The New Power Base Selling: Master The Politics, Create Unexpected Value and Higher Margins, and Outsmart the Competition

People-Oriented

Being people-oriented is as important as being company-oriented for a Fox. Because Foxes are value-driven, they know that value comes from people. Therefore, they excel at building relationships. Certainly, there is value in results—in work that is accomplished when projects are completed successfully. But a Fox knows that people get the results and complete the projects.

That insight alone can explain some curious behavior you may observe at work from time to time. For example, a Fox might give high priority to some project that, by any objective measure, should receive very little emphasis. This would confuse a lot of people, but the Fox’s thinking is clear. While the project in question may have little significance by itself, the project team will gain valuable experience by tackling it. The Fox may see that somewhere down the road—perhaps even in a year or two—the organization will need that expertise.

Again, Foxes know that value comes from people and that people grow best when they are challenged. That is why you will consistently find that Foxes are good delegators. They know that entrusting responsibilities to others will expand their capacity to get results. However, they also know that when they delegate something, they also relinquish a certain amount of control. That is why many managers have difficulty doing this; and often the more important a task, the harder it is for most managers to assign it to someone else. They worry about whether they trust ...