Managing the Dark Side – When Strengths Become Weaknesses – Part 3
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So far in this series we’ve looked at management strategies for team members who can be volatile or mistrustful. Let’s turn now to those who are careful but who can be excessively cautious when under pressure.
In a fast moving, action-orientated world it can pay to state the obvious. We need careful people! And not just in areas like accountancy, law, pension administration, and regulatory control. Careful people think first then act, they question assumptions, like to see the data and test it before they trust what they are being told. They like order, predictability, and adherence to rules as a way of preventing chaos. In a team, careful people can cover your back as they will have anticipated danger and made plans to contain it. I’m sure we can all think of recent events where we now wish someone, somewhere, had been more careful.
On the flip side, careful people dislike making mistakes. They will always opt for tried and tested methods, and so may be less innovative than more action-orientated colleagues. They will often have a slower work rate than others – they don’t cut corners, and paying attention to detail requires time. They may seem excessively cautious, reluctant to give opinions on the spot and uncomfortable with controversial views and decisions – and this may be frustrating for their colleagues.
The ‘dark side’ of careful is cautiousness to the point of paralysis – where making decisions (particularly in ambiguous times) feels overwhelming. Faced with the pressure to act fast, these people can become overly cautious requesting more and more data whether really necessary or not. They can find reasons to delay a decision to the point where inaction becomes as ‘expensive’ as taking action – even action with unknown or unquantifiable risks. This ‘darker’ side is revealed when people feel stressed, when there is little or no time to think through issues or they have to give advice in situations where they have no precedents to rely on.
Careful people may have learned this approach early, through exposure to overly controlling, highly critical, and overprotective people. They learned that the best way to cope with this was to keep to known procedures and adhere to rules (even where these may now have become irrelevant). As managers they can ‘re-enact’ the same controls and protectiveness to keep their department safe.
So how do we keep these team members effective and on track?
Strategies can include the following:
- Create the conditions for them to be at their best. Don’t throw things at them at short notice and put them on the spot to decide. Give them the agenda for meetings in advance, and be specific about what input you want. Encourage them to prepare an item for the agenda, or challenge them to summarise the actions points and send these out.
- Praise success – many successful managers under-rate the need others have for praise – and make sure the praise is specific so your team member knows what new behaviours to repeat.
- ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ – remember that phrase? Recommending the Susan Jeffers book of the same name is a good start! Then take the time to do some coaching with them. Help them draw up contingency plans for situations that worry them. This will allow them to manage the risks, and make decisions.
- Focus them on learning: ‘Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn – there is no downside.’ Set an objective of making one Positive Mistake a week – a mistake they made that they dealt with and learned from. Discuss how this mistake has helped them learn and improve, at your one-to-one meetings.
- Could an Assertiveness training programme help? Couple this with some further coaching from you or a suitable mentor to encourage them to use what they’ve learned in practical ways. You might also provide opportunities to lead items on the team agenda, so they can practise handling questions from others and those assertiveness skills they’ve learned.
At their best careful people will deliver high quality work, and protect you, your team, and the organisation. Ensure you protect them by giving them the stable and predictable conditions they need to thrive, as it’s under stress that the ‘dark side’ emerges. Work to create many small successful experiences of dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty – then they’ll gain in confidence.
If you would like to know more about career derailers talk to Talent and Potential about this series and the Hogan Development Survey psychometric, which can be used for both recruitment and development