Why You Need Cognitive Diversity on Your Team — Even If It Leads to Conflict [Leadership Insight]

Foreign. Welcome to the Leadership Insights edition of the Enlightened Executive. Each episode we feature groundbreaking techniques and strategies to help you get the edge in personal and leadership effectiveness. Today we're going to talk about why you need cognitive diversity on your team. When you imagine an incredibly effective, successful team meeting, what does it really look like? For some people, it looks like this. One person talking while everyone's nodding, someone taking notes. Why? Muttering yes, I think so too. And the leader wraps up the meeting by saying, so we're all in agreement and everyone cheers. Yes, now I love a smoothly run meeting just as much as the next person, but I also know you do not want a completely conflict free team. It's not good for your company or your clients or margins to be staffed exclusively by people who share the same worldview, the same personality type, or even the same approach to business. In fact, every company would benefit from hiring for cognitive diversity, even if it creates conflict. Why? Well, because conflict that arises from cognitive diversity is good conflict. It's conflict that results in better products, happier customers, more effective systems, and fewer missteps. So what is cognitive diversity? A team that's cognitively diverse is a team that's made up of people with different mindsets, motivations and approaches to problem solving. So if you use the Enneagram, as I do, to help people understand their different leadership styles, it would mean that your team has a diversity of styles. The truth is that a team with, let's say, five type sevens, which is the enthusiastic visionary and one that is a type 6, the loyal skeptic who keeps pointing out all the ways the ideas won't work, may not be as effective as you would like. Look, we all have blind spots, and people with the same Enneagram type generally have the same blind spots. So when we feel a team with cognitively homogeneous individuals, we're strengthening and deepening those blind spots. We need cognitive diversity on our teams to Get a full 360 degree view of perspectives for better decision making. So if everyone on the team is a type 7, who's going to see all the potential pitfalls of acquiring that new company? Or who's going to naturally pick up the errors in the financial statement? Or to use a different metaphor, when a team is cognitively diverse, we're playing with a full roster. A quarterback, a running back, a wide receiver, a tight end. As a devout Pittsburgh Steelers fan, the thought of an unbalanced offense or defense makes me cringe. And yet many CEOs fill their offices with 70% running backs and 30% tight ends, and that's no way to win a championship. So what sort of conflict arises from cognitive diversity? Each of the nine Enneagram types see the world differently, which means they approach problem solving differently, which will lead to conflict. But this is still good conflict. Let's say your company is launching a new offering. Here's what a launch meeting filled with a cognitively diverse team might look like. Type 8 the powerful challenger is describing the big picture and thinking about what each person could be doing. Type 7 the enthusiastic visionary has really fun launch idea involving a dancing flash mob. Type 6 the Skeptical Troubleshooter is pointing out the various flaws in this idea. Type 1 the Principled Reformer is found several typos in the marketing copy and is trying to talk about it. The Type three, the productive performer, is concerned about the optics on this new launch. What will people think about it as a result? And while some are talking over one another, the type 9, the modest mediator, is trying to calm people down and help them get along. Now, this might sound like an incredibly stressful meeting, but the results that come out of this meeting will be better because all of the different types of leadership styles will be present. If the type 6 hadn't pointed out the flaws, the offering might have fallen apart. If the Type one hadn't found those typos, the companies would have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars getting everything reprinted. A cognitively diverse team will lead to better profits and better products. So how do you make sure you have a cognitively diverse team? Just realizing the importance of cognitive diversity is a huge step in the right direction. Your next step is learning more about the leadership styles on your team. Who's a helper? Who's a peacemaker? And bring in an Enneagram expert to find out. Once you know each member's Enneagram type, then you want to learn more about their paths to growth. You might also have more empathy and appreciation for each other. And even more when you think about it's time to hire someone, you might want to consider the holes in your team. Who's missing? Do you need a peacemaker or more of a performer? Or if you already have four performers on your team, I think you know the answer and the real work is helping create the differences in perspectives and harness them in a way that helps you make better decisions. So it's a way to turn conflict on its head and for people to get a deeper understanding and empathy of each other. If you want to know more, I am happy to help you reach out to susandrum.com and get in touch if you want to find out how to bring a leadership style assessment to your team and help you build cognitive diversity. If you like this episode, please hit the like button, subscribe and leave us a five star review. We really appreciate your support. Thanks so much. Hope you enjoyed today's episode and I'd like to point you to the next important step. 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