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The Platinum Rule for “Just Do It” Change Leaders
Posted Wednesday, January 14, 2015Hands-oriented leaders make the change happen on time, to budget and to specifications. They are the people you turn to when you want change to take hold. They “just do it”.
In Barbara Trautlein’s model of change intelligence (CQ), executors, drivers and facilitators are high hands change leaders.
But Enough About You. What About Them?
Self-awareness about your CQ style is important, but it is only the starting point. To be effective in executing change, you must know the CQ style of the people you work with to understand how to best interact with them. Here’s a key principle:
People don’t think much about your CQ style. People want to be treated according to their CQ style.Trautlein refers to this as the platinum rule: don’t treat people like you want to be treated (the golden rule). Treat people like they want to be treated.
Let’s consider a project manager (PM) who is a high hands change leader – an executor. The project manager keeps things on schedule, under budget and to specification. With other high hands people, the project manager will communicate on the same wave length – what’s next and what’s the impact.
However, when the PM meets with a senior executive who is a visionary (high head change leader), the PM may miscommunicate if the focus is strictly on tasks. Executives want to know about the project’s pace and bottom line impact, without all the details. They also want to see how the project fits into the overall vision for change. The PM needs to be more focused on the vision of the change and to get feedback from the executive on the overall vision for change.
In the same way, when the high hands project manager meets with a high heart supervisor, the PM needs to be more people oriented. The PM should deliberately reach out more often to the supervisor. Conversations should include celebrating success and not just project updates. The PM also needs to actively seek the supervisor’s participation and check in on the project’s impact on the people on the front lines.
Bottom line: To make change happen, know the people you work with so you can communicate in their language. A high hands leader needs to communicate from the perspective of the target audience. Use heart-targeted communication with heart-focused people and head-targeted communication for head-focused people.
Communicate according to the platinum rule and you will take a powerful step toward dialogue and insight for intelligent change.
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