Testosterone Types -- Part 2

How do you think a Regular Grade Greg and a Super Sales Sam would get along?  Let's look at a real life example ...

So Super Sales Sam has an idea that actually holds some merit but to make it happen he needs to sell it to two other guys … both Regular Grade Gregs. The only exposure that Sam has had to these guys up to this point was a very large meeting with many other participants several months earlier. Sam didn’t make a particularly good impression that day, only he would never know that. And if he did, it would never be his fault. I also participated at the same meeting, am a peer of Sam’s and I have worked with both the other guys. Sam, of course, is not taking any guidance from me when I recommend that he meet with both personally ... face to face. Sam is adamant that he is NOT going to do that because he doesn’t want to set a precedent for the relationship.  Apparently the practice of going door to door is not one Sam subscribes to. He is more senior than that. Sam is going to win Greg over by … a phone call.  This sales strategy gives Greg the opportunity to hold an email conversation with me during the 'sales call.'  Greg wants to know who 'the hell' this guy is and tells me that he’s been yapping about himself for ten minutes without once getting to the meeting topic. I comment on how Sam likes to dazzle others with his abilities at which point Greg is clear that it’s not working. Greg calls me immediately following what turned out to be a very painful thirty minute phone call of which nothing was accomplished. Well … not exactly nothing … Sam did succeed in cementing Greg’s opinion of him forever!  Sam’s efforts to get the second guy to buy in went even more poorly. While the first guy was willing to write Sam off as a bag of wind, the second guy came away from the encounter actually disliking Sam and vowing to avoid all future contact with him. Regular Grade Greg and Super Sales Sam … oil and water!  Super Sales Sam has enough vacuum dust in his testosterone to rival the best door-to-door salesmen.

Sam has also been known to have great difficulty with the most ambitious of testosterone types … Hi-Test Tom. There are a multitude of behaviors, mostly unpleasant, that Tom will exhibit but only one that defines every Hi-Test Tom … arrogance.  You tend to find Tom lurking in the middle and upper levels of management. Tom knows that he is good at what he does but unlike Sam, he is not going to try to sell you on it because he doesn’t care whether you believe it or not. Tom is driven by the obnoxious combination of power, status and ego. His testosterone is shaken, not stirred, with arrogance.

There are a few behavioral clues that let you know that you are dealing with a Hi-Test Tom.  He seldom wants to hear what you have to say unless maybe it is couched in a short executive summary. It is best to be quick about it or you’ll be wasting his time after about 45 seconds. When he opens his mouth, he expects that you listen.  The Toms found in the middle management ranks like to have their tushies kissed but the ones at executive level management can go either way ... some love it ... some hate it. Make sure you know the difference. Tom will often use a confrontational approach to a situation … as if to say don’t mess with me because you’ll lose anyway. Sometimes all you’ll get is a glassy, cold stare. Hi-Test Tom never stays if he is not getting what he wants … respect, compensation, stature or position.  Tom hates to work for a woman.  As I wander through my corporate life reviewing the testosterone that I have encountered, it is not hard to fill a roster of Toms.  It’s almost as easy as with Gregs.  Yikes, I wonder if that shot of arrogance is innate or acquired! Is it possible that a Tom is lurking behind a seemingly normal Greg, yet to make it to the ranks of middle management?

Two more types to be briefed on ... next time ... Silky Simon ... stay tuned.