Pay Attention to Tension

“So what does a good teacher do?
Create tension – but just the right amount.”
-Donald A. Norman, Director of The Design Lab

When we hear the word tension, our thoughts immediately go to high levels of tension, stress. The terms “tension” and “stress” have almost become synonymous.

Oh, I’m so stressed, so tense.

While it’s true that leaders need a strategy for dealing with stakeholders experiencing high levels of tension, it is equally true and often overlooked that leaders need a strategy for dealing with little to no tension and all points between.

If we want to positively influence change, we must pay attention to where people experience tension.

In this episode, T. Falcon Napier helps us to see how to help people in a personal or professional situation to lead desired change more successfully by monitoring and managing the level of productive tension in themselves and others.

In this conversation you’ll discover:

• A practical definition of tension and why it matters in change initiatives.

• How psychometric tools give us understanding of personality and leave us asking, “now what?”

• Human beings are good at change. In fact, change is the central activity in the human adventure. We don’t resist change, yet resistance is always present in change situations. What are we resisting? More importantly, what can we do about it?

• 4 questions we need to ask (of ourselves and others) to find our current locus of control.

• Managers are often leaders; leaders must manage – yet they are not the same skill set. What are the 5 skills unique to your role as a leader?

• The world’s only client-specific, activity-specific metric in the marketplace. This tool is descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive. This tool works in harmony, not in competition, with psychometric tools.