Are You a Navigator or a Victim?
Whack! She smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand.
Jackie, a successful management consultant and expert in
organizational change, had just applied one of her most basic models
of organizational behavior to her own life. The result was an “ah
ha” moment.
At the simplest level, the model she used outlines four
common responses to change among employees:
- Navigator – capitalizes on the problem or change
- Critic – criticizes without providing solutions
- Bystander – waits to see what will happen
- Victim – blames others for the change
Jackie is a go-to-person and a problem-solver who would be
classified as a “Navigator” at work. But when she looks closely at
her behavior around personal goals, she sees the majority of her
time is spent as the Victim or Bystander.
Listing specific situations where she adopts these behaviors,
Jackie sees which challenges in her life bring out the various
responses. As an expert in this model she is well versed in advising
clients in how to address these behaviors. Now she turns her
training on herself for some excellent self-coaching.
Along with personal insight, Jackie also has a new
understanding which serves her consulting work. She had
automatically assumed the Victim role was “bad,” but now has more
compassion for the victims within her client organizations, and a
good idea of how people fall into these roles.
Exercise: When do you play the Victim, Bystander, Critic or
Navigator?
Apply the organizational change framework to your own
life: Write Victim, Bystander, Critic and Navigator across the top
of a page, creating 4 columns. List specific situations where you
exemplify these attitudes. What percent of your daily life is
represented in each column? When you’ve identified the areas where
you fall into these roles, you can take successful action from any
of these mindsets.
For Victim: Look at this column for ways to take
charge of things you can influence. What is one thing you want to
take control of this week?
For Bystander: Look at this column for ways you can
learn more about the situation, get involved in the process and
contribute to a solution. What is one thing you want to get more
involved in this week?
For Critic: Look at this column for ways you can apply
your creativity to come up with solutions and perhaps work with
other people to make a change. What is one creative solution you can
offer this week?
For Navigator: Revel in the possibilities and
opportunities you see! What is one action you choose to celebrate
this week?
Value Alignment Matrix
If you’ve taken business classes, no doubt you are well
acquainted with the two-by-two matrix (most famously, the BCG
Growth/Share Matrix -- remember the “cash cow”?) Well, these handy
little grids can be used any number of ways to help classify
opportunities and make decisions.
One I like to use juxtaposes your skill level in a situation
versus how well that situation is aligned with your top life values.
I call it the Value Alignment Matrix, and there are strategies that
apply to each quadrant of the matrix.
To set up your Value Alignment Matrix create two axes:
- Level of skill: Good At <--> Not Good At
- Alignment to Values: Aligned with Value <--> Not Aligned
with Values
Click
here to see the Value Alignment Matrix.
Now, list opportunities or projects meeting the criteria for
each quadrant (i.e. perhaps a particular job opportunity is
something you are GOOD AT and is ALIGNED with your values)
Reviewing the items you have listed in each quadrant,
consider these strategies to help you further evaluate your
opportunities:
Good At/Aligned with Values This is good news! Potentially this opportunity will be both
energizing and fun for you. The goal is to maximize this
opportunity, but it is not a forgone conclusion that this is the
perfect thing. Ask yourself:
- How does this opportunity support my larger sense of life
purpose?
- Am I fascinated by the topic or industry? Is it something I
want to immerse myself in?
- How does this opportunity help get me to where I want to be
5/10/20 years from now?
Good At/Not Aligned with Values Beware! This is where a lot of people get trapped! You can be
good at something, gain promotions and get paid well for something
that is totally unfulfilling to you.
Review your top values. Rank your values 1-10. If you take
this opportunity, how how would you be honoring or squashing each of
your top values? What tradeoffs you are willing to make?Are there
ways you can adjust this opportunity to better support your
values?
Not Good At/Aligned with Values Don’t necessarily write this off. First, is it true that you
are not good at it? How much do you really know about the
skills needed for this opportunity? Find people who are doing
similar projects or work and ask them about their experiences. You
may be suprised at what you learn.
It may be that you just need additional training, which may
take the form of volunteering, probono work, or course work.
Finally, is it possible to partner with someone who has the
skills you lack? If a project has great resonance with your values,
it may be worth it to ask for help to make it happen.
Not Good At/Not Aligned with Values
You’ll probably want to stay away from this project, but
if you do decide to pursue it be sure you know what you want from
it:
- What are your goals for this project?
- What do you want to make sure you learn?
- What is your exit plan?
