Blog Tag: Performance Management

March is also the time of year when we focus on performance management tools with our HR clients. (In fact, just this past week, I had a great discussion on how to align a client’s leadership team with the aspects of the business that keep them awake at night.)

Welcome back to the discussion of people leader skills. I really enjoyed your feedback on last month’s blog. Now, I’d like to share some of my favorite resources for developing these skills.

A few weeks ago, I found myself with more drive time than usual and decided to listen to an audiobook I’d been curious about for a while: The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin. The premise is simple—people respond differently to internal and external expectations, and Rubin groups those responses into four tendencies: Obliger, Upholder, Rebel, and Questioner.

I’ll admit, I was skeptical at first. But it didn’t take long before I could clearly see myself in one of the tendencies and, just as importantly, recognize how others in my work and personal life might fall into different ones. That insight felt familiar, because it reinforced something I see every day in my work with leadership teams: conflict often has very little to do with intent, and a lot to do with style.