Leadership Types (1 of 5): The Dominant Commander

Is there somebody in your life you need to communicate with, but it's like you're just not on the same page with them? As a leader, being able to communicate and influence is one of the top things that we need to do. Well, in these series of podcasts, you're going to learn how to identify the different leadership types and be able to get people on your side each and every time. Stay tuned. We're starting now. Welcome to Leadership Mindset 2.0, practical neuroscience and psychology to transform you from a tactical doer into a strategic leader. Here is your host, former Social Entrepreneur of the Year and coach to some of the world's top executives, R. Michael Anderson. Hey there, Michael here. Over the next 5 episodes, we're going to be doing something a little different. We're going to go through the 4 leadership types. Because look, you as a leader really need to be able to communicate and influence all sorts of different types of people. And if there are people in your life that you maybe you don't get along with, you just always seem to be on a different page, maybe there's a tension or an uncomfortableness around your relationship, chances are they're the opposite leadership type than you are. Now, in each of these sessions, we are going to go— we're going to teach you how to easily identify what each type in each person and then adapt what you say and how you say it to that person. And then in the fifth, we're going to talk about how they all interrelate together. We're going to start with the dominant commander. We all have a leadership type, and if you have ever taken psychographic tests like Kolbe or Myers-Briggs or Enneagram or DiSC, you're going to be finding it out. It's 100% focused on you as a leader and different people as a leader. Now, we all have our one main driver and our one main type, and if you go to rmichaelanderson.com leadership quiz, which should be in the post details right there. There should be a link there. Again, it's rmichaelanderson.com/leadershipquiz, all one word, all lowercase. It'll take you to a couple questions and you can answer those questions. Now, when I designed mine, I designed it to be very fast. I think it asks you 9 or 11 questions. Once you get them, you are gonna get what it determines as your leadership type. Now, chances are it's gonna be accurate. But people can be on the edge of two different types. They can be one type at work and one type at home. And there's some of these assessments that take 45 minutes. Mine takes like 2 minutes, 3 minutes. So it gives you some really basic information. As you go through these next 5 sessions, we're gonna handle a different type on the first 4, and then the 5th is gonna talk about how they all work together, which is where the real power is. It's important that you know your type, and it's important to know the type of person that you're dealing with. There's a couple things people get out of this and it's very powerful. They're like, okay, this is where my behavior's being driven by. And then there's often somebody that triggers them. Maybe there's somebody in your life you don't really get, you don't understand. But when you can understand what their leadership type is, and I'm gonna tell you how to determine the different leadership types for each one, then what's gonna happen is you're gonna say, oh, that's this person. This is what's driving them. This is how I can communicate with them. This is why we have this misalignment because we're looking at things from two different aspects, two different areas. And so it can be very powerful. When we understand what is driving us, what is driving other people. And then as leaders, again, and when I say as a leader, this doesn't need to be somebody on your team. It can be somebody in your department, it could be somebody, a peer, it can be somebody that you report to. But we always need to take leadership and take the initiative and take responsibility for showing up at our best. When we can have that reflection and we can understand that about ourselves and we can bring that to our communication and our relationships, It's a very powerful thing. So today we are gonna talk about the dominant commander type, dominant commander, and what the dominant commander is. I'm gonna tell you a couple different things on each person. I'm gonna tell you about what their main drivers is, what drives them, what makes them happy, what do they look for in everything in their life. And then I'm gonna tell you about their strengths. They're gonna tell you about their blind spots and then how you can identify them and how to work with them. So you're gonna learn all that stuff. And just remember, the 4 types are dominant commander, visionary influencer, logical creator, and supportive collaborator. And like when we're on dominant commander, you can be more of a dominant commander. You can be like partially dominant commander, partially something else, et cetera. And you can be closer in the middle, which means you're more moderate, or you can be very far out there. There's no problem what you are or you're not. You just want to get a sense of that. But also as leaders, what we want to do is we want to understand where our strengths are, where we're really good in the world. But also where our blind spots are. And so sometimes we have to develop mechanisms and strategies to facilitate things that aren't in our strengths. And we have to be careful, cuz if we don't know them, we can really cause problems for ourselves. So back to dominant commander. Dominant commander, their main driver is winning. And when I say winning, they really, they're very competitive. They really like winning. They really like control, but they don't necessarily need to be seen as the winner. It's like an internal drive to compete and to win. A lot of people make it into leadership that are dominant commanders. They're actually one of the smallest amount percentage-wise, ratio-wise. However, they often find themselves in leadership roles because, you know, often we get into leadership roles because we're doing a good job, because we're winning, our team is winning. So dominant commanders are driven by this internal need to win and be the best, be in control of everything. And that's what drives them. They don't like being out of control. They don't like when things are out of control. They don't like to come in second or third or last or whatever it is. They have this big drive. So they work hard, they're focused, and they're to the point. So when you talk about a dominant commander, they have a real focus on winning. Now, again, I'm part dominant commander and part logical creator. The dominant commander in me, it's good to succeed. It's good to win. But what can happen is I can get too focused on winning and then be a jerk, basically, or be a bully. So people that are not aware of their strengths and where they lie and their blind spots, They can be a bully. They can win at all costs. They can steamroll other people. They can do things their own way because they like to be in control. And sometimes they're actually not a team player because they don't like anybody else to have the perceived control over them. And you'll know a dominant commander because dominant commanders are the people that are really directed to the point. They talk in short, clipped sentences. You don't need to small talk with them. So they might be the type of people that can challenge people. They can be intimidating. They're not afraid of conflict. That's what a dominant commander is. So maybe you are one. Maybe you have these people in your life. Now, here's how you work with dominant commanders. The first thing is dominant commanders don't like small talk. You can come into a dominant commander's office and be like, all right, this is what I want to talk to you about. You don't need to ask them about their kids. You don't need to ask them about their weekend. You don't need to ask them, you know, when I, get a business phone call, the only thing going through my mind is, what does this person want and how can we get to the point? And how can I get there and find out what this person wants and we get started on this? And I know some other personality types really like to chat. They like to warm up the conversation. So I really have to adapt to that and not lose patience. There's one guy who ran a company, one of my companies, and he's the most amazing guy ever. And he is what's called a visionary influencer. And he really values relationships. And we talk once a week, we do a strategy catch-up call. And I realized when I talked to him, I had to get ready and spend the first couple minutes just chit-chatting. And he's a wonderful guy, but he's like, hey Michael, how was your weekend? What's going on with you and with Anna, your wife? And da da da da. Hey Bob, how you doing? What's going on there and there and there? And, and that was really important to him cuz he's so relationship focused. So in that way, I have to, I have to understand that like, look, not everybody's about me. And so if you're a dominant commander, Maybe you can do better at relationships because you need more patience. You need to meet people where they're at. Often dominant commanders take on too much control and too much responsibility because they're like, I'll do it faster, I'll do it better. Because we're normally really smart, we get a lot of things done, but then we get overwhelmed and then we get burnt out. We can get very impatient and we can lack collaboration because we're really smart and we just want to do things our own way. That's really what helps us out. So that's some of the blind spots. Back to how you deal with a dominant commander. Okay, when you get to a dominant commander, you want to get right to the point. Hey, how you doing? Good, good. Hey, this is why I'm talking to you. This is why I called you. This is why we're having a meeting. It's like, okay, let's get it done. Let's get it on because I just want to check it off my list. Then, you know, with the dominant commander, you want to show them, get to the point very quickly. Don't tell a 10-minute story. Don't do a bunch of preamble. Do the executive summary first and then, you know, maybe go into some of the details. And if you can show a dominant commander a clear return on investment, about how they're going to win, how they're going to get forward. They will go quickly. They will move quickly in a decision. A dominant commander doesn't necessarily need to take a long time to make a decision. You just have to make it very clear this is a smart decision. It will move them forward in whatever they are trying to do. Also, with a dominant commander, you can challenge them. Even if they're the CEO of a large company and you're, you know, just this little sales rep or whatever it is, as a dominant commander, we sort of like to be challenged. So I can say something, you're like, yeah, that's not right. But if you challenge a dominant commander, you got to back it up quickly. So, you know, you got to be on your A-game. They're going to be like, well, why not? Tell me it. If you have something good, we'll be like, all right, I get that. And you actually earn their respect by challenging them and standing up for yourself. That's really what we look for in dominant commanders are people that can really hold their own. So when you meet with a dominant commander, you want to have that power. You want to have that confidence. They may try to bully you a little bit and see if they can like mold you to what they want to do because dominant Commanders will often get a very clear vision and try to control everybody to do that. And so you really want to make sure that you don't get steamrolled by a dominant commander, and that's how you do it. So show up, show up powerfully, show up confidently, challenge them, get right to the point and do those things. And if you do that, and if you have a dominant commander, and I work with a lot of people, a lot of people will have a dominant commander in their life and they realize that they're getting pushed around by the dominant commander. And then they'll be like, you know what? I just got right to the point and I pushed back, and now they're cool with me. It's interesting how quickly you can get a dominant commander in, in a better state with you doing that. So that's the dominant commander, driven by winning, by control, and getting things done. At their best, they're decisive, direct, and they move fast. And at their worst, without knowing, knowing it, they steamroll the people around them. So your challenge, dear leader, is think about whether you recognize yourself in the dominant commander or there's someone else in your life— your boss, a colleague, a partner— who fits this. If it is you, notice one moment where you drive to get it done, where you're steamrolling somebody, where you might be being perceived as a bully. And how can you change? How can you adapt how you are coming across to other people? If it's someone else, think about it. They probably challenge you to see if you're going to step up to the challenge. So actually getting a challenge from a dominant commander isn't bad. They're seeing if you can handle it, if they can respect you. So expect to be challenged. And the thing is, with, with dominant commanders, you can challenge them right back. They enjoy it. Just be able to back it up. So prepare yourself for these conversations with a dominant commander and go out there and communicate them with them on this different level. That's it for today's episode, but I have one more question for you. Do you have an upcoming event that could benefit from a Leadership Mindset 2.0 keynote or facilitation? One of my favorite things to do is speak and work with groups at events and leadership meetings. If you want to learn more about my speaking, go to rmichaelanderson.com/speaking. Speaking, where you can see me on stage and inquire about bringing me in for your event. Then we can both meet in person and your team can get empowered with the latest mindset tools and strategies.