The 3 Types Personalities you need to be Your Company’s CEO.
Not every company has the same needs, nor do they need a CEO with the exact same skill set. Even within the same industry, there are many different types of companies that may have very different goals and motivations. One of my goals as an executive coach is to work with CEOs who understand themselves and their own leadership style well enough to know how best to shape their teams and structure their organizations. This requires knowing what type of personality would excel at being a CEO for your particular company.
In order to help you recognize this yourself, I’ve broken down the three primary types of personalities needed as a company’s chief executive officer: The Revolutionary, The Integrator, and The Optimizer.
- The Revolutionary CEO is a visionary who needs to have control, an “us versus them” mentality when it comes to leadership and employees. They are inspired by being in uncharted territory where there are no rules. In many ways they seek the unknown because it gives them permission to break existing norms and traditions in order to create something new. This type of CEO thrives on being different from others around them. Their confidence is often seen as arrogance by others, which makes their teams cringe at times but also gets results that have a lasting impact. A healthy dose of self-awareness is essential for Revolutionaries in leadership positions because they need badly need feedback from people outside their circle in order to make adjustments and course corrections if needed. If you are a Revolutionary CEO your goal with your team is to foster an environment that encourages risk-taking and creativity. You need to inspire them by setting big goals that challenge the status quo, but then back away from micromanaging every move they make along the way.
According to William D King revolutionary CEOs are often only successful when they find companies that have been around for a long time and which have already built a valuable brand or product. When it comes to either building something new or significantly changing an existing company, Revolutionary personalities work well as both leaders and employees in those situations where there is plenty of fertile ground for large growth opportunities versus more mature businesses with limited upside potential.
- The Integrator CEO manages complexity through process orientation as relationship building skills including patience and diplomacy. They are the first one that others turn to when there is a conflict or any other type of issue that needs to be resolved. The Integrator personality excels at motivating people by creating rules and procedures, but only if they feel it’s absolutely necessary because their main focus is building strong relationships with employees and customers alike. This CEO often focuses on managing the details up front in order to avoid confrontation later on, rather than taking big risks like Revolutionaries do. For this reason it can sometimes take longer for Integrators to achieve results, but generally speaking these CEOs create long term stability for their company once they get past early growing pains due to lack of process or structure.
Integrator CEOs need team members who are willing to put in the time to get to know each other well, because this type of leader wants feedback from the people they work with. They are very aware of their own behavior and adapt to others in meeting situations. This makes Integrator CEOs great team players in that once they have a clear picture of how you operate then they will do everything possible to be successful working with you in the future. While not as inspiring as Revolutionaries, Integrators inspire confidence in employees because there is no ambiguity when it comes to what is expected from them.
- The Optimizer CEO’s focus on running things efficiently through data driven analysis while being cautious about taking unnecessary risk. They are cautious processors who are deliberate when making decisions because their preference is for objective information over emotions when given choices between the two. Optimizer leaders are most effective when they surround themselves with people who have a dominant Achiever personality type because that is the best antidote to their cautious nature.
Conclusion by William D King:
The 4 main types of personalities are all different, so it is important for us to understand their differences in order to be able to work with them more effectively. It’s also important to note that no personality type fits perfectly into any leadership role. Revolutionaries can be effective managers of established companies while Integrators are often outstanding founders of new ventures.
