Laura Wolfe Coaching LLC

Supporting the Evolution of Careers, Leaders,

& Climate Consciousness

My Dog is an Extrovert

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Pearl

Pearl e. girl

Of that I am sure. Pearl draws energy from being around all creatures including humans, dogs, and cats. You can see her enthusiasm as she interacts with any and everyone; she gets so excited we worry she might pop. If Pearl sees someone behind us on a walk, she will sit refusing to move, and wait for them to catch up so she can say hello. And this dog really loves a parade (except for the drums).

The Extroversion/Introversion dichotomy was popularized by Carl Jung and is a way to describe where people direct their attention and get their energy. Extroverts prefer to be outer focused and involved in activities with others and get energy from being around people. Extroverts enjoy being ‘outside their self’.

The Extroversion/Introversion dimension is often conceptualized as a continuum and at the opposite end are introverts, people who have a preference for their inner world of ideas and thoughts. They recharge from time alone and enjoy being ‘inside their self’. According to Jung, we all have an innate preference for either extroversion or introversion, just like being right or left-handed.

That’s not to say that Introverts can’t engage in extroverted behavior successfully and vice-versa.

The recent buzz about Introversion has slowed since Susan Cain’s wonderful book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking hit bookstore shelves more than a year ago. But I’m glad for the conversation it created around the idea that people differ on something as fundamental as where one directs their attention and gets energized.

Understanding whether another person is naturally an introvert or an extrovert can help us all interact more effectively with others at home, school, or work.
Are you an introvert or an extrovert? What about your dog?

Simplicity, Steve Jobs, and Org Behavior

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KISS

Here’s one for you org behaviorists out there.

I’ve been thinking about this for awhile: An organization’s values, strategy, culture and competency model should all be the same.

When asked their opinion of the above, a smarty I know said they thought it too extreme. He sees the organization as a tree and the values, strategy, culture, and competencies as different branches. Different branches of the same mighty oak, all contributing to the organism’s growth but not exactly the same. Made sense to me.

But then I came across the HBR article from awhile back, The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It described Jobs’ famous devotion to simplicity. He constantly pushed until the essence of whatever product Apple was developing was reached and anything unnecessary was eliminated. Cutting clutter was always a focus, resulting in elegant devices that include the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

What else needs to be said?

Now I’m even more convinced that an organization’s values, strategy, culture and competency model should be boiled down, de-cluttered, clarified, and yes, be the same.

Simplify.
Align.

Your thoughts?

Leadership Kaleidoscope

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kaleidoscopeThe other day we tried a nearby restaurant that recently opened. The manager greeted us when we entered and then he walked to the back and chewed out the waitress in plain sight. We stood there embarrassed, trying to figure out if we needed to be seated or order at the register. The waitress ran right past me with big tears in her eyes. Later, after we sat down, I heard the manager in the kitchen yelling “I’m not being mean; I’m a good teacher and coach! Nobody wants direction anymore”. I wrote it on a napkin so I wouldn’t forget his exact words.

The Ohio State Leadership Studies of the 1950s identified two main factors or leadership behaviors – initiating structure and consideration. This restaurant incident is an example of initiating structure – a manager defining actions and how tasks should be accomplished. Consideration refers to interpersonal and relationship behaviors such as being friendly, approachable, treating others as equals, and showing concern for people’s welfare. It was not demonstrated.

In terms of emotional intelligence, one of the most popular leadership concepts today, this manager seems low in social skills (i.e., managing relationships to achieve desired outcomes) as well as empathy (i.e., understanding other’s feelings). These are two of the five original dimensions of EQ identified by Daniel Goleman.

A long history of leadership research exists. I see the various theories, models and frameworks building on each other, providing different perspectives, and serving as mirror pieces in the kaleidoscope for analyzing it. The value is that defining the behavior is a good first step to improving the behavior. It is handy to know a variety of ways to conceptualize leadership because situations differ and one size does not fit all.

Would love to hear your thoughts on leadership and its development.

non-stereotypical thinking

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birthdays

age – what does it mean?

Last week I wrote about the stereotype out there that old people are not tech savvy. I want to go on record saying I believe this to be false. Most of the savviest techsters I know are around my age, meaning their 40s, 50s, and 60s. I do know plenty of brilliant younger techies as well – my fabulous tech master Victoria Potts Keale just one of the many.

But, I believe the stereotype that all young people are tech savvy is also false. Here’s my experience with the college-age crowd. While teaching at LSU, I gave a bonus point to students who connected with me on linkedin. I did it because many did not know what linkedin was and I thought they should. Very often I would be their first connection. As that was several years ago, I figured students were probably more current now. However, I recently met a new college grad who was in the job market and had only just discovered linkedin. She told me it wasn’t something covered in her degree program.

Now linkedin is not the be-all-end-all of tech knowledge, but it’s pretty useful if you’re looking for a job.

So many people just don’t ‘fit’ the stereotype that it’s hard for me to see age and tech hipness as related. It’s also more evidence that judging another based on a demographic characteristic is a bad idea.

Just sayin.

Would love to know your thoughts on age, technology and stereotypes.