This month I’ve been talking about the importance of getting the right people on the right seats in your bus:
- In ‘The Chicken or the Egg‘ I asked the question, “Which should come first, your strategic team or your vision?”
- In ‘The Seats of the Bus‘ I explored who should sit where on the bus.
- In ‘What’s the Big Deal About a Wrong Seat?‘ I showed you what it might look like having the wrong person in the wrong seat – especially on your Strategic Team.
- Finally, in ‘The Four C’s‘ I gave you permission to evaluate your team selection through the lens of four specific criteria.
I want to zero in on one of those “Four C’s” a little more today; specifically in the area of Competency. Let me ask you a question. How do you know if a person has the right personality to serve on a Strategic Team? You may not think it’s a very important question. I can assure you that it is. I’ve learned through the school of ‘hard knocks’ that certain personalities generally just don’t fit on a Strategic Team. He may have great character, awesome chemistry with you and your church, and feel called to serve in leadership. He may even be one of your leaders or elders.
If you were looking for someone to manage the finances in your organization, I think it’s safe to say that an area of competence for that role would include someone with an analytical personality. If you decided to recruit someone to teach a class you would hope the individual was good with people – another personality trait. In the same way, people who serve on the Strategic Team should lean in a particular direction regarding their personality. This is an area of competence which is very easy for us to overlook.
I’ve already shown you what it might look like if you have the wrong person in the back of the bus right here. Now I’ll show you what personality best fits in those seats. Check out this chart.
The upper right quadrant will tend to be your leaders and visionaries.
The upper left quadrant will often be your thinkers and analytically inclined.
The lower right quadrant will likely be your communicators and your fun people.
The lower left quadrant will usually be your faithful and loyal workers who just want to use their gifts to serve.
The closer to the outer edge, the stronger their personality in that quadrant. The closer to the center the more ‘well-rounded’ they tend to be in all of those quadrants. I recommend you try out the online personality profile at www.leadingfromyourstrengths.com/purchase-lfys-profiles.php. You’ll have to pay a $25 fee to take the test, but in the end you will have a 25+ page summary of your strengths & weaknesses. On the very last page you will find a chart similar to the one above with an indicator of where you fit.
Does this mean that people who tend toward the bottom left shouldn’t be on your team? Not necessarily. What it does mean is that certain strategic discussions will likely be more of a stretch for them to engage in. You will probably see them struggling or need to give them more time to process or catch up than you would those whose personalities lean towards the upper right. Some of these people may contribute very little to the conversation as well. I happen to know that those with a strong bottom/left personality also have a very difficult time with confrontation and conflict. Two important elements in strategic discussions.
What if you find yourself in one of that bottom left quadrant? In that scenario I would recommend that you work extra hard to ensure you don’t fill your Strategic Team with others of the same personality. In other words, be sure to recruit team members who lean to the upper right. You may also want to consider asking someone else to lead the team meetings. You should definitely be present and have a voice in the discussion, but it would probably be easier for you if someone else focused on leading so that you can give more of your energy towards processing the discussions in the room.