Much of the writing on leadership (mine included!) concentrates on the positive stories and helpful hints, partly because it’s human nature to prefer the optimism. However, it’s also valuable to be aware of our blindspots and the traits we have that could potentially derail us in our leadership journeys. Career derailment typically occurs when an executive’s career is going well and should be progressing but it unintentionally fails. I’ve heard that roughly half of executives derail at least once in our careers (!) but given its nature, derailing isn’t widely publicised (unless high profile). 

It’s helpful for leaders to be sensitive to potential derailment of those around us too, especially in our own teams, so that we can offer support. There is some connection to burnout, although that is often caused by external factors wearing us down rather than inherent personality-based behavioural traits we have. The first step in dealing with our derailers is to recognise that we are fallible. And that imperfect human beings can still be amazing leaders. Acknowledging this frees us to learn to manage our derailers. 

Understanding derailers helps us better understand why talented leaders make poor decisions, overlook opportunities, alienate key people, and miss obvious trends, even when we genuinely want to do the right thing. Read more to see how our strengths and derailers are related, explore potential causes of stress, and unpack 11 behavioural traits that can cause leaders to fail. As you read, please reflect on yours, and their triggers, and do reach out to us if you’d like support in managing them on your own leadership journey. 

I’ve been listening to some personality-themed podcasts, exploring ‘cognitive functions’ i.e. how we make decisions. In this article, I attempt to distil some of this, exploring what each of four different types of people particularly value. I focus on one of our most important relationships at work: the relationship with our boss, and unpack each type considering what’s likely to be important to them. The underlying theory is that each type has different mental wiring, and they evaluate the world through this process i.e. how they believe the world ‘should’ be.

The four types are split by two dimensions: 
(i) thinking/logically-driven or feeling/people/emotionally-driven
(ii) structured/process-focused or flexible/opportunity-focused

You probably have a pretty good feeling of which type your boss might be, and which type you are – where these differ, it’s important to pay particular attention as valuing different things could lead to misunderstandings between you, especially in pressurised situations. 

Over the remainder of this article, I explore each type in turn, discussing what’s important to them. The more you can adjust your behaviour and delivery to give your boss what they value (while still being true to yourself), the better your relationship with them is likely to be, and the more you will meet their needs – which could lead to better increases, higher bonuses and more promotions. Read more to dive into the detail of each type.

I heard on a podcast recently that some personality types really like doing personality assessments and delving deeper into what makes them and others tick… Such a revelation (to me!) that it made me chuckle at myself. Aside from that meta insight from the podcast, at Protagion we also suggest personality assessments to our proteges to help them to understand themselves better (as part of the professional development cycle). In that vein, this post is about a relatively new assessment co-created by Ray Dalio.

Regular readers will know that I’ve written about Ray and his principles, including his five steps to success, previously. He’s shared his perspectives in a variety of formats, including a book and animated video (shown in the original ‘Inspiration’ post). And, he continues to “pass along what he’s learned about how to be successful” - which is great news for all of us!

Ray recently launched a free personality assessment aimed at helping us to improve our understanding of ourselves and others, and helping others to understand us. This is linked to his first step to success. The “PrinciplesYou” assessment was built with psychologists Dr Adam Grant, Dr Brian Little, and Dr John Golden.

While the assessment itself has more personalised detail, in this post I’ll summarise its 28 archetypes, which offer insight into our tendencies, talents and opportunities for growth. These archetypes fall into 10 groups which share fundamental traits – PrinciplesYou represents these groups as islands in an archipelago. 

The 10 groups/islands are: Advocates, Architects, Creators, Enthusiasts, Fighters, Givers, Individualists, Leaders, Producers and Seekers. Read more to explore these groups, as well as the 28 archetypes. And, for the psychologists and psychometricians wanting to dig even deeper, I’ve included a box on the traits and sub-traits/facets in the assessment too. You can take the assessment yourself to see your own results – it takes roughly 40 minutes to complete the questions.