So I’ve covered the “hands-off” Lions and the “why can’t we all be friends” Koalas, now for the overly “anal”-ytical owls.
Like the Koalas, Owls also represent approximately 35% of the population. They are slow and systematic but not because they are procrastinating… they are analyzing everything to death. In fact they have missed out on deals because they were analyzing it so long that the deal vanished. They want all the details about your compensation plan so that they can figure out how to do anything with an exact formula. So if there is a Jedi mind control bonus they will know exactly what steps are required to obtain it.
Owls are great a follow-through and of the animals they are the most organized. While others might find tasks boring, owls will take them on and persist in completing them. Though overly analytical and prone to analysis paralysis, once committed to a plan they will work through it till its completed and not let anything stand in their way. The only problem is that they think the best time to decide something is “next month”.
When dealing with Owls, don’t dummy it down or cut to the bottom line like a Lion and don’t try and bring up family or friends like a Koala. For an owl you want to present them with all the details, load them up with facts and websites and then let them sell themselves. If you can show them a system and give them calls to listen to and websites to read up and understand everything and answer their questions when they ask then they will come back to you in a couple of weeks ready to get started (or ready for more information).
Owls want to be right and they want you to be precise and organized in your presentation to them. They don’t like things to be messy or disorganized. Don’t give an owl a story or anecdote just the facts and statistics to back up whatever you are telling them.
Owls will find their path in the business based on optimizing the steps necessary to reach the bonus level they want to get to and will build the business that way. To sum up an Owl in a one-liner it would be “Shut up and give me the facts”. Though they aren’t quite that abrupt they definitely prefer documents and facts instead of conversation.
Next the monkeys.
April 2nd, 2009 at 3:57 am
[...] So now that we know how to communicate with the Lions, Koalas and the Owls… [...]
April 8th, 2009 at 3:02 am
[...] is important and setting goals is definitely needed. For those of you that are owls, and I count myself in this group, you may find yourself wanting to stay in this planning phase [...]