I was drawn to BG5 because it actually made a difference! In business world and especially in corporate environments one ends up taking endless trainings, attend many workshops and works on their development plan. And if you are a people manager who manages teams, you are also expected to coach and guide your employees into success as a team and also in their own personal journey of developing their skills, and sometimes climbing the corporate ladder. Employees in teams come in different shapes and sizes of course, with different backgrounds, skills and capabilities, willingness to work and be successful and also in their collaboration with the rest of the team members. That is why Diversity and Inclusion is a buzz word in the business world, because if a corporation could drive the best out of its diverse employees, allowing them to be themselves, letting managers coach and guide where necessary and let every employee do what they are best at, than the impact they could drive would be maximized. Does the business world have the necessary tools to enable this? Not so much.
This is where the BG5 knowledge has come as a set of tools that could actually be used by a manager in a business setting, helping empower all the diversity into business outcomes. I have found BG5 to be one of the best tools that allows a manager to drive impact with their team, tapping into skills, knowing how the employee can be in the flow and remove resistance where necessary. Even being able to tailor your communication approach to each employees’ design and also being able to coach them in a manner where they can benefit the most is remarkable.
Here are some real-life cases from business world where BG5 knowledge has helped me as a manager in the corporate world.
Managing your team dynamics for success:
One of my sales and marketing teams working in a large emerging market with high potential for business was composed of four sales people who were Builders and a marketing manager who was an Innovator. As customary in many business environments, we do yearly planning every time we have a new fiscal start for the whole year, and also a revised plan for our Half 2, outlining high level strategies and programs we will drive together to reach KPIs and drive growth.
During these planning sessions as we discuss as a team what we are going to drive, if one of the team members proposed a program and everyone has shared their input and ideas, I always make a few sentence summary of the proposal and ask my builders how do they feel about it. I will go around the room, and ask everyone some questions like “do you feel this project is worth our time and effort?”, “shall we go ahead with this project”, “do you believe deep inside that it is the right thing to do” These questions are carefully selected to be Yes or No type questions, and I always look at their initial response when I ask the question. Because sometimes, their minds will throw in things, and they will begin a sentence “ on a secondary note…” these parts of course I will take into consideration but their initial response is key for me coming from their gut.
If one of the projects that were proposed is a first time trial, or requires some new things to be initiated, I always ask our Innovator marketing manager if she would take to take lead in that project, knowing that Innovators are here to get things started. If it feels correct for her to take lead and land it, we will probably succeed. We have initiated and been successful with many initiatives like this, that has helped this team grow the business for the last three consecutive years that we have been working together.
Another good use of the BG5 knowledge in managing my team has been on working meetings where we decide to come together to work on a business plan or to look at some market or sales data together to drive some insights. When the team meets, there is a lot of chit chat and hellos and small talk as we begin.
If the team is not able to get to the task at hand and the chatter continues for too long – in corporate world especially where everyone is pretty busy with back to back schedules – I will ask my team member that has the Strength of Concentration to start the discussion or to open the file we will work on. Those who have this strength have a laser-like ability to maintain focus, which allows them to keep still and concentrate on the issue at hand. The moment he starts the discussion – and being more concentrated on the subject as he is the one driving the discussion - this has a spillover effect on the team. Everyone starts contributing and focusing, which is great at getting things done. In time, they have also gotten to know this trick as a team, we will sometimes tease him “our colleague with strength of concentration has lost focus and we are all lost know, can you please focus and get the rest of us on track” 😊
I also use BG5 knowledge to tailor my approach and coach and guide my team members for success. One of the team members that I managed for about a year had a problem of not being able to run her partner business reviews on time and get all her points discussed within the time frame. Upon checking her chart - and maybe I should give some deeper insights here as you may be wondering if your employees will give you their birth info to check their chart – the answer is yes, they always do and usually they are very curious to understand once you give them some info about what this information can do- I noticed that she had an open Conceptualization and Inspiration function.
When Inspiration is not defined in someones chart, they are very much open to Losing Focus, jumping from one thing to the other, also not knowing what to focus on. When Conceptualization is undefined, one may tend to be defensive, trying to look certain of their ideas and not wanting to be challenged. Both of these were playing into her not getting through as she wanted through these important partner review meetings.
So we set together. After me explaining to her the implications of these open centers and proposing some practical solutions, she started making notes of the very important things she wanted to get through in those meetings, deciding on a few messages to land with every slide she had prepared, and also to let go of the concern that she would be challenged and not be able to answer as to why some outcomes she was pointing at were the way they were. From that coaching session on, she had beautiful and impactful partner review meetings, landing her messages right, not being scattered all over the place and being able to run the meeting in a way to her fulfillment. It is so amazing to know that a small touch into someones life with the BG5 knowledge can make so much difference from a business outcome perspective as well.
There are many more examples as to how one can utilize the BG5 knowledge for success in business life as a manager, just sharing a few highlights here for everyone benefit. Hope you find it of value.
Banu BasaranSales director at a top corporate IT company, BG5 consultant and instructor
