Where is Your Dominance?

My journey this week took the form of looking at how leaders behave, or what in fact do really good leaders do? As I looked, I discovered something even more intriguing than the purpose of my initial inquiry. I struck a little gold with this one, so pay close attention.

Many people are looking for their best place in life, and we are smart enough to know that our best place in life is probably going to require that we be our best self. I don’t know of anyone with a sane mind that does not want to be their best self. Even a thief and a liar want to be good at their chosen vocation.

What I found about the behavior of leaders, or what leaders do is that there are for the most part, two basic categories that most people fall into; one is being people-oriented, and the other is being task-oriented. The question we must answer is am I people- or task-oriented. Let me explain why that is so important.

Your strengths, innate talents and gifts will dominate in one of the two categories. That does not mean you cannot do both, and I’m sure there are probably some people are what I will call ambidextrous in that they will be equally good at both. These are the outliers. But for most of us, from a position of strength, we will fall on one side of the aisle or the other.

The reason this question is important is that for most of us, this is ground zero. It is the first question we need to answer about ourselves.

Both people- and task-oriented dominance are necessary for success, and both are part of effectiveness in whatever arena we happen to find ourselves. But for your personal success, the answer to this question will place you at your own ground zero.

People-Oriented Behaviors:  Showing empathy, being complimentary, deep listening, respectfulness, attentiveness & caring

Task-Oriented Behaviors:  Planning activities, setting goals, establishing schedules, assigning work, clarifying responsibilities