Reference Profile Series: The Adapter Manager

Ever wondered about those colleagues who seem to change their approach depending on the situation? The ones who are harder to pin down, yet somehow able to work effectively with almost anyone? Our latest episode dives deep into the mysterious world of the Adapter Reference Profile.

Click HERE for a short video about the Adapter.

Click HERE to get your very own Reference Profile.

Related TBC Episodes:

• Head, Heart, and Briefcase

1. The Collaborator Manager
2. The Operator Manager
3. The Promoter Manager
4. The Altruist Manager
5. The Strategist Manager
6. The Guardian Manager
7. The Specialist Manager
8. The Maverick Manager
9. The Artisan Manager
10. The Persuader Manager
11. The Captain Manager
12. The Controller Manager

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We use The Predictive Index as our analytics platform so you know it's validated and reliable.  Your Reference Profile informs you of your needs, behaviors, and the nuances of what we call your Behavioral DNA.  It also explains your work style, your strengths, and even the common traps in which you may find yourself.  It's a great tool to share with friends, family, and co-workers.

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Visit us at www.realgoodventures.com.  We are a Talent Optimization consultancy specializing in people and business execution analytics.  Real Good Ventures was founded by Sara Best and John Broer who are both Certified Talent Optimization Consultants with over 50 years of combined consulting and organizational performance experience.  Sara is also certified in EQi 2.0.  RGV is also a Certified Partner of Line-of-Sight, a powerful organizational health and execution platform.  RGV is known for its work in leadership development, executive coaching, and what we call organizational rebuild where we bring all our tools together to diagnose an organization's present state and how to grow toward a stronger future state. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the Adapter Profile
• 1:43 Understanding Adapter Strengths and Challenges
• 5:13 Firsthand Adapter Experiences
• 8:12 Motivating and Recognizing Adapters
• 12:37 Delegating and Coaching Best Practices
• 17:58 Key Takeaways and Practical Applications

Transcript

John Broer: 0:08

Welcome everybody out there in The Bossh ole Transformation Nation. Today we have another installment of a Reference Profile episode and today I'm joined by the remarkable and amazing Sara Best. We're going to talk about the Adapter Reference Profile Very interesting reference profile residing right in the middle of the competing values matrix. Let's jump in and learn more about the Adapter. The Bossh ole Chronicles are brought to you by Real Good Ventures, a talent optimization firm helping organizations diagnose their most critical people and execution issues with world-class analytics. Make sure to check out all the resources in the show notes and be sure to follow us and share your feedback. Enjoy today's episode.

Sara Best: 1:03

So, John, this is one of our very popular reference profile episodes. We are nearing the end of our reference profile journey, but today, what is the profile we will be discussing?

John Broer: 1:15

Well, Sara, we're going to talk about the adapter and it is a very unique reference profile. Some would say a little bit of a mystery. We'll get into that a little bit. But of the 17, we've done gosh, I think we've done 14, 13 or 14. I mean we're getting close to having them all done. And I thought you know the adapter is one of three, what we call flexing reference profiles, that in our competing values matrix sort of lives in the middle and has the ability to literally adapt and sort of shift and go where they're needed. But we thought it really warranted some additional description and conversation around the adapter. So, sarah, do you want to give us the definition or the description of an adapter?

Sara Best: 2:02

Sure John. An adapter is a bridge builder comfortable with changing situations.

John Broer: 2:08

Okay, thank you for that, and I know that as part of our other reference profiles I have actually shared. You know we talk about drives, needs, behaviors, the drives you know I will oftentimes talk about. You know, the dominance being high and the extroversion being here in patients. That's the unique thing about the adapter. If you look at an adapter pattern, their factors dominance, extroversion, patience and formality are right tightly bundled around that midpoint, which is why they're called an adapter, and it's no mistake that the icon for the adapter is a chameleon. So this is where you've heard us use the term situational. Well, this is actually a reference profile that is situationally situational and let's talk a little bit.

Sara Best: 2:54

It's a lot of situations.

John Broer: 2:55

It's a lot of situations, so part of it is we have some special notes or a special note on adapters, so let me share that and then perhaps you could share some strengths and common traps and how to work well with them. But adapters have a similar amount of each of the behavioral drives. Okay, they're all grouped around that midpoint and there is no predominant drive that really fuels this person's needs or behaviors. Sometimes adapters can show up as being so neutral it is impossible to sort of get an understanding of where they are on a particular topic or a particular thought or anything else like that. They're like right down the middle, so that's what makes them very unique. So, sarah, what are? But there's still strengths and they come with it. So talk about share with our audience more about the strengths and common traps and how to work well with them.

Sara Best: 3:49

Well, we know that they're versatile. They can do a lot of things a lot of different ways. They can go fast, they can go slow, they can take charge and be on the team. They can be very diligent and disciplined but also have some flexibility. They can be introspective and private. They can also be extroverted.

Sara Best: 4:08

Right Takes a while to figure them out, doesn't it? We also find them to be empathetic, so there is a sense of compassion or awareness of others, and they're bridge builders. So they will probably easily take into consideration two very different ideas and kind of naturally go well, why can't we meet in the middle, like where's a happy ground there? So when we're talking about common traps, they're hard to read, they be very situational, and so what they do one day will be different than what they do the next day, and it's kind of this either communicating clearly their thoughts or not. And when not communicating, actions they may choose or take can be sudden, and so that idea of when they're quiet versus when they actually communicate what they're thinking. For adapters it's beneficial to communicate the thought process so people don't have to guess.

John Broer: 5:05

Yeah, makes total sense.

Sara Best: 5:07

Yeah, and in terms of how to work best with an adapter, take time to learn how they are. And you know, each person is a whole person a head, heart, briefcase and baggage and all the good stuff. So we can't better understand a person unless we take time to ask questions and learn more deeply about them Motivations and preferences because even though their factors are around the midpoint, they may in fact, based on their experience and their adaptation, they may prefer certain elements that are helpful for a colleague or a person to know Because they're so flexible. There's really no pattern that you can trace.

Sara Best: 5:45

No hard like you and I, John, our patterns are evident to the whole entire world. Right, I'm probably more so than yours because my pattern's wide, but they're you know it's kind of hard to figure out really what motivates them, situation to situation.

John Broer: 5:59

Would you say people are, I mean, I think, for adapters and remember we're talking about in the context of the Ball Soul Chronicles, what if we had a manager that was an adapter. So people that are looking to this manager are maybe not able to pin down like one emotion or drive one way or the other. It's very much again down the middle and that can be frustrating for people. I mean just from a standpoint of like, well, are you excited about this or are you not excited about this? You and I, I think, kind of need that confirmation. It's like tell me where you are on this. And it's like oh no, yeah, it's good, oh yeah, but it could also be bad. And it's like I don't understand that. And that's kind of the world of the adapter. They just sort of live in that middle ground.

Sara Best: 6:51

Well, John, I know you have firsthand experience and even conversation with people around what it's like to be an adapter. Can you enlighten us on that?

John Broer: 7:00

Yes, no-transcript, because the perception is that they are so situational.

John Broer: 7:32

It's like it's like I don't stand for anything or I don't, and this has nothing to do with like a person's like moral fiber or their you know what their, what their principles are, their core values.

John Broer: 7:50

That's not this at all, but it's like I mean one that's one that said I don't like being an adapter. I want to be able to show up as something more definitive and it's like don't diminish what your natural wiring is, because you have some very unique capabilities, and I think the the superpowers of the adapter much like the altruist and also the individualist is that ability to sort of shift and migrate and the ebb and flow of helping people in many different areas. I think that also becomes their kryptonite. I think they find themselves spread so thin in so many different directions they don't feel like they can land on one particular thing, and that's what's been shared with me also from adapters. It's like anything that's purely my own. I'm all over the place. And also I don't like being so situational on everything or people seeing me as so situational, if that makes sense.

Sara Best: 8:42

Yeah, and I I bet too, if you're known as the adapter on the team, and it's pretty rare, right, the? The adapter pattern is not as common as many of the other reference profiles. Is that true, john? Go ahead, you go I'm gonna, I'm gonna find that I usually have that up all the time.

John Broer: 9:00

Uh, it's a little bit. That's true, sarah. It's about 4 point, just slightly less than 5% of the human population 4.98% based on our current statistics, which is kind of statistically in the middle of the 17 reference profiles, but it's on the low side.

Sara Best: 9:23

So yes, you're absolutely right files, but it's on the low side. So, yes, you're absolutely right. Well, and knowing that, I think a frustration for an adapter could be that people like to throw them at everything because they find them to be adaptable and willing perhaps and eager to try different things. So their needs vary. Certainly, their behaviors are very flexible. John, can you tell us how do we motivate and recognize the adapter manager or direct report?

John Broer: 9:52

Yeah, and I'm going to sound totally ambivalent about this Are you ready? So our guidance on that for motivating and recognizing is to balance private and public recognition, just to understand that they may have a preference for one or the other and knowing that actually would be really good. Recognize where their behavioral flexibility helps lead to success. So what they may perceive as a frustration, if you can frame that in a way to help them realize that it can help you be very successful. That's a way to motivate and recognize and then finally reward their ability to flexibly build relationships with different types of people.

John Broer: 10:35

Now, interestingly enough, when we did our work on change readiness and for anybody that's interested, we have a couple of episodes on change readiness Sarah and I did some work around change champions, change challengers and change catalysts. Adapters are one of the catalysts. I think it's what like 14% of the human population between the adapters, the altruists and the strategists, that they're really good at helping to facilitate change. You know for change champions that are ready to initiate it and then you have the change challengers that have to sort of receive it and deal with it and then eventually become the change implementers. Adapters are really great at helping to facilitate that? Recognize some of their unique gifting, where sometimes they may see it as a bit of a downer that I want to be a maverick or I want to be a specialist or something. It's like no embrace these unique qualities that you have. So how do we give them feedback? How do we provide direction? What do you think?

Sara Best: 11:40

Well, it would be helpful for the adapter if we specify what part of their behavioral elements we need. So, just because a person is adaptable, they may be well suited to do different things, but what's the balance we need? So do we need a faster pace and a higher attention to detail for this project? Do we need more collaboration and more strategy, for example? So giving very specific direction about hey, which levers do I need to push on more to be successful in this project is super helpful, and clear expectations are always well.

Sara Best: 12:20

They're always helpful Clear is kind, says Brene Brown, but clear expectations for what behaviors equate to success and, honestly, that's one we should put on every you know, every reference profile episode. Clear guidance about what the expectations are.

Sara Best: 12:37

For sure, so they can prepare to flex their interpersonal style accordingly. So if they're going to hook up with the Maverick to do the project and a captain and a persuader, you know, you better batten down your hatches and hold on, because we're going to start moving pretty fast and checking the boxes and generating action. And the opposite could be true if we were working with more stable stabilizing patterns, like guardian or operator. With more stable stabilizing patterns like guardian or operator, you know that the pace will be a little more predictable and the details more evident and plentiful.

John Broer: 13:14

Yeah, yeah, that's yeah, that's good, that's good. Well, let me share with you.

John Broer: 13:19

We always talk about, also how to delegate and to coach people when it comes to delegating to delegate and to coach people when it comes to delegating, really just lean into that their ability to be very flexible. So work that requires or allows them to be entirely flexible is great. Where you probably want to avoid delegation, where the work itself requires a very specific style on an ongoing basis. So adapters while they can adapt a lot, if you try to force them into a very specific corner for a long period of time or a particular role, they may find that frustrating or they may find it somewhat limiting. So a high degree of detail or high specificity over a long period of time, that may be a bit of a challenge. And then, when it comes to coaching, help them understand the reputational aspects of being balanced. They may need to express what they like or don't like so people understand them much better. May need to express what they like or don't like so people understand them much better. So that's articulating that or being a bit more transparent about what they do like and what they don't like, I think is really helpful. That communication part is essential for them and encouraging that, making it safe for them to communicate that. Spend time discussing the behavioral requirements of the role and help them show the tendencies at the right times so that they are successful, so that adaptation may need a little bit of guidance of when to pull this lever or when to back off this particular characteristic and play to their strengths.

John Broer: 15:03

I think that's true for all of our recommendations for coaching, but letting them moderate between the aggressive risk takers and the detailed executors. So what I think may be frustrating for adapters is their interaction with others. So as a manager, as a coach, just simply helping to help them manage those relationships. And that, of course, I think is where we would definitely leverage the tools within the PI platform, like the relationship guide. If being hard to read is one of the characteristics of an adapter and, by the way, adapters out there, this is not an indictment, I mean you probably would, I mean they probably would acknowledge this, but helping others understand that and that it's not a liability and it's not a reason to you know that we know this about each other, because then we focus on the data and not the drama.

John Broer: 16:10

We start to take the stories out of it and understand each other for the way we're wired, so coaching them is going to be a little bit unique.

Sara Best: 16:18

So some key takeaways that I learned today. Would be definitely take time to get to know the preferences of the adapter, because there are some they just won't be evident when we watch them work and that's probably true of anybody, but definitely spend time to get to know them and ask them about the preferences and I think, based on what you were just sharing behavioral expectations of the role and especially if they're extreme, like it's a lot of diligence and consistency, maybe it's a project versus an occupational hazard for them.

Sara Best: 16:55

But if that behavioral adaptation is going to potentially be taxing, we got to help them understand what behaviors we're looking for. And I was trying to think of good examples, john. An example I can think of is you know, for this work I'm going to need you to double check every data entry. You know, if that's the expectation For this work, I want you to focus more on conversations with people, in-person conversations with people, versus emails or text, like very specific behavioral things Would you agree?

John Broer: 17:30

Oh for sure, absolutely. I would also say for our managers that happen to be adapters, realize that if your direct reports, if any of your direct reports, have very or extremely wide patterns, that coming to that understanding or coming to an understanding of those differences is going to be challenging. And vice versa, if you have a manager who has a very to extremely wide pattern and you have an adapter on your team, I've had this happen too, where the manager says I just want them to get excited about something. I don't. I don't sense any passion, I don't sense any fire. And I said well, you won't look at the data, you know, look at the data, don't make them wrong, because they're wired differently than you are, and that's that's why we're doing this. You have to be able to coach and guide and develop them in a way that they understand, not in the way that's comfortable for you.

Sara Best: 18:25

Yeah, and I just I was thinking, john, as you said, that if we think about our competing values matrix, we have cultivating patterns. So for an adapter, sometimes it's going to be more about the people In the exploring quadrant, it's going to be more about the action and the forward-facing momentum and the strategy In what we call our producing quadrant. It's really more about diligence and getting it done, like moving, taking action, but doing it with great emphasis on correctness and accuracy. And for those stabilizing quadrants that's the last one it's about consistency and steadiness. So, because an adapter can push and pull and move into all four quadrants, being very specific about what they need, and if I'm the manager, I also have to know what those people who live in those quadrants also need to hear from me.

John Broer: 19:17

For sure, oh yeah.

Sara Best: 19:19

Great way to wrap it up.

John Broer: 19:21

Way to wrap it up. I just had a thought. Let me ask you this I wonder to what degree, when we talk about head, heart and briefcase, you know we always talk about, you know, the briefcase a person's knowledge, skills, abilities, credentials, experience and everything else like that. I mean that is no predictor, that's not a predictor of performance, it just is. You know what's their background, tell you about them. I wonder if, with the adapter, if the briefcase doesn't provide a bit more direction about where to leverage their capabilities, more so. And so what I mean by that? If we have somebody who has a briefcase that is heavily influenced or built around process and data and specificity and precision, does that provide some guidance for a manager to say you know what I think that process and precision, when we talk about the competing values matrix, you know this may be an area to really truly leverage the whole person.

Sara Best: 20:28

I'm not sure. Well, it's definitely worth exploring when you're considering an adapter for a position.

John Broer: 20:33

Yeah.

Sara Best: 20:34

If the briefcase aligns with the requirements of the job. The question I would want to ask is does this bring you joy Like? Do you like doing this stuff? Because, adapters can do a lot of things and, as we've often said, john, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Like it may suck the life out of you, and we'll just assume that that's individual by adapter person.

John Broer: 20:55

Yeah, good, good. Well, thank you. This is good, and I you know we're getting close to the end of the reference profile series, so keep listening in everybody. Share these with your people. Just share them with your managers and your direct. That we can measure them is really powerful. So go into the show notes. Get your reference profile one pager by completing the behavioral assessment. Take it less than 10 minutes and we'll send it to you.

Sara Best: 21:26

That's right. All right, friends, we will see you next time on the Boss Hole Chronicles.

John Broer: 21:35

Thanks very much for checking out this episode of the Boss Hole Chronicles. It was so good to have you here, and if you have your own boss hole story that you want to share with the Boss Hole Transformation Nation, just reach out. You can email us at mystoryatthebossholechroniclescom. Again, mystoryatthebossholechroniclescom, we'll see you next time.