“Why does she do what she’s doing if it’s against her own instincts?”

My client had asked me to do an onboarding session for a newly promoted manager on her team. This leader didn’t understand why the manager said Yes to all the ideas of a collaborator she worked with regularly.

The leader was confused by the manager’s Kolbe profile results because they didn’t match the actions she saw the manager take. The manager’s natural instincts are to be thorough, to have a plan, to minimize chaos by limiting options.

So why was she saying Yes and chasing all these ideas if it went against her natural way of doing things?

Were her results accurate?

What’s really going on here?

When problems don’t make sense, or attempted solutions don’t resolve them, you may need to look through a different, or broader, lens.

I faced a similar problem last Fall when I experienced increasing pain from a bump on my right wrist.

A generalist gave me a preliminary diagnosis which could possibly resolve on its own…or require surgery. So I waited. And hoped. And waited.

Until the pain was so bad I couldn’t turn the key in the lock or do other simple daily tasks without wincing.

I finally got a referral to a specialist who, at first glance, diagnosed the problem differently (and told me why the initial diagnosis wasn’t possible based on the location of the bump.) He confirmed it with a simple test of making a fist with my thumb tucked into my palm.

The prescribed solution was a quick spray of topical anesthetic and a cortisone shot…not surgery!

 Einstein’s 55/5

You’ve probably heard some version of Einstein’s quote, if he had only one hour to solve a problem… “I Would Spend 55 Minutes Defining the Problem and then Five Minutes Solving It.”

Humans are complex. Collaborations are exponentially more complex. Understanding the root causes of collaboration challenges is rarely as easy as diagnosing the bump on my wrist.

As my client shared more details, a clearer picture emerged. The manager had been in her role for a year, but the person she kept saying Yes to was a senior leader in the organization.

There was a power dynamic at play. Unintentional, but very real.

The manager didn’t feel free to do things her way. She was reacting to the senior leader’s way of doing things…because he had the power.

This is an incredibly common problem that causes tension, frustration, inefficiency.

And a lack of psychological safety for the person trying to mirror someone else’s way of doing things when it’s so different from their natural strengths.

Visionary leaders often unintentionally create chaos with all their ideas.

And their teams struggle. Priorities may not be clear, or they shift, and people are often required to change directions before completing the last idea.

 A Fresh Perspective

If you’re struggling to understand your team’s challenges or the solutions you’ve tried aren’t working, you may benefit from a fresh approach to diagnosing problems. This is a good reminder that no single assessment tool can diagnose all collaboration challenges.

You can learn about a framework I call 3D Strengths in my post, Conflicts and Silos and Teams, oh my!!!

If you’d like insights into your unique creative problem-solving strengths and how our Customized Team Leadership Programs could help your team, we’d love to talk with you. You can find more information at InnovationSavvy.com or