Have you ever talked to someone who is very enthusiastic and talks excitedly about an idea they have… and you have no idea what they’re talking about? Or someone who makes a decision and when you ask them how they came up with it says, “It feels right” and can’t say anything more? Welcome to the world of the E – Engager in our T.E.A.M. model. E’s are creative, big picture thinkers who don’t like to get down in the weeds and discuss details. They are intuitive thinkers.
When you supervise someone with a high E score you need to be prepared to listen – they like to tell stories and they like to brainstorm. The often think out loud. While this can be annoying or distracting, it’s critical that you give E’s the chance to do this. Be sure to schedule times for these sessions so they don’t interrupt you and set time limits so the E stays focused. And be sure to listen carefully, they often have great ideas.
E’s are engaging and they generally have an audience for their stories. This can be good for morale… and/or can cut into productivity. If the E on your team is a positive team player, then giving them some space for entertaining the team will probably boost morale and may be worth the time invested. They may need you to set some boundaries to keep this in check.
If the E is a negative person, be careful. They can easily promote negativity on the team. You’ll need to set some limits with them, focusing on their behavior, not their attitude. Talk about how their negative comments bring others down and set some limits about how much they can take time to talk with others during the work day. You can’t limit what they say on breaks, so be sure you spend time with the rest of the team to keep them positively motivated and to listen carefully to keep track of overall morale.
While E’s are great outside the box thinkers, they are often less comfortable with the implementation phase since they may not be so good with details. They are great at staying focused on the big picture and ensuring that the project stays true to that and makes the right connections. They may need some help with staying on top of the details. You can team them up with a more detailed person, or help them develop a more detailed plan and checklist to help them stay on track. Don’t assume they can do this on their own.
If you are engaged in a problem solving discussion with an E, again, they’re great at coming up with creative, outside the box ideas. So listen carefully. They tend to wander around a bit as their intuitive mind makes connections, but if you hang in, they’ll come to the bottom line and you can reconnect with them there.
To pull this all back to the 7 keys, in our original blog we focused on 7 key feelings that lead to positive motivation and performance; feeling: respected, appreciated, belonging, treated fairly, safe, powerful and less stressed. The strategies we mentioned above all contribute to this. Two key ones are listening and trusting that their intuitive decision process has a lot of value. E’s often feel isolated and discounted because people can’t follow their intuitive process. They feel their ideas (and they) are not respected or appreciated. As a result they feel powerless and stressed. So reversing these by listening and engaging with them will go a long way. In terms of trusting their intuitive thinking… trust but verify. If they’ve done well in the past, you can trust their decisions and ideas, but you want to always verify that they result in the desired goal… and when they do, give them positive feedback to acknowledge that.
One final point with E’s – they want to find meaning in their work. How does what they are doing fit into the larger scheme? What difference will it make? Take the time to make these connections for them and they’ll be even more motivated to do a great job!
For more information about the T.E.A.M. model, visit our webpage. If you’re an E or have experience working with E’s – let me know what you think of these strategies.
Be sure to read about the next style, A, as well!