defer decisions to a higher level. They push back the issues outside them. Usually up. Also said of people who are looking for promotion all the time. Give them a small problem, don’t worry, you’ll get back two.
Refrigerators. They block progress one way or another. They freeze decisions, or simply they don’t follow them up. They also may slow down things by turning the heat down, and down, until it’s all hibernation.
Decorators. They like reorganizations and changes of processes and systems. They change the look of things. It’s not a profound change, just a different look. There seems to be a huge tribe of them in some quarters. Entire Big Consulting Companies have built Decorating Empires.
Innovators. They create new things. They like to do things in different and better ways all the time. They look for the better ways and improvements. They nag and irritate others by getting restless with the default position. Can’t sit still, oh dear!
Navigators. They ride the network of connections inside the organization, they don’t have a lot of problem with ambiguity, and, on the whole, they get things done. Bad wind, good wind, they sort out challenges and move forward. I love them.
Speculators. They spend quite a lot of time in double guessing and thinking what other people may think about things, or what the leadership thinks or may think or will think.
Incinerators. The are very good at killing a good idea, by bringing in all possibilities on how that might not work. There is always a funny smoky smell around them.
Interrogators. They question the questions and anything that moves. They tend to provide very few answers. They are the 11th hour providers of the most useful question, 10 minutes from closure: ‘but what is the strategy?’
Decapitators. They love to share responsibility for things, so nobody is truly accountable.
On a more serious note, leaders need to know their people and the behavioural patterns around. Our internal ‘employee segmentation’ is very poor and usually stops at performance: contributors, under performers, excellent performers etc. The HR performance management classification, useful as it may be for other things, says nothing about the type of behavioural influence of people, and on people.
Other categories still in my anthropology cupboard. I have an entire competency system of this type. But these 10 are my showcase. For the moment.
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