Can you be arrogant and effective?

Today, I listened to Tony Robbins part 1 interview podcast with Ray Dalio and it reminded me of the importance of being inclusive of different opinions, perspectives and outlooks when it comes to making a decision as a business owner. It made me think about a lesson learned when I realized people saw me as arrogant, but highly effective in my work. As hard as it was to see a higher score when it came to arrogance, I understood why and completely value the feedback to up-level my performance as a leader.

In this interview, Ray Dalio shares a tool he uses that aggregates performance data and behavioral data to make informative decisions in team meetings. The geek in me LOVES this method because I too have leveraged assessment tools and data results to up my game and those I coach.

A few years back, I underwent leadership assessment. I was so impressed by this tool, I later become certified to administer it with my clients as part of my coaching practice. When I first got my results, I was a bit surprised that the people who were surveyed regarding to collect the data to help me understand how effective my leadership skills are, gave me a higher score in Arrogance. It took me a minute to understand why. I believe I am an approachable person who is easy to talk to and always puts others first. When I saw arrogance as a higher score in my reactive space, I wanted to understand why. When I looked at my overall effective score, I scored higher than most above 90%, so I had to believe my arrogance had merit, but still wanted to know where it was showing up and make sure it was not pulling away from my creative space.

I know you are thinking, “Kareen, what the heck are you talking about, reactive and creative space? You are speaking another language.” You are right, these are new terms. Let me break it down.

In this assessment tool, The Leadership Circle 360, a questionnaire is set to at least 9 people that you have worked for, with, and alongside. All the questions for these people are the same so the data collection is not skewed. You then fulfill the personal survey and the result is an amazing map of how you show up for others, and how you think you are showing up.

The Circle is spit into six areas, three at the top represent your Creative Space, and three at the bottom represent your Reactive Space. The layout of the data is mapped against these two spaces based on the data collected from who was surveyed, and then compared to a data base of people in a similar role to give you a score. I know, it’s a lot of data science, but so awesome to see how it comes together when you get your results. Plus, you are not crunching any of these numbers, the system does it for you!

Here is an example of what the assessment result looks like: 

The Creative Space, the top half of the circle, maps Creative Competencies that contribute to a leader’s effectiveness. They measure key leadership behaviors and internal assumptions that lead to high fulfillment, high achievement leadership.

The Reactive Space, the lower half of the circle, maps self-limiting Reactive Tendencies and leadership behaviors. The Reactive dimensions reflect inner beliefs and assumptions that limit effectiveness, authentic expression, and empowering leadership

My overall scores are higher in the Creative vs Reactive for both my self assessment and the assessment of others. When I saw scored higher in the Controlling Reactive space, it totally made sense to me based on the role I was in when I was surveyed and the people I chose to survey me.

At the time I was in high demand to deliver complex technical projects that required consistency and quick decision making in order to get the project done and items delivered on time. In this arena, my arrogance does shine because sometimes we would not have time to keep the conversation going, and a quick decision had to be made to move the project along. It was my time management method to focus on progress, not perfection. It was highly effective in the arenas I worked within. I chose to take the positive out of the score and increase my self-awareness on how I react in moments of stress to make sure I was being more inclusive when it came to quick decisions, but remain in my controlling stance if it was my responsibility to deliver.

What I learned most about this assessment was how I thought I had to show up in the workplace to deliver, and having this tool help uncover how others perceive me to be when I did not assess myself that way gave me an insight that has allowed me to grow into a stronger leader and coach. I administer this tool with my leadership clients today, and use it as a guide to assist them in discovering how they are perceived and how effective their style is in the arena they play in. Being able to coach each of them to become the leader they desire to be and increasing the scores in the Creative space or decreasing the scores in the Reactive space to increase their overall effectiveness in their role is such a privilege.