Life According to Versatile People

Prism^® Stories: Versatile Vikram

As part of an ongoing series, we shall intermittently surface stories through the lens of Prism:

Vikram loved life and people, and both seemed to love him back. His energy and charm were contagious, and he regularly made new friends, sometimes even on simple trips to the grocery store. Vikram discovered an enjoyment for fundraising, which ultimately led to a position as the Director of Development at a large university.

Vikram loved his job and couldn’t believe that he was being paid to talk and interact with people. He and his department became known for their positivity and high energy. He brought his team together with glowing visions and drove them forward with unwavering enthusiasm.

However, he began to notice a gradual shift in morale. His team started to seem disengaged and burned out—one person even rolled their eyes in one of his visioning meetings. Vikram started seeking feedback and quickly learned that his team was feeling overwhelmed and exhausted while trying to execute all of his ideas and visions.

Team members were also upset because they didn’t get to see the results of their hard work. Current projects were often put on the back burner as soon as a new vision emerged, resulting in a reduced sense of accomplishment, conveyed in this video.

Some commented that Vikram didn’t grasp all the details and labor necessary to execute his endless ideas. Though those ideas were exciting, greater attention to detail, as illustrated in the video below, could go a long way to boost morale. Vikram worked with his team to better determine the scope of projects and highlight accountability for follow-through and completion. One thing before the next became the new policy.

Those with a natural inclination for details were tasked with identifying the labor and time demands of each project, allowing for informed meetings about the team’s available bandwidth. After these changes, Vikram began to see a rebound in not just morale, but accomplishments.

Those of us with highly versatile personalities, as depicted by the SurePeople Prism, occasionally find ourselves in similar situations as Vikram. Versatile personalities are uniquely gifted at fostering an atmosphere of positivity.

But sometimes narrowing big ideas to finer details helps everyone with task completion and the pursuit of mutual success.

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
– John Wooden

Author

by Lindsey Bingaman

Lindsey is an executive coach and leadership development specialist who is passionate about developing coaches and building supportive communities. At SurePeople, she leads the SureAcademy, where she integrates people science and technology into coaching and leadership development practices.