In our final segments, The Foundation and The Frame Out, Alex is going to help you look beyond yourself and your own perspective to see the people around you for who they are. It’s really tough to put your ego aside and step into someone else’s shoes, but as you’ll find out, it’s critical to understanding how to master people and become a great leader.
What is one of the largest challenges frontline construction leaders share across the country?
The answer is people. Whether it involves figuring out how to motivate workers on tough jobs, solving issues that come up on-site, or aligning everyone on the same page to reach a common goal, people, are tough. Ultimately, many find themselves asking “how do I bring the best out of myself and the best out of the ones around me?”
On our first episode of No Bullshit with Alex Willis, take a deep dive into the four different personalities that every human being falls into, and how to be an effective leader to each one. Alex learned about the 4 Lenses Assessment over 10 years ago, and is sharing it with you today.
The assessments determine if a person’s blue, green, orange or gold. The concept, created from the research of the Myers Briggs’ Personality Type Indicator, is aimed at building better and stronger relationships through effective communication. To find out what color your personality is, click this link.
After tuning in, you’ll have:
In our final segments, The Foundation and The Frame Out, Alex is going to help you look beyond yourself and your own perspective to see the people around you for who they are. It’s really tough to put your ego aside and step into someone else’s shoes, but as you’ll find out, it’s critical to understanding how to master people and become a great leader. Alex will also summarize all the previous segments for you at the end in case you missed anything.
Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts as well as the YouTube channel to watch full video episodes and be notified as soon as the show goes live.
[00:00:00] Alex: Welcome to the foundation, right? So, so here, let's bring this together as we talked about you understanding yourself. We kind of went through your team and when they're at their best and when they're at their worst, but, but the magic of all of this is the foundation. So, so what's the foundation? Well, here's what I need you to visualize.
[00:00:27] Alex: If you would visualize with me a leadership [00:00:30] continuum line that just kind of goes on and on and on for miles and miles. On one side of that leadership continuum line, you have pride in self. On the other side of that line, you have humility in others. Now hear me out on this. Most times when we talk about personality, when we talk about style, when we talk about other people, other people's perspectives, we tend to stay on this side of pride and self.
[00:00:52] Alex: Right now on this side of pride itself, we're only thinking about ourselves. We're only thinking about what's best for us. Hey, we're thinking about our leadership style. How I [00:01:00] would do it, I, I I I on this side right now, when you stay on this side of pride and self, it's as if when you speak with someone on your team, it's as if a mirror is between you and that person.
[00:01:13] Alex: So when you talk to them, you only see yourself, right? They're on the other side of the mirror saying, what the hell is this person saying? Why? Why are they doing it this way right now? Understand. I like to call this side of pride and self the wall of low maturity. This is where low [00:01:30] mature leaders turn this way and they're looking at this wall.
[00:01:34] Alex: They're looking at this wall. Screw everybody else behind me, screw other people. This is what I want. How I want. I'm gonna say it the way I wanna say it. I don't care if they move or not. I'm looking at this wall of low maturity. What I want to challenge you to do in this segment of the foundation is be willing to turn your back to the wall of low maturity, turn your back to pride in self, and really begin to sit on this side over here of humility and other.[00:02:00]
[00:02:00] Alex: Now this requires you to look beyond yourself, beyond your perspective, what you've seen, what you've done, what you like, and now begin to say, who's in front of me right now, and what am I willing to do to make sure that I connect well with them? Now to do that, all of a sudden, if you get on this side of humility and others, all of a sudden it's as if a window is between you and that individual and you actually see them for who they are.
[00:02:27] Alex: You get a chance to see them for who they are. [00:02:30] You can understand, hey, well, I'm speaking to a person who has a lead goal or a lead blue personality type, and as a result of that, you are able to connect better with them. We call this side the wall of high maturity, right? So I need you to really begin to analyze throughout your day, different times of the day, which wall are you facing as it pertains to your people.
[00:02:53] Alex: Are you on this side of low maturity? Pride in self thinking about yourself only doing it your [00:03:00] way, or are you on this side of high maturity saying, wait a minute, who's in front of me right now? What do I need to do to win? I'm willing to do whatever it takes to change my style, to connect better with them.
[00:03:13] Alex: I promise you this, the majority of the mistakes that you make as leaders that we make, I'm putting myself in that category too. The majority of the states that we make. It is because we're facing this wall of pride in self and low maturity. [00:03:30] So how bad do you wanna win? That's what you have to ask yourself.
[00:03:33] Alex: How bad do you wanna win? And what are you willing to do to make sure that you can win? Right? If you are willing to face this wall of humility in others, I guarantee you you'll see more success in your day right. Now. With that being said, with the foundation, it's important for us to think about how do you recognize people?
[00:03:51] Alex: Well, As a leader, it's your job. You may have different people on your team and you have to get, come in and recognize what are they, what's their style, so that you can begin to see [00:04:00] how to lean on this side of humility and others. Well, let's go through it really quickly. Typically, I think, uh, blue individuals who have a lead blue personality type, they tend to, uh, be more friendly, right?
[00:04:12] Alex: Uh, in their office. You'll see pictures of family and friends and events because they like doing those kinds of things. They also tend to ask you more about your life, right? They'll ask you, Hey, how's your family? What's going on with this? Uh, what do you like doing in your spare time? So typically when I hear a person talking like that, in my mind, [00:04:30] I'm beginning to analyze, uh, I think this is a blue person.
[00:04:33] Alex: I think this person's blue, right? So let's go to the next. I share with you already the green tip. Uh, oftentimes that facial expression, that, that, that straight face, oftentimes, uh, or a person who's asking me a ton of questions, if they begin to ask me a ton of questions, asking for details, asking for more information, in my mind as a leader, I'm saying, Hey, listen, this is a green individual.
[00:04:53] Alex: So when I interact with them, I need to lean on this side of humility and others because they have a lead green personality, [00:05:00] right? My goals tend to be more professional than most, right? They're super professional, super polished. They're thinking about their professional careers. They're, uh, sometimes just super formal, right?
[00:05:12] Alex: A firm handshake, Hey, good morning. How are you? Kind of standoffish when I start seeing that personality type. As well as, uh, living by a to-do list, thinking about time in my mind, I'm okay. I got a goal on my hands. Uh, let me dial up my goal. Right? And then last but not least, that orange, uh, orange. [00:05:30] Big thinkers, these are the people that tend to not ask for a lot of details.
[00:05:33] Alex: They fly by the seat of their pants. They'll be late. They'll show up late to a meeting. When I see that going on, I'm like, okay, hey, I got an orange on my hands. I'm willing to shift. On this side of humility and others so that I can engage better, right? So your job as a leader, my friend, is to understand how to speak their language and be willing to do whatever it takes to do this.
[00:05:56] Alex: Now, in our trainees, we find a crazy cool way to do this. [00:06:00] Uh, we help people understand how to speak other people's language by doing a silly little activity that we call, uh, creating a state of the drug poster. Now, I know this sounds stupid, but hear me out. I just have to explain it to you. When we do this in this segment, typically what happens is we have each color have has to draw a picture of a poster to speak to their arch ne to get their arch nemus not to do drugs.
[00:06:22] Alex: So, for example, blue people have to not talk about relationship, not talk about people, but go to data and analytics to get greens, not to use drugs. [00:06:30] Green people have to go from analytics and data to thinking about family and friends and all those things to get blue people not to use drugs. Uh, gold people have to lighten up, get fun, uh, exciting to kind of get short, snappy, fun message to get oranges, not to use drugs and oranges.
[00:06:48] Alex: We challenge them to turn down the fund, get more serious with rules to get goals, not to use drugs, right. It's a very challenging activity because oftentimes we love to talk in our own [00:07:00] language, the way we like things, and oftentimes when we begin to speak in other people's languages of personality, it does not feel good.
[00:07:10] Alex: It doesn't seem right, it just feels we are just to be honest with you. But you have to remember, it's not for you. It's for your team and the person next to you that you're trying to motivate, encourage, and influence If you can begin to speak their language. You can have them run through brick walls for you, and you'll maximize your results by doing this right here.
[00:07:29] Alex: [00:07:30] It's your job to understand this. Here's the last piece in the foundation. My friends understand that we have all of these colors in us, so never say you can't do it. Your job is to decide if you want to turn up that down on that color, right? So we're gonna close in our last segment. I'll see you in a second when we bring all of this and tie it all together with a ninth bow in framing it out.
[00:07:54] Alex: I'll see you in a second. All right, my friends. Welcome to the frame out where we are doing a total [00:08:00] sum up of understanding what we just went over, over what we covered and how you can implement this in your life today. Right? So, With that being said, it starts with you, right? It starts with what I like to call self-awareness, understanding what color you are, right?
[00:08:15] Alex: So I wanna challenge you to go over to ship the communications and take that four lens assessment to see what's your color, first and foremost, right? So understanding you Now, once you understand that, the second piece I need you thinking about is self-management. How do you manage yourself [00:08:30] in such a way so that you can understand your personality and not.
[00:08:34] Alex: Fall on that side where you're not productive, right? You wanna manage yourself so that you stay on that side of high productivity with your personality, your style, so that you get the best out of yourself, which also is going to shine and reflect better on your team. Right? The third thing I need you thinking about is relationship management.
[00:08:54] Alex: We talked about that. Leadership continuum line, right? Pride and self humility and others. [00:09:00] You need to start walking toward that side of humility and others looking at that wall of high maturity so that you can manage your relationships well. Understanding and identifying what your team is where they are, and being willing to dial up as well as dial down what you need at that time so that you can make a better connection right with them right there.
[00:09:21] Alex: Now last but not least, what I need you thinking about in this segment with them as we talk about framing it out, is understanding that people [00:09:30] have multiple colors. As I said, we have all four of the mens. Typically we have one or two that we like to lean toward, so don't think that just because someone has a lead blue, they're going to be overly blue.
[00:09:42] Alex: They may be a blue gold personality type. Well, what does that mean? Well, that mean, hey, I may like people, but I love process too, right? So I'm gonna be nice. But I'm also going to get shit done, right? So they won't be overly nice because they have that lead goal, right? So understand those color [00:10:00] matches mean a lot.
[00:10:01] Alex: For example, my friends Alex, is a orange green. I'm a tie between orange and green, meaning I can be wild and crazy, but I'm gonna ask you a shit load of questions at times, right? So understand, just because I have that high orange in me doesn't mean I'm gonna be wilding all over the place all the time.
[00:10:18] Alex: Uh, I do like to ask questions. I like to dive deeper into things. I like to ask for information. So it's important as you frame it out with your teams, not to only know that one color, but for that [00:10:30] tight-knit group that's closest to you. I wanna challenge you to identify their top two because that will help you understand how they come to work and help you dial up or dial down what you need to do so that you are a master at doing this.
[00:10:45] Alex: Now hear me out on this. I know it seems like a lot my friend. Please, please, please understand it may take some a learning curve in the beginning, but once you really get this, it makes your life easy. Easy at work. [00:11:00] Not only does this stuff work at work, but it also transitions well at home so that you can understand home life better and be able to better engage with your people at home by doing this.
[00:11:11] Alex: You'll become a master of people understanding what's needed when it's needed, being willing to dial up and dial down. But you have to remember, you're a head coach. The job of a head coach, as Al Davis said, win baby win. Please, please, please be willing to set your [00:11:30] ego aside. Do whatever it takes to get the ultimate results that you want, which are to win.
[00:11:36] Alex: Thanks for tuning in to No Bullshit with Alex Willis, the number one source for leadership development in the construction industry. Be sure to subscribe to YouTube or your favorite podcasting platform so that you can make sure you're notified when the next episode drop. And leave us a comment. Hey, we wanna know what you think.
[00:11:54] Alex: If you're having leadership challenges or things like that that we can help address. We are here for you. We want to help you out. [00:12:00] Until next time. See you later my friends.