As stated in my entry on August 5th – development as a human being is not stagnant after a certain age.  We have untold potential to rise to higher and higher states of awareness.  As we grow we have the ability to find greater levels of success and fulfillment as well as the capacity to lead ourselves and others through increasingly complex situations.  Just like a snow flake or set of finger prints, each of us has our own unique expression through which we approach achieving achievement, people and our own personal fulfillment.  We come into the work place with our own special talents as well as achilles heels.  That being said, recent research by Bob Anderson of The Leadership Circle – as well as years of research done in the leadership and human development field – has shown that at a high level there are three primary mindsets that human beings take on as they move into adulthood.  While we each of us has contact with all three – most of us will lean heavily in one direction.

I have labeled these three orientations as:

• The Achiever
• The Intellectual
• The Relater

In our last entry we took a deeper look at the key qualities and the leveraged developmental path for The Achiever.  In this entry we will examine The Intellectual.

To the Intellectual – Knowing is everything and in the business environment they pride themselves as experts and relish the challenge of solving complex issues. When The Intellectual is acting from a reactive stance they can be described as arrogant, critical and distant ¹.  While you may value the stunning speed at which they can understand and surgically break down and fix the complex – you are likely not to appreciate this when you are the subject of their criticism.  In the later case one can feel “sliced and diced.”

The Intellectual’s Fundamental Beliefs include the following ²:

• I value my expertise and the smarter I am the more worth while I feel.
• If I am right – others will likely be wrong.
• I am safe and acceptable if I am smart enough and able to “fly under the radar”.
• I find value in myself when I am right and can point to the weaknesses of others.
• I do not suffer fools gladly.
• At a deep level I want to connect with others yet fear intimacy.
• Before I engage – I like to hold back so I can understand how things are unfolding.

Again, Intellectuals love to admire the problem – to the point that they can enter analysis paralysis. While Achievers are more ready, fire, aim – Intellectuals are more ready, ready, aim, aim, aim, ready, aim…fire (maybe).  Intellectuals can easily see the flaws in another’s thinking, speaking, and actions.  Their love of learning tends to be in the realm of absorbing more around their technical specialty rather than other areas.  While Intellectuals can show up anywhere – you will likely find many in the medical, engineering, accounting and technology fields.   Most professional services firms find that they have a disproportional population of Intellectuals and this poses a particular leadership development challenge.  I will speak to about this more below.

Intellectuals at Their Worst

At their worst Intellectuals emit a distant, condescending, and cold towards others. They tend to be quite negative – seeing all that is wrong with the world.  They are eternal pessimists and it seems they are unable to appreciate the positive actions others take.  When they speak it can be a fire storm of criticism and those at the top of the organization do not escape their ire.  Intellectuals in a highly reactive space want to keep their heads low, play it safe and are risk adverse.  They see themselves as superior to others and because they can move faster than most others in understanding a problem and seeing solutions they tend to be very impatient. It is very hard to even tolerate being around them at their worst.

Evolved Intellectuals

As they develop an intellectuals power to discern grow up.  If they understand the vision they can highlight the obstacles as well as the assets that the organization can leverage to move closer to the vision.  They have a powerful lense on the details that may visionaries and entrepreneurs lack – therefore they can really help the organization execute.  At their best Intellectuals are also the center in a storm of controversy – helping others find level heads.  If you position them around something they deeply care about – they can become great champions for the cause.  As they season – their expertise turns to wisdom and this can lead to great innovations.  Deep inside they do care for others and while they will never be the life of the party if they can awaken their hearts – the distance people have felt around them can narrow.  As their consciousness raises – they become very loyal, conscientious and dependable.

The Intellectual’s Developmental Path

As with any orientation – the key to development is to place the Intellectual into a circumstance that helps them appreciate their strengths while seeing the limitations of the “trap doors” they can fall into. Again, a primary focus in development must be on an individual’s strengths.  We have highlighted many of an Intellectual’s strengths above but in short they are discernment, detachment, deep caring and a rich interior life.  Ultimately, an Intellectual must come to grips with their desire to be right and which means others are wrong.  This requires an expansion in their self-awareness that allows for an increase in self-honesty and authenticity.  They must learn to look inward at themselves and acknowledge bot their strengths as well as culpability.  Ultimately it comes down to not taking themselves too seriously, learning how to leverage their strengths for the sake of the common good, and realizing the power others bring to the table that compliments their expertise.  Highly evolved Intellectuals can be very keen at understanding the whole system as well as the details that makes it work.  Seasoning these gifts provides insights that help the organization sustain a very high level of execution towards the vision.

As mentioned above, intellectuals pose a special challenge in leadership development and most professional organizations have their share of this mindset.  The key challenge is that intellectuals tend to be quite protected from outside influences and can often be in denial of their longing to connect because there is so much fear around connecting.  That being said, the following strategies can support the Intellectual in bringing out their best.

Key Leadership Developmental Strategies for the Intellectual

Focus on Raising Their Awareness and Embracing Their Whole Authentic Selves

While raising awareness is important for leadership development for all orientations – it is a particularly powerful experience for Intellectuals.  Remember they have razor sharp discernment yet this has rarely been directed towards themselves.  While Intellectuals can judge others harshly – they likely hold themselves to even higher standards and thus are likely harder on themselves. Yet, while they be aware of the stress caused by this – they rarely have done very little reflection on their own self talk. Helping the Intellectual to understand the context for using their expertise and taking action is an important first step.  For example, ask them to think about your corporate values or operating guidelines and ask them what makes sense about them?  Second, look for a method of providing them direct feedback on their behaviors against those values.  In providing feedback to ensure they understand why they are valued while providing them with tough messages about how their behaviors are minimizing their impact.   If you slam them too hard (which can be tempting with one at their worst) they will tend to hide more and become even more risk adverse.  However, if you show appreciation with one hand yet express concern for how they are leading on the other hand you may just open a door way that helps the intellectual develop.  You can do this by:

• • Understand more what are they seeking from leadership and from coming to work each day – recognition will likely be at the top of their list.
  • Help them see how part of their behavior can harm this.
  • Provide 360 feedback that shows how their behavior is negatively impacting others.
  • Provide coaching to help them moderate their pessimistic side and strengthen the positives they bring.

Find Out What They Care Deeply About

By coming to an understanding about what they care deeply about you can redirect their energy to make a difference in this area.  For example, what are their pet peeves about the way business is done, how clients are serve, or how quality is monitored.  Turn this into a positive by asking “If it were different – what would that look like?”  Ask them to take on the role of improving quality, service approach, etc. yet require them to do so in a way that includes and inspires others while moderating their criticism.  Again, coaching can be invaluable to supporting this.

Help Them Lower Their Standards

Help them focus on results – rather than process.  In most cases, the Intellectuals standards are higher than anyone else around them.  Help them see the efficiency involved in achieving more and analyzing less.  Again, look at areas where this actually caused problems.  The more you can ground these situations in facts the better (e.g. after this project we had 5 people ask never to work with you again).  Going forward you or their coach can ask “Let’s look at what we are ultimately trying to achieve here and the time line.”  Get them to take ownership of the outcome and the time line and support them to let go of unnecessary details and analysis.

Help Them to Relax and Be More Spontaneous!

Encourage them to take time off, find a creative outlet and have fun!  Again, they have a natural ability to create a rich internal world and can be very creative.  Finding a way for them to find a place to express this will tend to “loosen them up.”  If they take to this – it will also enhance their own personal fulfillment and turn their immense knowledge into potent wisdom.

Develop Them As Mentors

Intellectuals can create very strong relationships with a few.  Leverage this by asking them to become a key mentor both in their technical expertise AND in how to approach the work.  Helping them apply the former will season their expertise and applying the later will usually help them see the value of walking their talk.

Assist Them In Recognizing Their Caring Nature

It is important that the Intellectual comes to acknowledge they truly do care about others. As they loosen their judgments about the world around them – they will be able to recognize this.  Being in a mentoring role and/or having them support efforts around what they truly care about will help here.  Yet, when the time is right actually getting them to admit this out loud can be a powerful insight that can be used to approach others differently.  When they start doing this and are able to really connect – something very special can occur in their approach to leading.

Metaphorically, Intellectuals show us why soft skills are critical to leveraging technical horsepower.  Ultimately clients and staff could care less how brilliant we are or how technically sound our solutions are.  What customers care most about is that we understand their issues and care enough to do what is necessary to solve them.  Our expertise is merely a ticket that gets us in the room – but our execution and the care we show for the relationship is what keeps us there.  In the same way, our staffs want to be in a context that strengthens their abilities and inspires them.  A seasoned and proactive Intellectual in leadership who gets this adds tremendous value to their organizations.

In our next entry, we will discuss “The Relater.“

Tags: development tips, executive development, leadership develoment

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 8:44 pm and is filed under Executive Engagement, Leadership Development, Personal Engagement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.