The Newsletter

Issue no. 20|August 17, 2010

Opposites Don't Attract


Have you ever heard the phrase opposites attract? It's wrong. It makes sense to us but it's still wrong. The reason we say opposites attract, is because we notice when opposite types of people are attracted to one another. The data on relationships are completely convincing, that people who are like one another tend to be attracted to one another. However, because of the way our brains work we don't notice people who are attracted because they're alike we notice the outlier, the different ones, the unusual pairs who are "opposites". Therefore, because we noticed them, we tend to overcount how many of them there are.


The problem with this "opposites attract" mentality is that as managers we believe that, when in fact the opposite is true. In other words, we are naturally attracted to hiring people who are like us. And, if we only hire people like us, we will end up with a team of people who have all of our strengths, and all of our weaknesses.


What's the danger in that? If you make a mistake, the other people like you on your team are less likely to catch it. In fact they're likely to not even notice it is a mistake. Further, they're likely to see it as something that's absolutely right.


How do we as managers solve this problem? We consider the various behavioral profiles of the people we're considering hiring. If you look at your team and you see nothing but high I's, it's time to consider someone with a different behavioral pattern than you in your hiring. We're not suggesting that DiSC or behavioral patterns should take primacy. We are suggesting that they should be considered.


And remember if you haven't considered them, and you're "totally in love with" a candidate we'd suspect that they're just like you. They may work out fine, or they may be adding to your weaknesses in a way that you don't expect.


2011 Conferences

We're excited to announce our plan for conferences in 2011. The good news is, there will be even more opportunities to join us. Attendees tell us that even when they've listened to every podcast, the opportunity to ask questions, practice and meet fellow managers is priceless.


In order for us to achieve this, some of our conferences will be conducted by our friend Michael Swenson. Michael has been working with Mike and Mark for 15 years and is an accomplished presenter in his own right. He's been helping us with bigger conferences ever since we started them, and we're excited that you'll get to learn from his knowledge and experience with the Manager Tools methods.


We will hold both an Effective Manager Conference and an Effective Communications Conference at all our dates in Newark, Chicago, San Jose, LA, Washington DC and London. At all other locations there will be an Effective Manager Conference only. These dates are tentative pending our negotiations with hotels, but we hope to see you at one of our conferences in 2011.


January

San Jose

London

February

Newark

Chicago

March

Seattle

Atlanta

April

LA

Washington DC

May

Newark

San Jose

June

Chicago

Houston

July

Tampa

Dallas

August

LA

Newark

September

San Jose

Chicago

October

Washington DC

Minneapolis


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Dallas Effective Manager Conference

Dallas Effective Communications Conference


San Jose Effective Manager Conference

San Jose Effective Communications Conference




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