CHAPTER

8

Understanding Your
Thinker Leadership Trait

Leaders who are predominantly Thinkers like to analyze the world around them. They prefer thinking to doing and often become out of touch with the practical reality of working in an organization. Thinkers also have a hard time translating impulses into action. Many Thinkers will not act until they are certain of what they want to do. In fact, Thinkers can become so engrossed with their thoughts that they lose touch with everything else.

Mature Thinkers are capable of comprehending complex phenomena at a glance. They thoroughly analyze problems from multiple angles and ask questions that get people to challenge the basic assumptions they used in solving a problem. Not only are mature Thinkers capable of understanding problems, they are able to explain these problems to others in a comprehensible manner. Because the perceptions of mature Thinkers are closely aligned with actual reality, their decisions tend to be sound and logical. As Thinkers begin to derail, however, they become increasingly disconnected with reality. Derailing Thinkers seek to distance themselves from others in order to clear their heads and analyze problems objectively. Unfortunately, derailing Thinkers use distance to admit only the kinds of information that confirms their mental perceptions of the world. This often leads them to become narrow-minded, rigid, and extremely conservative. As Thinkers further retreat into their intellectual world, they reduce complexity into simplicity. This tendency to simplify problems has the ironic effect of immobilizing them from taking action because they now fear of acting without planning for every contingency.

At their inner core, Thinkers have trouble dealing with their insecurities, which are often triggered by unpredictability and uncertainty in their environment. As a protective mechanism, Thinkers learn to be vigilant of their surroundings and to anticipate problems before they occur. Through understanding and explanation, Thinkers develop a sense of security. Although these tendencies can be adaptive, Thinkers tend to overdevelop them at the expense of other characteristics. For instance, Thinkers tend to be out of touch with their feelings. They tend to analyze things before they feel a response to them. Many Thinkers seek to distance themselves from their feelings because the predominant feeling they experience is fear. Fear is a guiding force in the lives of Thinkers; they fear being controlled and allowing anyone or anything to control their thoughts. Because their self-worth is based heavily on their ability to defend the validity of their ideas, Thinkers feel diminished if another person proves them wrong. To protect themselves from this fear, derailing Thinkers resist testing their ideas in the real world and keep them to themselves.

Recognizing the Mature Thinker in You

• Are independent, innovative, and visionary.

• Are cerebral, objective, and mentally alert.

• Are eager to learn and excited by discovery.

• Ask insightful questions.

• Can distinguish patterns and predict how current events will end.

• Capable of acting without complete information.

• Are willing to discard theories that are no longer relevant.

• Are unafraid of uncertainty.

Recognizing the Middle-of-the-Road Mature Thinker in You

• Are slower-paced, tentative, and methodical.

• Have relatively weak interpersonal skills and can become argumentative when others disagree.

• Retreat into your thoughts when stressed.

• Think like scientists but interpret facts according to your theories.

• Constantly dissect things intellectually but jump to conclusions.

• Focus on details to the point of losing sight of the big picture.

• Fear acting without complete knowledge.

Recognizing the Derailing Thinker in You

• Are reclusive, secretive, and self-contained.

• Are antagonistic toward those who disagree with you and prone to arguments.

• Have difficulty connecting with people.

• Become isolated from people and reality.

• Don’t care about being socially acceptable.

• Distrust authority and rules.

If you are a mature, predominant Thinker, in order to move toward increasing levels of leadership maturity, you need to follow the sequence presented on The Map as: 5 → 8 → 2 → 4 → 1 → 7. In other words, one of your objectives is to create a specific, compelling path that enables you to start to acquire and cultivate the mature attributes of the Eight (Driver). If this is you—a mature, predominant Thinker—you have learned to overcome your fear of the environment, and you have learned to trust the people and situations that comprise your world. As you learn to trust people and situations, your confidence grows. You now realize that, despite not knowing everything, you still know a lot more than anyone else. You also discover that acting without complete knowledge is better than inaction. As you turn more of your thoughts into action, you learn that objectivity and certitude are illusions. You now realize that you can never be completely objective, and, therefore, you begin to trust your feelings when making decisions.

Derailing, predominant Thinkers, on the other hand, when they are not spiraling toward greater maturity, run the risk of acquiring even more immature characteristics, starting with the derailing traits of the Seven (Activist). Your negative progression on The Map runs like this: 5 → 7 → 1 → 4 → 2 → 8. The major issue with derailing, predominant Thinkers is that their over-thinking has inhibited their taking positive action. Wanting to overcome this roadblock, derailing, predominant Thinkers begin to act first and think later. Unfortunately, their actions jump from being measured and controlled to being impulsive and erratic. Whereas previously too much thought preceded action, now too little occurs.

THINKER LEADERSHIP STYLE

When you are mature, you like to create structure for yourself and your employees. You like orderly, systematic approaches that enable you to understand everything. You prefer intellectual or consultative leadership roles, as opposed to authoritative or inspirational leadership roles. You tend to take your time when making decisions because of your desire to be as accurate as possible. You seek out details, specifics, and facts when making decisions. Unfortunately, however, you may never feel secure enough to act and often fail to make decisions or take action. This is typically seen in middle-of-the-road and derailing, predominant Thinkers, who possess the capability of becoming the world’s busiest procrastinators.

TIPS FOR STRENGTHENING THE THINKER TRAIT IN YOU

• Analyze less and observe more. The more you analyze an environment, the greater the likelihood is that you distort it and impose preconceptions on it.

• Don’t jump to conclusions. Be open to new information as it comes in, and use it to modify your existing theories.

• Seek advice from someone whose judgment you trust. Thinkers have difficulty deciding on the optimal course of action. By consulting with someone you trust, you may find it easier to make decisions.

• Try to be cooperative. Learn to yield without feeling that you have been beaten intellectually or that you have been put in a vulnerable position.

• Try to be more considerate of others. Your brilliance may intimidate others and make them feel uncomfortable. Because you are so wrapped up in your ideas and what interests you, it’s easy to forget basic courtesies.

When Thinker leaders talk to themselves, here is what they say:

Basic Fear

I fear that someone will invalidate my view of reality.

Basic Motivation

I want to understand the world around me—to observe everything, to be certain that my views are correct, and to reject those views that are incorrect.

My Greatest Irritation

I get upset when someone questions my intelligence.

The Spark That Ignites My Defensiveness

I analyze things thoroughly because, through analysis, I can control my environment, gain insight, make predictions, and protect myself if necessary. I become so focused on details that I sometimes lose perspective.

My Greatest Potential Weakness

I am so hungry for knowledge that I sometimes forget the importance of other things.

My Greatest Potential Strength

I am capable of understanding things. I am able to comprehend many points of view at the same time and be compassionate and tolerant of different viewpoints as opposed to being cynical and detached.

• Share your ideas. You can benefit others by sharing your insights, especially when your views are critical to understanding a problem. Offering a realistic, logical suggestion that has a probability of making things better, even though it isn’t perfect, is better than saying nothing at all.

• Be less critical and demanding of yourself and others. Accept the fact that reality and life are not perfect, and accept the fact that you are not perfect.

• Learn to express your emotions. Bottling your emotions behind a wall of objectivity keeps you disconnected from people. Identifying with people and showing compassion will allow you to develop relationships with others. In other words, don’t use just your head; use your heart as well.

• Take time to relax. Thinkers tend to be intense and high-strung and find it difficult to relax and unwind. Taking time to calm yourself will enable you to analyze situations from a fresh perspective.

TIPS FOR WORKING WITH PREDOMINANT THINKERS

• Demonstrate your willingness to help through your actions rather than your words. Thinkers tend to focus more on tasks than on developing relationships. Consequently, demonstrating your ability to help Thinkers complete tasks will earn their trust. Saying that you are there to help but doing nothing to help will do little to earn the trust of a Thinker.

• Focus on specifics, facts, and details. Thinkers do not respond well to flashy plans with little substance. Thus, stay away from testimonials from other people, gimmicks, and personal incentives. Your ability to get accurate facts and discuss them with the Thinker in a logical, predictable way will strengthen your relationship. Focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of a plan and ways to overcome the disadvantages is an effective way of communicating with Thinkers.

• If you disagree with Thinkers, argue on the basis of fact. Be careful not to use the word disagree. Many Thinkers view disagreement as a direct challenge to their intelligence. Don’t push too hard that you are correct and they are wrong.

• Acknowledge the Thinker’s competence. Statements such as, “I respect your viewpoint because I consider you an expert” go a long way toward diffusing potentially needless conflict.

• Encourage Thinkers to consider alternative viewpoints. One way of presenting alternatives without threatening Thinkers is to frame alternatives as detours. In other words, you may wish to say, “I realize that this may not be what we end up with, but we could take a few minutes to see if there is something useful here.” You can also encourage Thinkers to extend their concepts or theories over time and space by asking, “How will that concept look in practice?” or “Can you tell me how that will look in a year?” These kinds of questions move your discussion from a conceptual level to a concrete level.

• Thinkers are risk averse. To successfully influence a Thinker, provide evidence that what you say is based on substance, not someone’s opinion. Thinkers want to be sure that any decision made today will be just as valid in the future. Any evidence that you can provide them that the future will not deteriorate will go a long way toward getting Thinkers to agree with you and your position.

• Take your time. Don’t rush Thinkers into making up their minds before they have had ample time to review the decision for themselves.

• Agree on a schedule for the implementation of an idea. Make sure to write down the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your plan.

 

AWARENESS EXERCISE: BUILDING UP YOUR THINKER TRAIT

In the spaces provided, please record your responses:

Provide a leadership example in which you exhibited immature/derailer Thinker traits.

Thinking back on this situation, what were the consequences of your immature actions? What happened?

When you acted immaturely, please describe in vivid detail the thoughts and feelings you experienced prior to taking the action you did.

Based on what you have read in this book and you reflecting on this situation, write a brief summary of how your thoughts, emotions, actions, and results were connected.

If this situation were to present itself again, what end result would you desire? Please provide vivid detail about the result, those who would most likely be impacted, and why they would be impacted. Please detail the who, what, when, where, why, and how associated with the end result you desire.

To achieve this new desired result, please indicate the actions and strategies you would take to ensure that the new desired end result would be achieved. Again, please detail the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your strategies. What stakeholders/mentors will you reach out to for their guidance, feedback, and support of your strategies?

To execute these actions and steps, what thoughts and emotions would need to be in place in order to support your positive actions?

After executing your new plan/strategy, what results were achieved and what did you learn?