5 Ways to Hack the Power Triangle
The difference between average success and remarkable achievement is your ability to hack the power triangle.
Each point of the triangle represents a uniquely qualified person you need in your life.
3 power people:
Dreamers:
- Start with yes.
- Plan as they go.
- Love change. Nothing’s ever done.
- Can’t figure out why others don’t get it.
- Hate details.
Doers:
- Start with no.
- Plan before they go.
- Love finishing things.
- Exhaust the people around them. (Unless the people around them are doers.)
- Understand details.
Feelers:
- Worry how people are doing.
- Take people’s problems personally.
- Like working with others.
- Understand people’s motivations.
- Love meeting pressing needs.
5 ways to hack the power triangle:
I’m a dreamer. It’s taken me half a lifetime to stop pushing away those I should pull in.
Fools push away those who challenge and expand their lives.
#1. The person who is most like you gives you energy. The other two drive you nuts.
- Doers push dreamers and feelers.
- Dreamers irritate feelers and doers.
- Feelers are like Rodney Dangerfield. They get no respect.
#2. Everyone is part doer, dreamer, and feeler. Don’t surround yourself with well balanced people unless you aspire to average success. Look for wild-eyed dreamers, impatient doers, and feelers who prioritize people over results.
#3. You need small doses of the people who drive you nuts. Spend quality time, not quantity time, with the opposite sides of the triangle. Timing is everything.
- Talk to dreamers early in the process. They haven’t met an idea they didn’t love.
- Talk to doers when you want concrete plans and execution.
- Talk to feelers when you’re aligning talent and navigating relationships.
#4. Fill teams with doers. Sprinkle in dreamers and feelers to spice things up.
#5. Have conversations about the power triangle.
- Invite people to self-identify.
- Explore ways to maximize each person’s orientation.
- Discuss how to best interact with each other.
What frustrates dreamers? doers? feelers?
How might leaders navigate relationships with doers, dreamers, and feelers in ways that expand everyone’s potential?
I highly suggest looking at the Process Therapy Model by Dr. Taibi Kahler. He notes that there are 6 different personality types, all with their preferred communication styles, distress triggers and indicators. He’s a psychologist who helped build the astronaut evaluation procedures for NASA. I’ve found it to be helpful in communicating with people, while discovering my own strengths and weaknesses. Lots of dry reading at the beginning, but a heck of a finish that will challenge anyone’s views.
Thanks Jody. Very helpful.
I’ve been told there are two types of people in the world. Those who put people in two categories and those who don’t. But then you have….
Myers-Briggs has 16 personality types.
Marcus Buckingham lists 9 strengths roles: advisor, connector, creator, equalizer, influencer, pioneer, provider, stimulator, and teacher.
The Cliffton Strengthsfinder from Gallup says there are 34 talent themes.
I’ll take a look at Kahler’s work.
Great article. Very interesting and informative. I am definitely a doer.
Thanks Crystal. You better get busy! 😉
I interpret this as you need balance.
You need all types and all types need each other. Looking at anything from only one perspective (personality type) limits creativity and productivity. Being one type or another type or another type (keep going as long as you wish..) does not exclude you from being open and responsive to those other types.
Responsive is where challenge AND GROWTH live.
Thanks Will. I think balance is the problem. It dilutes the unique strengths we have. Rather than trying to be balanced, invite others into your life to expand your perspective and capacities.
There are too many personality types to navigate. The three listed are the three essential ones. I think we agree that being open is key to success. We may not see eye to eye in the belief that balance is the answer. I lean toward the value of being out of balance as long as we invite others into our lives.
Thanks again for jumping in.
Hey Dan…Invite as you say. I did not intent to suggest that you or I need to become balanced. Thanks.
Thanks Will!
“I lean toward the value of being out of balance…”. Interesting, never thought of it that way but makes sense. This is the sort of anti-intuitive. Anti-intuitive because it appears to be the opposite of Whole Brain thinking? The theory of Whole Brain Thinking is that you balance out your brain to maximize your potential. But “Out of Balance” seems more intriguing and it can be argued that the greatest accomplishments were from minds that were out of balance.
Love The Power Triangle! Dreamer here (5 out of 5) with a little bit of Doer and Feeler sprinkled in. Myers Briggs says I am an INFP. And, I have learned the value (professionally and personally) in surrounding myself with “Doers,” thinkers, and those gifted with judgment so that I can be a bit more grounded when making decisions and meeting deadlines. Great article Dan, thank you!
Thanks Janis. My challenge is paying attention to those ‘others’ when they say things that I just don’t appreciate! 🙂
Laughed as I read this. It is so true.
I am a dreamer. I had to learn the skills of the other two in order to be effective. Right now I am replanning my work because I have taken on too many things again :).
Thanks Allan. I was just talking with a doer and a dreamer. They confirmed how doers start with no and dreamers start with yes. Last night I skyped with a dreamer. His life is like a juggler in a circus. Too many balls in the air. 🙂
Best for the journey.
I have used http://www.strengthstest.com/strengths-finder-themes to help students identify their own strengths and ask them to use their strengths in group work. Diversity is so important in leadership and this gives them an opportunity to recognize the importtance of other points of view.
What about the Thinkers of DISC?
I am 70% Dreamer, 25% Doer, and 5% Feeler. No balance. However, have a boss who is 110% Doer (If you can tip the scale). He is literally 0% Dreamer or Feeler. We are having challenges working together. I will share this with him, but the 0% Feeler will dismiss the concept. Wish us luck! 😉
Tee — As a Doer who worked 3.5 yrs with a Dreamer, I can tell you that Doers are energized when progress is made and completion appears feasible. When you work with the Doer, emphasize or show how your input or ideas will lead to these two things. I became frustrated and demotivated hearing “new ideas” or “possibilities” that were never going to come about, especially after I spent a lot of time creating plans to make several happen. I liked him as a person very much, but as a boss, it was a challenge for me.