iWAM Team Competencies Breakdown - Options vs. Procedures

Author’s Note: When assessing teams and individual talents, one of the profiling tools we used is The Inventory for Work Attitude & Motivation, or better known as iWAM. With the tool, we can measure your people across 48 competencies, and over this series of articles, we will be exploring deeper into each of the different sets. And because it's easier to reference them against their behavior, we will create fictional characters for each different competency sets. By fictional, do know that they do not reflect anyone in the real world. After all, the focus is their behavior and the psychology behind it, rather than the person themselves. The aim is so you can understand your team members and leaders better, what makes them do the things they do, and from that understanding, develop better work relationships.

COMPETENCY SET: OPTIONS VS. PROCEDURES

Here’s a quick snapshot of Martin, someone who’s someone who is motivated by Options

• When you give Martin a process to follow, he will ask "Is there any other ways to do this?"
• And if the answer is no, he will be keen to explore the new ways.
• Or when it comes to him making a decision, one of his earlier responses will be "What are my options?"
• He may appear as if he's defiant, or do not respect rules and traditions.
• He is a good resource when it comes to brainstorming for ways to address a problem

If there's one way to label Martin as, it will be for his out-of-the-box thinking. Your team members who behave like Martin just love creating or looking for new ways to get things done. They are not necessary rebellious, but it's just in their nature to be creative and discover fresh takes on old procedures.

Having the Martins on the team is great when brainstorming, creative thinking and even problem solving. You can rely on them to think of innovative solutions to old problems, process improvements, or even marketing strategies.

However, as the leader of the group, you will also need to make sure when it comes to following procedures to the dot, your team have to comply. This is especially true when it's compliance or regulations-related issues. Let's think of it this way: you wouldn't want your surgeon to try a new way of performing an operation on you after cutting you up, right?

Here’s a quick snapshot of Lorraine, someone who’s someone who is motivated by Procedures

• When you give Lorraine a process to follow, she will follow it to the dot.
• When you ask her to look for alternative ways to get something done, she will often feel frustrated.
• In the absence of procedures, she will either feel stressed out, or she will take the initiative to create one.
• And because she is one who is excited to follow procedures, she will also expect others to do the same too.
• She is a good resource when checking if any steps were missed during an operation (if she didn't point it out already…)

You can totally count on the Lorraines on your team to makes sure the rules and regulations are properly struck off and followed. "SOP" (Standard Operating Procedures) is the key operative when it comes to Lorraine's world, and they will totally "live" by the rule books.

It's not always about being compliant, though, because from where Lorraine is coming from, she just need to have a set of checklists to check off, steps to follow and framework to pass on to others.

Because of their internal motivation when it comes to following procedures, sometimes your other team members may find her rigid, stubborn or even lacking in creativity. She will be regarded as the "class monitor" who will ensure the processes are followed, and that's always a bad thing.

As a matter of fact, if your business is very efficiency-driven, like in manufacturing, operations or logistics, you need things to run on time, and in a specific order - a role the Lorraines of the world are born to be in.

Of course, just like Martin, you have to encourage Lorraine to think of ways to improve the procedures as well, and grant her some empowerment to do things a little differently. Also, try to make the other team members aware of her strengths and her areas of growth opportunities, so they don't pass on unnecessary judgements on her.

When we talked about Martin and Lorraine, did any of your team members come immediately to mind? Do you find that you understand them a bit better now - the things they do, the behaviours they exhibit? That's great, because as we always say - ABC, Awareness Before Change - so now your staff members can foster better team dynamics.

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Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. I mostly blog about Steemit Success Strategies, business, marketing, entrepreneurship, psychology, community and random thoughts.

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