The 4 Personalities That Lead to Innovation

Find the Right Fit

John Flanner of Flanners Home Entertainment in Brookfield, Wis., was impressed with the profile breakdown.

"The CVF opened my eyes to the value of diversity, and to the value each profile type brings to the process of innovation -- not only in terms of a top management team, but also within subgroups of teams working on various projects," he says.

Flanner calls himself "a total control type." So was most of his company, he recalls.

"So, we've been slow to innovate, and we've often been frustrated trying to get new projects off the ground."

Since attending the DeGraff session, Flanner reports that his company has hired a new general manager with strong compete profile characteristics, which has made a "huge difference" in the company's ability to get things done.

"We recently reorganized our buying department to include people with all three profiles so we can hit the numbers and initiate new campaigns [compete], control the data [control] and negotiate and communicate in a timely fashion [collaborate], which covers all aspects of the buying function," Flanner says.

"We also have a lot of collaborate types in our back office, which creates a sense of family and belonging. We still lack create types, but just being mindful of it has helped us move forward."

In the end, Flanner acknowledges the value of the different types outlined by the CVF.

"I realize now it takes a lot of courage to move past your comfort zone to hire people with profiles unlike your own," he says, "but we are making an effort to diversify the team as people leave and we replace key positions in the company."

Bjorn Dhybdahl, of Bjorn's in San Antonio, Texas, tells a similar story. "We've been working very hard recently to be sure we have the right profile types in the right jobs," he explains.

"Compete types and collaborators make the best people managers, but we need the control types to keep everything together."

Looking at his own company, Dhybdahl says, "Our COO/CFO is a compete, our GM is a control and I am a collaborator with a lot of create [attributes]."

He adds, "We had a custom division manager who, by being such a strong control type, was good at his job, but had a harder time managing the people. We have since moved him to head up project management, where he has flourished."

Innovators Need Editing

David Stollmack, an industry consultant, reflects on his past company, Audio Video Systems in Charlotte, N.C., in terms of what he learned at the conference.

"I am a strong create type, and my partner of many years was a strong control type," he says. "When he left the company, I moved people around to fill his shoes, but I put many people in the wrong positions and never actually hired more control types, which is what we needed to keep my create energy in check.

"Without [his partner], there was no one strong enough in the company to edit my ideas for soundness and viability, or limit the number of new projects we started at any one time."

Since the conference and his company's subsequent changes, Stollmack has come to recognize a few things.

"I realize now that we all have our strengths, and it isn't a personal failing to lack competence in all areas. The key is to understand my own strengths and be sure I surround myself with strong managers in the other three profiles."