What's in your boot?
We had the most interesting day with the Fuzion team the other day. We were being filmed for RTE’s new show, The Business Show. For this episode, the presenter, George Lee had asked Colm Murphy from Dynamic Leadership to spend some time with us going through the Myers Briggs Test. It was great fun and I think we all learned a little more about each other and why we really gel as a team.
At the very end of the process we had to put our four key personality ”preference” selections into boxes and it defined what “type” we all were. I was sure that the outcome would be that we would be in the same or neighbouring boxes. We are a creative bunch, who work hard, play hard and are good team players, but it was interesting to see our differences and how this compliments the team and makes us who we are. But surprise, surprise, out of 8 of us we were in 5 different boxes, showing a wide range of personality types.
Colm then showed us what the different boxes meant and I was so chuffed when it turns out I am in one of the boxes that 60% of CEO’s are in. And before you ask, Greg wasn’t!!! So it looks like I’m officially The Boss!!!
One interesting outcome of the “test” was that each of us had four different attributes that were key to the ‘box’ that we were in. The first attribute Colm described as our ‘engine’ – the attribute that normally drives us. The second attribute was our ‘co-driver’ – the attribute that is always beside us, assisting us in our daily working life. When it came to the forth attribute, Colm described this as “what was in our boot” – the attribute that comes to the fore when we are under strong pressure.
He gave the example of a scene from The Sopranos: The gangster is driving away from the scene of a crime, he has hidden the ‘body’ in the boot, but as he makes his escape, he hears a banging noise from the boot, his enemy is still alive – and reminding him that he has a job to finish!!
I couldn’t make sense of this really, until I saw that my ‘body in the boot’ attribute was ‘Emotion’.
At work I think it is a major weakness, to show emotion at work. Of course we should be passionate about our work, but emotions often lead to lack of judgement and can lead to people making bad decisions. But then I realised that this was definitely my body in the boot – Emotions will come to the fore when I am under pressure.
An example would be a few years ago we were working on a project of ours called Catwalks, a glamorous VIP Girl’s Night Out event – a communication went out to the media, that was not in keeping with our core message. I was really upset as I had not been in the loop on the approval cycle. I was just about to ring the person who had issued the communication and let give them a piece of my mind! Greg stopped me. He said think about the brand, not my emotions when I was talking to the person. It made me calm down straight away. I was able to communicate rationally why it was wrong for the brand, rather than why it should have gone out without my approval. By being logical about it, the person saw straight away that it was wrong and never made the mistake again. I didn’t get all emotional and upset, and in the process I maintained a good working relationship with the person who now had a better understanding of what we needed to communicate.
I think it is so important that we all recognise that we have a ‘body in the boot’, to be aware of it, acknowledge it and understand it and most importantly to stay in control and not be controlled by it.
This has been a really great learning for me that I hope will make me a better business person. Thanks to RTE, Colm and the lovely George for giving me this valuable insight.
Now fingers crossed that the piece which airs on Friday 25th March will show us as the strong team that we are and that I won’t be hiding behind the cushion cringing watching the piece and getting all emotional, with the boot banging very loudly!!!!
Deirdre Waldron is a partner of Fuzion Communications
