Strengths
I have worked in some of the most rewarding, inspiring, and challenging environments where an over-abundance of EQ, IQ, teamwork, and shared values was the norm. I have also worked in some of the most chaotic and toxic environments alongside people with solipsistic agendas. My ability to succeed across the spectrum of these two opposing forces has been to employ contagious empathy, go against the grain as a respectful contrarian, be authentic, and build a strong foundation based on data.
Empathy
Empathy is the glue that holds it all together in today’s busy, hyper-distracting, and stressful work environments. Sometimes we may offer unsolicited advice or mindlessly interrupt a conversation in an effort to be helpful. Ultimately, this mindless act distracts from making anyone feel respected and validated; which is a building block to achieving trust and integrity.
Embracing the power of silence has allowed me to fine tune my active listening skills. It’s about hitting my internal pause button to be fully present and available in the moment. I strive to ask questions over giving advice, which I believe is a necessary step towards understanding the other person’s priorities, preferences, and motivations. Empathy allows the other to see that communication runs deeper than words.
Bien Au Contraire – Quite The Contrary
Working within an ecosystem of integrity and trust enables teams to respectfully challenge each other’s thinking. Agreeing out of politeness does a big disservice to any team. Diverse points of view have inherent value so ideas can be viewed from different angles to uncover new opportunities. Everyone must feel empowered to ask tough questions, act on intuition, and question what’s going on at any time.
Personally, I want my ideas tested, vetted and challenged so that every possible perspective is uncovered. Furthermore, I want my team to expect the same from me. As long as the argument is grounded in objective fact and delivered constructively, the contrarian can be the most important role in any team. So many of my “great” ideas weren’t so “great”, and other “great” ideas were made “greater” by help from the contrarian on the team.
Authenticity Over Transparency
Transparency?!?! I’m referring to past experiences where management went out of their way to tell me how transparent they are. There’s a special place in hell for the manager that takes his door off the hinges to communicate to the team that his door is always open. I believe we’ve also had shared experiences with what happens when the lights go dim on transparency. Once the project goes sideways or drifts into uncertainty, obscurity, and ambiguity; transparency is quickly replaced by opacity. Empathy goes out the door and the whole team is thrown into survival mode like in the Hunger Games.
Saying more than what you need to say makes you both vulnerable and open to criticism. It may also communicate the wrong message, so I choose authenticity over transparency. There’s a difference between authenticity and transparency, where being too transparent may not be a good thing. It’s more important to project trustworthiness, leadership, authority, and a willingness to share. I am candid and forthright and strive to be genuine and direct.
Authenticity is saying things right. Authority is saying the right things. Whereas, transparency is saying everything. In my opinion, it’s wrong, because you don’t need to say everything to be transparent and you don’t need to be transparent to be authentic and authoritative.
Data
There are a lot of painful ways you could spend your day at work than getting lost in a spreadsheet. I’m equally at home analyzing data in seclusion as I am interacting in a client-facing environment. I’m happy being alone with my headphones listening to music or a podcast in front of rows and columns of data. Slicing and dicing data with my programmable Logitech MX Master 3 (i’m useless without it) mouse to discover new perspectives is enough motivation for me.
I hold data in high regard and wouldn’t make a final decision without it. Even automated data and reporting that is extracted from a fancy software solution needs someone to tell the story. Nobody is interested in getting regurgitated data just for data’s sake. Knowing how to grill the data and find a story through it is the challenge that I’ve come to embrace. Common sense, intuition, proficiency, and clarity of thinking all help.
