Does Personality Impact Strategic Planning? You Betcha!

Tips to unleash high levels of commitment, clarity, and productivity within any organization

You are so entrepreneurial; you must be a visionary.
I am a people person.
Planning is a waste of my time; I am more action oriented.
I tend to be the one focused on the details.

 
These statements are familiar to most management team members today as personality assessments have been widely used for more than 30 years for team building, leadership development, and career coaching. It is estimated that the personality assessment industry may be as much as $3B globally. Assessments are in wide use and there are numerous options for individuals and teams to choose from to gain insights to improve performance. But what difference could understanding your team member’s personality have on your next strategic planning effort? A big difference, if you plan to leverage different personality strengths at the appropriate stage.

At its core, Strategic Planning is a process designed to disrupt and produce goals as well as new thinking to guide decision-making and operational plans for multiple years ahead. This type of group planning is very different from the problem-solving disciplines typically relied on for managing operational plans or for addressing real-time challenges as they arise. Strategic planning produces a strategic direction; problem-solving produces a decision for action.
 
Therefore, it is understandable that making the switch to a strategic thinking mindset for strategic planning is often difficult for management teams. Adding to this challenge is the reality that the natural preferences or personality of the individuals leading strategy development most likely suits some by not all phases of strategic planning.
 

 
For example, the more analytical, fact-based personality of an MBTI xSTx type will enjoy and excel in the first phase of strategic planning: Strategic Assessment. In this phase, data, insights, and perspectives are gathered to help clarify where the organization is today. This now orientation is well in the comfort zone for the analytical personality. Their view of strategic planning is to fully digest the facts and details to create plans to address the issues this assessment raises. To others with a more future or “big picture” orientation, this analysis is tolerated as setting the stage for what could be, but they push to move ahead to get to the exploration of “new”.
 
Of course, neither instinct is correct for strategic planning. If the analytical types are left to define the planning effort and shape the plan alone, the plan will be a response to the challenges only visible given the “now” lens. This can be dangerous to long-term thinking as it can leave an entity open to shifts in competitive threats and market innovations. The focus on incremental planning is appropriate later in the planning process, but only after the proper long-range goals are defined in the second phase: Strategy Creation.
 
Conversely, if the future-oriented visionary personality (like those with an MBTI xNxP preference) defines a new strategic direction devoid of a comprehensive analysis of where their entity is today, it too is highly likely to fail. Their risk is in not understanding deeply enough where their business (and possibly market) is today and their plans set out to move ahead from a starting place that does not exist. This disconnect is glaringly obvious to the analytical types and if their attempts to add a reality check is not validated and used, the brilliant future the visionary personality has will never see reality. A planning approach that only focuses on the future is usually what we refer to as an air sandwich.
 
At times, we see great partnerships where the analytical personalities and the visionary types produce great thinking yet still fail to gain traction on their plan within an organization. This causes great frustration and resentment. However, if one asked a empowering or people person why the plans were not embraced, or worse, why they were ignored, they will know. These folks are gifted at evaluating how to engage and win commitment from the teams of people that will be needed to execute. Yet they are often shut out of strategic planning or viewed exclusively as implementation players. Their insights on who to involve in the process and how to bring people along in the thinking are left behind. Teams need to take the time to carefully think through how to take an idea into a full plan or carefully plan how to balance new plans with current priorities. These are the steps taken when teams move through the Initiative Development and Strategy Integration, the last two phases of strategic planning.
 
These later stages can be frustrating to the visionary that just wants to get on with it or sees teams of folks put dents in their shiny new thinking as they work to fit it into the actual business. But this is how ideas become reality. Bring pragmatism and getting into the details suits almost all other personalities, but waiting until the final step, Strategy Integration, to get into action can be frustrating for them as well  
 
So why is it necessary to frustrate most personalities to take that final step to integrate?  The people person will tell you that harmony is the goal. For a great, new strategic direction to achieve all its potential, the final step to prioritize and order strategic thinking is critical. Think of it as the SET in Ready, Set, Go! Before implementation, the analytical personality should review and see how it might all work together. The visionary needs to ensure that the detailed planning has not watered down the essence of the new thinking. The action-oriented personality needs to help shape priorities to ensure current demands will be met as resources to work on new priorities are allocated. The empowering or people driven personality can tell you if you have the commitment required and if you have the right internal communication steps in your plan to ensure alignment.
 
Understanding personality preferences make a significant difference in how to work through a robust and highly successful strategic planning effort. Take the time to understand and leverage the personalities on your team in the right steps in the process and you will unleash high levels of commitment, clarity, and productivity within any organization.