One of the most transforming moments of my leadership journey was to gain an understanding of my leadership voice. To have a language to describe it and a way to understand the way those I work with view the world. It has been truly transformational. Over the next 5 weeks I am going to pull back the curtain and give an overview of the 5 Voices model of team and leadership communication which I am licensed to deliver by Giant. I hope you will see yourself in one of these voices and how you can leverage your understanding to create high performance teams.
Why is this important?
In 2015 Google ran project Aristotle to look into the “X” Factor of high performing teams. The “X” Factor was psychological safety, in other words having skilful people on the team was important but not as important as how they work together. This model provides a framework and language that when implemented delivers higher team performance.
As a nurturer you are likely to champion, people, relational harmony and values.
Key Characteristics of a Nurturer:
I don’t have the space to do this justice but want to give you a taste of the nurturer voice.
Strengths:
- They intuitively feel how an organisation will react to a new idea – nurturers have a gut feel for how decisions made will impact their colleagues and others. You have an onboard sense for how things affect people.
- They defend values – people will always come before profit – it is not that you understand that the organisation needs to make money, it just isn’t going to be your go to place first. It will be about the people.
- They function as the relational oil inside teams and organizations – sometimes sparks can fly in meetings, or people on the team may fall out with each other. Nurturers you will be the ones looking to help mend those issues
Challenges:
- They rarely value the contribution they make – your colleagues will think you are the consummate professional. You work away in the background not wanting the spotlight. You rarely think you are as good as others see. Imposter syndrome is quite common for you.
What is fascinating is that 43% of the population are nurturers so the biggest proportion of the population by far. In terms of the way you look at the world and make decisions as a present focused voice you will want data which is concrete, that you can see, hear, touch, that engages your senses.
You are not anti-change but will want to know that decisions are well thought through and that the decision is not going to change midway through the process.
Key Insights
Here is a couple of ways that you as a nurturer reading this can access your superpowers:
- People see me as a highly skilled professional – it’s time I started to believe that.
- People trust my judgment and genuinely want to hear my opinion – if I speak the truth with kindness I can increase my influence.
Enabling Nurturers to Shine
You may lead people who are nurturers what can you do to help them to make their best contribution?
- When leading nurturers make sure you make clear your expectations of any tasks you expect them to do. Be thorough and ask questions so they feel confident they understand what it is you want done.
- Nurturers thrive on positive reinforcement so celebrate their achievements in a way which is helpful to them. Nurturers are enabled as you affirm their professionalism.
This is just a small part of what a nurturer voice looks like. To go deeper and see how you could benefit from a greater understanding of who you are. Do get in touch and look out for the tools on LinkedIn.
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