My coworkers only had my best interest at heart and were giving me what was, from their point of view, the best advice possible. What they did not understand and, therefore, could not take into consideration was that I see the world very differently from the majority of people.
Revelation
A number of years later, after I had changed careers a number of times, started three businesses from scratch, and lived on three different continents, someone finally took the time to explain to me how my personal “style” and “preferences” had played, and continued to play, a role in my personal and professional development and choices.
On the positive side, my style and preferences allow me, among many other things, to:
- see the big picture quickly
- understand and work well with people
- generate and work with a lot of ideas simultaneously
- comfortably work outside established norms and structures
- detailed work
- abiding by rules
- highly structured environments
- generally painting within the lines
Self-Discovery
One of the most important ingredients in any successful change initiative is getting the principal players to become cognizant of their natural abilities and limitations as well as learning how to leverage their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses to improve their teams’ performance.
If you have not done so already, I would strongly suggest that you take some psychometric evaluations and begin to understand what makes you tick. If you have taken some in the past and have found that the lessons did not stick, I would suggest that you revisit those instruments with the intent of finding at least one insight that will help you better understand why you do what you do.
Improving Business Development
When it comes down to business development, I believe that there are two key preferences that you need to clearly understand about yourself and your team in order to improve your success rate:
How you take in information
Broadly speaking, you will have a preference for seeing the big picture first by focusing on the relationships and connections between facts or focusing on the detail and recognizing the practical realities of the situation.
| Big Picture | Details |
| Your primary strength when it comes to business development is your ability to see past the immediate challenges and identify new possibilities. Your biggest weakness is that you may overlook important details that are relevant to the immediate problem. |
Your primary strength when it comes to business development is that you will be great at identifying opportunities and solving problems within existing paradigms quickly. Your biggest weakness is that you may have difficulty identifying opportunities in a different paradigm or if the existing paradigm is changing quickly. |
How you make decisions
When it comes to making a decision, your final choice will based on a mixture of logic and personal values; however, one of these elements will be the primary driver.
| Logic | Personal Values |
| Decision making based primarily on logic is first and foremost process driven. The decisions are based on the logical consequences of a choice or action. Because these decisions are process driven, you can expect the proposed solution to be highly analytical and precise in nature. However, the plan will probably fall short when it comes to addressing challenges associated with how people will be impacted. |
Decision making based primarily on personal values is first and foremost people driven. The decisions are based on person-centered values. Because these decisions are people-centered, you can expect the proposed solution to take into account how people will be impacted and involved in the process. However, the plan will probably fall short when it comes to a detailed, “hard-nosed” implementation process. |
Refocusing Your Lenses
One of the fastest ways to get closer to your clients is by learning to refocus your lenses to see the world from their perspectives and understanding the challenges they are facing from their points of view. Without even knowing the specifics of the challenges you are facing, here are a couple of suggestions regarding how you should refocus your lenses to improve your success rate:
Research shows that approximately 65% of the population has a preference for seeing the details first. With that in mind, and without any other information about a prospective client, you should be prepared to initially present your services from a details-first perspective. If your preference is for details first, then you will have a natural advantage at this stage; however, if you are a big picture-first person, you will have to adjust in order to connect with the prospect. As you make contact with the prospect, become aware of the type of information he or she is focusing on, and adjust your approach accordingly.
Approximately 75% of men have a preference for making decisions based on logic, while approximately 75% of women have a preference for making decisions based on personal values. It is, therefore, fairly safe to assume that logical problem solving and cause-and-effect reasoning are more likely to appeal to your male clients, while recognition of individual contribution and compassion are more likely to appeal to your female clients.
The majority of people in business development have intuitively learned how to read and adjust to their clients’ needs; however, very few have been given a sound model on which to build and improve. Learning about your preferences will undoubtedly put you in a much better position to leverage your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses to become more effective at business development.
