Assessing Your Own Motives - A Personal Example

Welcome: 00:00

Welcome to this Leaders Lift Bonus Episode

I'm your host Greg Cunningham and I look forward to being a part of your leadership journey.

Intro: 00:16

In this bonus episode, I wanted to follow up on the assessment technique episode where I talked about how to go deep in a self assessment or when helping someone else do an assessment. What I want to walk through here is an evaluation of my own motives around leadership and then also some personal assessments that tie in.

The reason I want to cover this is not to try and get you to understand me anymore, but so that you can see how I use the techniques I talk about and hopefully that helps you understand how you can do the same. So at the end of this episode, don't worry so much about my answers but more about how I got to those answers and then how those answers help me be more deliberate.

Pre-Roll

Now that we are a few episodes into the podcast, I would love to get feedback. What would you like more of? What would you like less of? Favorite episode? Or really anything. I had one suggestion via Patreon to share more book suggestions so I'll incorporate more of that. If you have any suggestions, a question you'd like to hear me answer in an episode or really any feedback at all, you can either send it through Patreon if you are a member there or go to my website and use the contact us form.

Enough with the intro, let's get started as I hold both sides of a leadership and life conversation.

Example: 01:42

What do you like about leading

• Leading teams not projects

○ Why? When I lead teams, I can work at more of a theory/strategic/support level. When I lead projects, I get lost in the thinking aspects and then struggle to do things like take notes, manage project lists, follow up etc.

○ What part of leading teams to do you like the most?

§ Building team and individual development plans and then providing support as they are executed on.

§ Taking existing ideas and theories, combining them with experience and creating a new solution. Take parts of solution a and combine with parts of solution b to create new solution c.

○ What gets you the most excited about leading a team

§ When an individual or team does something truly extraordinary or makes a huge turn around.

□ Works together to solve a major problem

□ When they take an idea or goal and run with it with little guidance from me

○ What parts of leading a team don't you like

§ Starting with a blank page (unless it's a early stage professional wanting to get started on their leadership journey)

§ Dealing with politics

§ Working with individuals that don't care if they meet their potential or not

§ Keeping the lights on

□ Why don't you like to keep the lights on?

® If you are just in maintenance then there usually aren't any meaningful or significant problems to solve

® In this situation there may not be as much room for growth for those that I'm working with

• Seems like a lot revolves around problem solving

○ What do you like about problem solving?

§ I like coming up with solutions and helping others execute on those solutions.

○ Why don't you like to do the execution yourself?

§ I can but I'd prefer to work with a team to develop a plan and then allow the team to do the majority of the execution while I provide support and guidance

So out of that, from a professional standpoint, I know that for myself, I am going to be most engaged and motivated when I have a meaningful problem to solve, a team to work with to solve it and I have an opportunity to help the team grow and do something extraordinary. I also know that if I'm put in a situation where the team is already where they need to be (the maintenance mode mentioned above) that I'm going to struggle. Finally, I know that if I have to build something from a completely blank page, it's going to be more of a struggle. I'd much rather start with something, even if that something is a mess.

So that's a profession example and now I'd like to talk about how some things outside of work blend in with the work stuff above.

• What Do You Love Doing Outside of Work

○ Mountain Biking, Camping, entertainment and going out to eat

• Why do you like those things

○ Mountain biking is my preferred form of exercise. It gest me out in nature and I get some time away from other people.

○ Camping I really enjoy because things seem to slow down and I have less distractions.

○ Entertainment (music, reading and casual gaming) I enjoy because it allows me to get away from other things.

○ Going out to eat is just about convenience.

○ All of these things also get me out of the house and that change of scenery is important to me.

• It doesn't seem like those things relate to being a part of a team or problem solving which were major themes in professional motivations. What are your thoughts?

○ For the most part, the activities above are things I do without a lot of interaction with others. Mountain biking I’m almost always on a trail on my own. Camping is usually just the family and then the entertainment options are just me.

• So do you like being around people or being by yourself?

○ I like working with others as that generally produces a better outcome. That and many problems just can't be solved solo.

○ But I do find being around people constantly draining. I'm way more mentally tired when I get done with a bunch of meetings or attend a conference.

○ So when I want to recharge, I prefer to do the things that don't involve a lot of people. That's also why I rarely attend big events.

• What about problem solving?

○ I love to solve problems in most contexts, but I think that I focus on it so much that I need the things that don't have any real problems.

○ That's also why I like to go out to eat. Not only is it convenient but it's also takes less brain power to do that versus plan, cook and clean up.

Practical Application: 08:18

My themes:

• Be part of a team but have solo time.

• Outdoors is extremely important and helps me find a way to escape.

• Need meaningful problems to solve but also need opportunities to just do something that doesn't require as much mental focus.

When I look for professional opportunities, I know that I need to be involved in something where I can lead a team and have meaningful problems to solve. I make sure that I'm not starting with a blank page (even when I have built new teams or organizations from scratch I had something to start with) and that I'm also not taking over a team that doesn't need to evolve, improve, etc.

At the same time, I also know that I should not take a position that is all consuming. I used to think that I wanted to have a job in the c-suite. I've even thought that maybe being a founder of a start up would be great. But the more I have learned about myself, the more I have realized those things are just not what I want for my life. I want to lead, but I need regular breaks from the team and the major problems and I'm fairly confident I wouldn't get that in either of those situations.

In my personal life, I also know that when I have commitments (like family get togethers during the holidays) that I need to be prepared for them and plan in some downtime with my other activities. I love going to visit family but I prefer to take my house (camp trailer) with me versus stay in their homes. It gives me a chance to walk away when I need to and recharge. It's better for me and for everyone else.

The other piece that spans both personal and professional sides is the need for a change of scenery to compliment my need for structure and routine. In a couple of my previous opportunities I either worked away from the main office or I worked from home. In both of those circumstances I had the opportunity to travel once every month or two. That was very important for team building but also for me just to get that change.

In my last opportunity, I only traveled once in two years. At one point, I realized that my truck hadn't left the garage in over a week and the only times I had left the house were to get the mail or to go on a bike ride or walk.

I think this is why I have gravitated to camping and biking so much. I can get out of the house, I get a change of scenery and on my bike rides I get some good solo time listening to podcasts or music but at the same time, I can still get plenty of structure because when we travel with the trailer, I’m basically taking my simplified house with me.

This might not make sense to everyone so if you are interested in learning more about my camping, let me know and I can maybe tee it up for it's own bonus episode.

Wrap Up: 11:58

I think that's it for today's episode. Just to reiterate the goals of the episode

• Understand how and why you should go deep on your personal motives assessment or when you are helping someone else.

• See how going deep helps you understand how to mesh your core motivations with opportunities.

• See how you can pull themes out of an assessment like this.

• See how even in your personal life, you can get some great insights just by working on why you enjoy or don't enjoy the things you do.

• Know what you can or need to do to better manage some of these insights (similar to me knowing I need down time). You can't always avoid the things that drain you or make life more difficult, but if you understand them, you can work on ways to mitigate.

Finally, I hope that this has peaked your curiosity for knowing more about yourself. In my next full episode which will release on February 6th, I'll be talking about personality styles. Personality styles are really a deeper dive into your motives and much much more. I have found that when you combine the two, be much more deliberate in your career and your life.

Post Roll

That's it for today. If you are interested in supporting the show, check out the options on my Patreon page. Right now I have a limited time special where you can become a Premium subscriber for half price ($5 p/month). You can see all of the details of each of my membership tiers at patreon.com/leaderslift. By becoming a member you are helping me to continue to provide great content and evolve the podcast. Other options for supporting the show can be found in the show notes.

If you want to be notified of future episodes, hit the subscribe or follow button. You can also visit our website for more great content and resources to help you on your leadership journey or find us on LinkedIn and Instagram. And please share the show out to any in your circle that could benefit from it. Ratings and reviews in your podcast app are also a great way to spread the word.

Thank you again for tuning in. Now go out there and keep lifting.