Chapter 4
The Energizing Leader
Of all of the leaders we will discuss in this book, Energizing leaders have the easiest time generating enthusiasm for an idea. They have a contagious sense of optimism that engages people, and they help the group build an invaluable network of connections. We’ll elaborate on the value of the Energizing leader in Chapter 12, but in this chapter we want to dig a little deeper to understand what is going on behind all of that energy. More specifically, we want to help Energizing leaders understand some of the unobservable psychological mechanisms that can hold them back.
If you’re an Energizing leader, you’re probably outgoing and sociable. People readily pick up on your enthusiasm, and you’re rarely at a loss for words. Beneath this extremely positive exterior are deeper motivations, needs, and assumptions that drive you to act the way you do. The more you understand these drivers, the more you’ll be able to consciously control and shape your leadership style.
Based on our research and experience talking to Energizing leaders, the qualities listed below have a significant impact on how you lead.
A preference for the experiential over the analytical
A desire to avoid tension
A drive for forward momentum
A desire to express your enthusiasm
A tendency to speak freely and fluidly
Most likely, these qualities are the source of some of your greatest strengths as a leader. As we review the list above, however, we’ll be paying a little more attention to how they might hinder your leadership performance. While you might not identify with all of these qualities, our experience has shown that a number of them probably describe you better than you may initially think.
A Spirited Drive
Energizing leaders often describe themselves as high-spirited and full of life. Like other leaders whose styles fall on the northern side of the model, Energizing leaders are fast-paced and on the go. Because they’re always on the lookout for fun and adventure, leaders like you are often open to big changes that more cautious folks might see as reckless. You may not necessarily see yourself as a big risk-taker, but most leaders with your style are willing to jump into exciting opportunities without many reservations.
When you’re excited to implement a new idea, slowing down to address details and potential obstacles probably holds little appeal. You’re more likely to dig right in and get started, and you’re probably comfortable improvising as problems arise. As long as you have a plan that you feel good about, you may believe that hard work and a positive attitude will take you where you need to go. Because you’re so enthusiastic, you tend to focus on the positive when envisioning the outcomes of a new initiative. In fact, you may wonder why anyone would want to focus on the potential negative outcomes.
Because leaders with your style are so optimistic, they have faith that things will always work out for the best. In fact, leaders like you may even have a selective memory that focuses more on successes than on failures. Energizing leaders often feel that their gut instincts are especially sharp, when, in truth, they may not always be in tune with reality. They tend to take action because it feels right, and they don’t necessarily address potential problems and contingency plans. When they’re drawn to a colorful idea, they just want to act on it immediately.
A Preference for the Experiential Over the Analytical
Energizing leaders often prefer to gain information experientially rather than through analysis. Leaders with other styles may need to sort out all of the details and understand how the pieces fit together before they’re comfortable saying that an idea has come together. However, leaders with your approach tend to have a lower threshold for reaching this type of certainty. You may focus on the major points, assuming that you’ll be able to deal with the details later, and if you detect potentially messy problems that might not support your plan, you tend to gloss over them. By filtering information in this way, you’re able to protect your vision and keep it perfect in your mind.
Gathering information through analysis is really the opposite of trusting your gut. It involves stepping back from the situation to observe and to think, and this may seem way less exciting to you than jumping into an experience and relying on your intuition to sense what does and doesn’t seem to work. Energizing leaders require a good deal of stimulation, and they may see difficult, potentially frustrating analyses as boring or even painful. At times, they may start things that they don’t finish, often because they get distracted or become bored. Sitting down to analyze a plan may not seem immediately rewarding to you, so you may move on to a more colorful task or a social endeavor. However, by skimping on analysis, you may come across as flighty or disorganized to people who are more analytical. People whose styles fall in on the western side of the model are more questioning and skeptical, and they want to see that their leaders have examined plans carefully.
Energizing leaders are sometimes described as being unstructured and less detail oriented, and this is sometimes the case. However, they can also be quite organized. In general, leaders with your style are attracted to strong positive emotions, like fun and excitement, so they’re less likely to get wrapped up in mundane details or to do things systematically. These things require discipline, which doesn’t lead to immediate gratification. When getting organized feels good—and it does to many people—the Energizing leader is all about it. But when attending to the details feels tedious or ceases to be gratifying, Energizing leaders lose interest. Rather than push through the frustration of analyzing problems and asking tough questions, you may often choose the path of least resistance.
A Desire to Avoid Tension
Energizing leaders want to keep things pleasant, so they have a very low tolerance for negative emotions and experiences. In fact, they try to put unpleasant things out of their minds as much as possible. While they seem confident on the surface, they’re often quite sensitive to criticism, and they tend to take things personally. Energizing leaders are also highly expressive, and when things get heated, they’ve been known to have emotional outbursts. When too many negative emotions get piled up, they can become overwhelmed and lash out at others. Of course, this leads to more tension, which they like to avoid, so their emotional nature can make for a lot of ups and downs.
As you can see, leaders like you have a lot at stake when it comes to conflict, so it’s natural that you tend to avoid it. The process of calling out problems means initiating tension, or at the very least, facing it head-on by telling people to do things differently. To really tackle problems as a leader, you need to make decisions that aren’t always popular, stand firm against resistance, and be willing to tolerate it when people grumble about you behind your back. Approval is so important to you that when it’s taken away—in the form of rejection, being insulted, or being excluded—you’re likely to take it harder than most. Leaders like you are hard-wired to crave popularity and acceptance, so it’s natural that you may shy away from confronting problems. Working out sticky issues is probably not what you find rewarding about leadership. Energizing leaders are more likely to enjoy the excitement, the attention, the chance to interact with and direct people, and the feeling of making a difference.
A Drive for Forward Momentum
As we’ve discussed, leaders whose approaches fall on the northern side of the model tend to be fast-paced and outspoken, so Energizing leaders are most attracted to high-energy environments. Variety is important to leaders like you, and you may find that your motivation really lags when things feel stagnant. In general, you’d probably rather start working on whatever’s next than try to refine current processes. Because you want to maintain forward momentum, you may find tackling messy problems to be really frustrating. Even if you’re successful in solving the problems, it may feel like a waste of time, since you haven’t done anything new.
We’re not suggesting that leaders like you ignore problems entirely. You probably do your best to respond to crises, but what you may avoid is dealing with process inefficiencies, interpersonal conflicts, and communication gaps. As long as there are new opportunities on the horizon—and you constantly look for them—you’ll be inclined to leave well enough alone. You’re far more interested in imagining the future than dwelling on the past or getting caught up in today’s problems.
A Desire to Express Your Enthusiasm
Energizing leaders have a high need to express their emotions, and this can affect their ability to communicate clearly. Not everyone is so expressive—in fact, many leaders actually fear showing emotion or sentimentality. You probably find it emotionally rewarding to express yourself, and it may not occur to you to be self-conscious. You have less of a verbal filter than people who are more cautious and reflective. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—your open communication style, spontaneity, and passion are what make you such an engaging storyteller. However, you may embellish facts at times to make your experiences seem more dramatic and exciting, and you may not always communicate so effectively when trying to convey less exciting, albeit important, information.
As we’ve discussed, Energizing leaders focus on the positive. You have a lot of enthusiasm to share, and you’re drawn to others who have fun stories to tell. However, because you’re so passionate, you may sometimes monopolize conversations. This is probably a largely unconscious act; you may simply keep relating the conversation back to you. At other times, however, you probably show a keen interest in what’s going on in someone else’s life, wanting to know all of the details. Overall, your enthusiasm probably helps you connect with many people, but it can also cost you credibility with others. Those who are more questioning and skeptical often shut down when they sense too many exclamation points coming out of your mouth.
A Tendency to Speak Freely and Fluidly
When Energizing leaders converse with others, they are highly engaged. Every interaction is the chance to start or build a relationship. Conversation is very experiential for leaders like you, and you’re rarely bound by any self-conscious, analytical forces. People who are more reserved often hold in an idea, wondering whether it’s valid or if there’s evidence to back it up. You, on the other hand, tend to be comfortable speaking your mind, often as a relaxed stream of consciousness. In doing so, you may not always take the time to consider what the listener needs to hear in order to understand the message. As a result, some of your ideas may be only loosely connected.
There are advantages to being so open about sharing your thoughts and opinions. However, because you offer so many ideas, some of which are clearly not your best, some people may start to take what you say with a grain of salt, and people who do take your words seriously may become confused or frustrated since your range of suggestions can lead to false starts. For example, you may think that you’re just throwing out a bunch of ideas, while someone might take the first one you suggest and run with it, only to find out that you’ve moved on to something else. If people don’t understand your steam of consciousness approach, they may question your judgment, especially if they’re more analytical. Leaders like you don’t intend to be “big talkers” or scattered—in fact, you may see yourself as quite organized—but you can get so excited about new ideas that you may have trouble sticking to one clear message. Your message may feel disjointed, with updates relayed in a piecemeal fashion, and people may not grasp what your actual plan is.
How to Navigate the Rest of the Book
You’ve had a chance to read about some of the psychological drivers that may hold you back as a leader, but what about the good stuff? What about the areas where you naturally excel? Chapter 12 in Part 3 is designed to highlight exactly that: the assets that Energizing leaders bring to the table. There you’ll find the three lessons that everyone else can learn from leaders like you.
But, of course, other leaders have things to teach you as well. Looking at the model, you may have noticed that the Energizing Dimension is opposite the Deliberate Dimension. Chances are that you may need to focus on this dimension, but depending on your individual situation, there may be others that are more important. Next, go to Part 3, where you’ll explore the lessons that are most important for you right now.