We had a team exercise using a tool called The Predictive Index which was new to me. It was very useful, giving new perspectives on our styles at work, how those styles relate to each other and the impact of those styles on the team and the organisation. It confirmed what we’d sensed about a couple of gaps in our capability and where we were strong. Turns out our organization type at this stage of our development is a rocketship, which we all thought was pretty cool.

The value of these things is not that they will change your world and create eureka moments. The value is that they get us to think differently about what we already know, and when we do that we behave differently as well. That’s one of the benefits of bringing the outside in.

For example, my type was “Captain”, a problem-solver who likes change and innovation while controlling the big picture. No surprise there, but the bit that was interesting was that, according to our facilitator, I have a “laser-like focus on a few key facts”. I felt a moment of recognition – I’m aware that I reach conclusions reasonably quickly and that I tend to skim. I’ve often wondered whether I was doing the job properly if I didn’t read the whole book or article instead of extracting what struck me as the key points. I’ve almost never read past page 50 of any business book (with one exception which I have read twice, line by line, cover to cover). I don’t do countless redrafts of my writing.

I found this characterization quite encouraging. I haven’t bought myself a captain’s hat yet, though I have signed off a couple of emails with “beam us up Scotty”.

More significantly, I’ve been reviewing our learning methodology, and I’ve observed how I’ve approached it: I’m simply looking to establish whether there is anyone doing what we’re doing and is there anything else we should be doing. And I’m doing it with more confidence and quicker than usual because my approach has been framed by someone outside as valuable and effective.

And that’s the point (at last!). When someone or something restates your strength and how you make your contribution, it becomes an opportunity to act up – act as if you backed yourself. I now think about problems in the frame of looking for the key facts, the 20% of facts that give us 80% of the reality. That’s helped me as a manager to focus on the few things that really matter.

We’ve recently promoted Milena to GM Ops, a role that hasn’t previously existed. We observed what she’s good at, what she wants to do, and what the business really needs right now, and came up with this role. From the moment we said this is what we want you to do, her mindset has changed from doing the work to getting the work done, from running operations to building the business by developing processes and systems. As soon as we framed her potential contribution, she changed how she thought about herself and her role. Suddenly she’s contributing at a higher level sooner than perhaps any of us expected. She’s acting up.

Put this in the context of your next coaching conversation or performance planning session. How could you frame your team members’ strengths in a way that affirms their capability and gives them some runway to grow?