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People are different. They think differently and approach problems in different ways. We used to think external environmental factors played the biggest role, but now the new science of “biological anthropology” is revealing how individuals may be hard-wired to think and approach problems a certain way. We call this hard-wiring “work styles.”
There are four primary “work styles” and each individual represents a unique combination of these four styles. Most of us though, display a tendency to use one or two work styles. “All the styles bring useful perspectives and distinctive approaches to generating ideas, making decisions, and solving problems.” All the styles matter.
The United States and Corporate America has tended to favor individuals with two particular workstyles - the Pioneers (think: innovators) and Drivers (think: results producers), but in times of crisis, the two other workstyles - Guardians (think: protectors) and Integrators (preservers of human capital) may be so much more valuable. Unfortunately, in normal times, Guardians and Integrators are marginalized and our business practices favor Pioneers and Guardians.
More now than ever, managers need to be able to pivot. If your organization has been severely impacted and navigating one’s way through the COVID-19 crisis is important to your organization, then understanding employee workstyles and adopting new team engagement and collaboration methods is vital. This article provides some practical details for achieving this vital shift towards “guardian” and “integrator” workstyle thinking.
Monday, April 6, 2020, around 3:30 pm... The over-the-phone collaboration session is not going well (sound familiar?). Work on a vital service contract - the kind no one can afford to lose at this point in time - is being fought over. On the one side, the CEO/Founder: a visionary, an ideas person, a lover-of-brainstorming, and a passionate “includer.” On the other side, the COO: a pragmatist, a process person, a hater-of-unfocused effort, and a person who measures success by what they produce on any given day. The challenge is that in 25 hours, the planning document is due for delivery and the work is only about 45% complete. The CEO wants to brainstorm and ideate before focusing. The COO wants laser focus on completing line by line, the document. He fears the time is too short and knows an “all-nighter” is out of the question. Each is frustrated, in part because beyond the work, they each have personal issues.
The CEO is isolated in New York, has experienced the postponement of a major annual event that was supposed to deliver sustaining revenues, plus her elderly parents are both not well. The CEO is stressed. The COO also isolated at home, is a high-risk person very susceptible to COVID-19. He’s already been hospitalized this year with heart and respiratory issues. His other income sources have all but disappeared and investments he made in attractive start-ups in 2019 look to be falling off the rails. The COO is stressed.
They argue back and forth. Both want to work the problem of producing the planning document in a different way. Neither is ready or willing to change their minds and try the other’s approach. Both want the same thing - to complete the work, to deliver on time, to get paid - yet neither can remotely see that the other person’s approach has any possible chance of success. They fight over the phone with other team members on the line. It is not pretty. This is not the in-sync team that everyone is used to. If they were in grade school, the teacher would both give them a “time out.”
What they have had is a clash of “work styles” at a time when any clash is unhealthy and is extremely unsettling for staff.
Understanding workstyles is the first step to being able to avoid such destructive and stress-adding confrontations that make surviving the COVID-19 crisis that much harder.
What is a work style?
In the April 10th article, we talked about understanding the need to understand the different work styles, and how it is probably necessary to know each team member's workstyle in times of stress so we may adapt management practices to improve team cohesion and productivity in the current circumstances.
The idea of “work styles” has been in the spotlight since the idea was broadly publicized in the Harvard Business Review’s focus on “The New Science of Teamwork” in its March-April 2017 Issue. The rationale for a focus on individual workstyles is that many executives feel their organizations are not getting the best performance from their teams and collaborative efforts. In fact, quantitative tests Grahampton & Co. performed to test this hypothesis revealed that on any given day, an organization should only expect to achieve a measure of about 55% productivity in casually-structured, collaboration meetings. (Reference: Connect Enterprises, Leadership Development Program, Lisbon Portugal, 2018)
“Weak teamwork and weak team management” is a message we hear from many of our clients. The problem is teamwork is essential when wrestling with complex challenges ranging from workforce planning to culture transformation. It is even more essential when we work to address the challenges the Coronavirus Pandemic has created.
What research suggests is that the fault doesn’t lie with the team members. Rather, it rests with leaders who fail to effectively recognize and foster diverse work styles and perspectives—even at the senior-most leadership levels. Most managers just do not recognize how meaningful the differences between their people are. Just as many managers don’t know how to manage the tensions that arise between workstyles or understand the costs of not managing workstyles. The authors of the article so aptly summarized: “As a result, some of the best ideas go unheard or unrealized, and performance suffers.”
The HBR article explains a system called “Business Chemistry”. The system identifies four primary work styles. While each of us is a composite of all four styles, “most people’s behavior and thinking are closely aligned with one or two. All the styles bring useful perspectives and distinctive approaches to generating ideas, making decisions, and solving problems.”
The Four Work Styles: Pioneers, Guardians, Drivers, Integrators
Pioneers value possibilities, and they spark energy and imagination in their teams. They believe risks are worth taking and that it’s fine to go with your gut. Their focus is big-picture. They’re drawn to bold new ideas and creative approaches.
Guardians value stability, and they bring order and rigor. They’re pragmatic, and they hesitate to embrace risk but they can analyze it well. Data and facts are baseline requirements for them, and details matter. Guardians think it makes sense to learn from the past.
Drivers value challenges and generate momentum. Getting results and winning count most. Drivers tend to view issues as black-and-white and tackle problems head-on, armed with logic and data.
Integrators value connection and draw teams together. Relationships and responsibility to the group are paramount. Integrators tend to believe that most things are relative. They’re diplomatic and focused on gaining consensus.
The idea is that to be proactive and to get more from our team, team leaders need to understand their own work style and those of their team members. Equipped with this knowledge, team leaders can learn and employ collaboration strategies for accomplishing shared goals. In theory, teams that bring these styles together should enjoy the many benefits of cognitive diversity, ranging from increased creativity and innovation to improved decision making.
As a sidebar, Grahampton measured increases in feelings of engagement and productivity once we implemented new collaboration strategies at a 420-person European IT services firm. After 30 days, both the team leaders and team members reported a significant improvement. Anecdotal estimates suggest a 35% improvement in productivity in the now more formally-structured, “work style-aware” collaboration meetings.
A key learning we experienced, was just as the HBR authors remarked: “Once you’ve identified the work styles of your team members and have begun to consider how the differences are beneficial or problematic, you must actively manage [these workstyles] so that you’re not left with all frustration and no upside.”
We don’t need this soft stuff, we need sales now!
Ha-ha. One should not laugh, but let’s acknowledge that’s exactly what a person with a “Driver” workstyle would say at times like this. Tangible results (i.e. sales) are what they would fixate on because they are a Driver. They want to win, they want results. Let us appreciate that a driver is stressed and when they are stressed they revert to their instinctive “hard-wired” behaviors - they drive for the most tangible, most frequently valued results - which in Corporate America, is too often monthly sales results. This is a very reasonable objective in normal and customary times. What about now? Are sales for cruise ship operators, movie theater owners, or fine dining restaurateurs a realistic objective? Not all the challenges that COVID-19 lays in front of us, are going to be solved by a focus on revenues.
So instead of just sales, a more thoughtful aim would be to make a plan to survive the current crisis and what is the strategy for thriving in the future? What actions and resources do you need to take to execute your survival plan? What people, plans, and support structures should be put in place now to thrive in the future when consumer and business markets restart?
The article explains that there are three things team leaders can leverage the asset that is each person’s work style to increase creativity, innovation and problem-solving. In simple terms, the three things, that are entirely appropriate in normal times are:
Pull your opposites closer. (e.g. Pioneers working with Guardians in a structured matter)
Elevate the “tokens” on your team (e.g. Giving Integrators and Guardians some air time)
Pay close attention to your sensitive introverts. (e.g. Not letting the extroverts suck all of the oxygen out of every collaboration conversation).
This is sound advice. Certainly worth considering if only we weren’t in the middle of a major national economic shutdown in the midst of a global pandemic.
Leveraging “work styles” as a key to productivity in times of national crisis.
Do not think that old habits and casual practices of managing diverse teams are adequate for surviving this crisis and getting into position for thriving in the future marketplaces.
In times of stress (and yes, we are all stressed), the hard-wired workstyles will be expressed more frequently and more intensely. The tension and conflict between workstyles will in all likelihood become unwieldy and will add to the chaos. Team leaders need to learn these workstyles and make adjustments to their daily team management practices in order to achieve vital team-based problem-solving throughput in this time of crisis.
Watch carefully for what de-energizes each of the different workstyles.
See the appendix for what de-energizes each workstyle. Chances are whatever tactic you chose on a given day is going to elevate and invigorate some, while depressing and de-energizing others. Aim to strike a balance in any given week. Let your teams know that you know the anxiety certain tasks create. Empathize with those who are de-energized. Explain the specific reason for choosing your approach and what benefit you expect to realize. .
Don’t just elevate your tokens, give them real responsibility.
The tokens in normal times might now be your very best assets. Guardians can be excellent at protecting and reducing risk. Integrators can be best at preserving morale and energy levels. They may not be well-trained or experienced in providing leadership, so strong reinforcement, visible support, and coaching will in all likelihood be needed. Recognize that Pioneers and Drivers are instinctively awful at protecting, preserving, and making employees feel included and cared for. Be very careful in letting them run the show.
Let your opposites work together on future plans, not today’s problem.
Now is probably not the time to go all Pioneer-style “innovative” when working with team leaders and teams that are new to “workstyles.” That said, by giving “opposites” enough orientation and a challenge that lies in the future, one stands a better chance of improving collaboration and generating helpful perspectives and ideas. Dreaming of the future is certainly “healthy” for any team at this point in time.
During a crisis, we revert to instinctive “hard-wired” behaviors. Knowing each team member’s “workstyle” and creating new team management practices now to acknowledge, respect and leverage these “workstyles” will increase productivity. During times of crisis, when we are working in uncommon and uncomfortable ways, increasing productivity is an excellent goal.
If team leaders use this time to learn how to leverage “work styles” they will not only stand a better chance of survival, they will build essential competencies that cannot help but enhance the performance of their teams and their collaborative efforts down the road during reconstruction and recovery.
About the Author: Peter R. Classen is a multinational Chief Transformation Officer and a “Leadership in times of Crisis and Challenge” expert. He is one of the Managing Partners at Grahampton & Company, a management services and advisory firm with three decades of experience helping organizations survive and thrive in some of the most complicated and thorny situations imaginable. Peter has been a hands-on c-suite leader and “chief crisis officer” in two +1,000 employee organizations during extended national crisis and disaster settings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his strategic revenue growth and business transformation focus has shifted to working with leadership teams on revenue continuity, on survive & thrive strategies, and on proactive management in times of crisis and challenge. Find Peter and his teams at www.grahampton.com.
