I remember coaching a young leader once who said to me with pride, ‘Glain, you just need to know, I’m a fiery red.’ For those of you unfamiliar with this vernacular, fiery reds are drivers. Their motto (from this assessment) is ‘be brief, be bright, be gone.’ Fiery reds get shit done. Fiery reds can also be, well, a little fiery (read abrupt, aggressive, unempathetic). Here’s the thing about leadership: it’s SUPER important to develop a deep sense of self-awareness but it’s also super important not to become self-indulgent. When we are self-indulgent, we embrace the positive qualities of our approach but conveniently ignore the shitty downside pieces. Knowing that you have a tendency to be a bit of an asshole when you’re stressed and doing nothing about it isn’t good. When people tell me that they are a ‘high D’ or a ‘Green’ or an ‘ENFJ,’ I tell them ‘congratulations! Now you know all the other stuff you need to develop to round out your approach.’ Different leadership situations demand different approaches and if you’re holding on to one way of doing things, you’re going to be seriously disadvantaged.
#leadershiptruth
