Testosterone Types -- Finale

So ... where did I leave off ... ohhh yes ... our last two testosterone types !

As the search continues, we find the next category of testosterone has fewer candidates but they are usually much more pleasant to deal with even if you’re not getting your question answered … Silky Simon. Simon is smooth as silk and an expert spin meister. He does a mean sidestep as well. Simon is a proud man. He is classic, cultured and refined … a Boston blue blood. He is a well-dressed, sometimes classically handsome, charmer. His clothes are meticulous and he carries himself with a confident stride. When he opens his mouth all the right words float out. He can say a lot and nothing at the same time. Ask a question and Simon gives you an answer. The words are carefully chosen but Simon has eloquently danced around a real answer.  Think the finest wine, the smoothest scotch or the most exquisite liqueur … now think testosterone stirred, not shaken, with potable pride. 

While Silky Simon can be something really nice to look at … eye candy in the upper ranks of management … the real trouble is that you don’t know if you can trust him. He seems to say the right things but that little voice in the back of your head, or the pit of your stomach or wherever that little voice lives within you, keeps shouting at you to consider the source and don’t take what is being said at face value. I have learned to listen to my little voice. Inevitably I always regret it when I don’t.  When Silky Simon walks into a room, that voice goes spastic.

Our exploration takes us to the last, and my personal favorite, testosterone type … Testosterone Ted in over his head.  Ted is actually a hybrid. He can be any one of or all four of the other testosterone types. One minute you think you are dealing with regular grade. An hour later hi-test erupts. The next day at the presentation to executive management you might see either vacuum dust or silk … it’s hard to predict. Yet, as with all the other types, there is one defining characteristic that Ted specializes in … he can not execute to save his life or his job … he has no teeth and no spine. He never holds anyone accountable to do their job and certainly does not have the skill to rally anyone to want to do their job.  He can't even stand up to his direct reports much less other corporate executives. Ted might get away with his spineless situation if he’d surround himself with direct reports who could execute for him … but sadly … he doesn’t know how to do that either.

It takes a long time to get rid of a Testosterone Ted in over his head.  Seems executive management takes their sweet time in addressing their problem children, especially when they are in their own ranks.  In the meantime, his direct reports are taking a hit to their credibility by mere association. I speak from experience. Testosterone Ted will suck your own testosterone dry before he is shown the door … with a severance package to boot.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
Time to recap -- Your choices are:

Regular Grade Greg -- Testosterone normal levels
Super Sales Sam       -- Testosterone clouded with vacuum dust
Hi-Test Tom             -- Testosterone loaded with arrogance
Silky Simon              -- Testosterone stirred with potable pride
Ted in over his head -- Toothless Testosterone

         Look around ladies. Where do your testosterone peers fit? Look up and down the food chain. There is plenty of testosterone to go around. Is he a Greg or a Simon? Ted or Tom?  Would your female colleagues agree? It might make a fun lunch table topic!

Next topic of discussion:  Beware the Doppelganger ....  

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.

Testosterone Types -- Part 1

Life comes in all shapes and sizes. Testosterone does too. Not all testosterone is created equally. There is a wide variety of testosterone types prowling the corridors of corporate America … distinctive types, each varying in horsepower. Needless to say, what fuels each type varies as well. That fuel could be competition. Another type might be hunger for power or thirst for glory. Let’s go exploring.

The most common type and thankfully the largest of the testosterone kingdom is Regular Grade Greg. Greg has average levels of testosterone. The desire to compete is present and certainly a respectable place on the org chart is a goal. Greg likes to be recognized by virtue of pay raises and promotions but does not generally display his ego in any kind of grand fashion. There is not talk about glory or power. He likes a compliment and compensation for a job well done. A decent working environment, a decent challenge, a decent team, a decent manager and a decent paycheck are the motivators for Regular Grade Greg. He’s the guy in the cube next to you.  He’s the guy who eats lunch with you. He’s the guy who might even seek out your opinion. He’s a good team player and can be counted on to pull his own weight. In competition, he’ll be looking to advance his position but not at the cost of bring someone else down or jeopardizing the project deliverables. Nothing extraordinary or out of line with the horsepower of this testosterone … a regular, ordinary guy … unlike … Super Sales Sam.

Super Sales Sam is definitely not your ordinary guy. This is the guy who is the consummate salesman selling … himself of course. Sam doesn’t believe that there are others who can deliver what he can deliver.  He is full of himself and likes very much to boast about it. Sam, like Greg, enjoys the compensation however he is going to make a lot more noise when his compensation is not in line with how he sees his accomplishments … and generally he sees his accomplishments as much more grand than just about everyone else. Glory is the real driver for Super Sales Sam. He loves to point at something and tell the world … or at least those that will listen …that HE made that happen and he can make it happen for you too! He sold the Steering Committee on reversing their position and approving his proposal. He cut through the ‘red tape’ and persuaded the Review Board to look passed the intrusive security requirements.  He can do the same for you and your project.  And he makes sure that you know it too. This testosterone type, though he doesn’t know it, is ignored and ridiculed by all the other types.

So how does a Regular Grade Greg and a Super Sales Sam get along ... stay tuned.