Will Question the Status Quo
Being willing to question the status quo is a key characteristic of entrepreneurs but someone who is willing to question the status quo will also be valuable to many businesses thanks to their ability to see new ways of completing tasks, achieving results or designing products. In business, this strength is often called 'Vision'. Many personality types don't embrace change and tend to like doing things the way they have always been done - not so with a pure high D personality type. Bear in mind that others could see this as a problem or a weakness - they may find you disruptive, for example, so if you are questioning the status quo, make sure you bring others along with you by explaining how the new way will improve upon the current system or process.
Most entrepreneurs must have an element of this strength in order to succeed. To be successful as an entrepreneur, generally you must be able to see how a product would/could work better in a different way. Similarly in many business situations, having a natural inclination to question the status quo will often save or make companies lots of money.
If you have this personality strength, you should think of examples in the past where you have used it to your company's benefit.
Business benefits of 'Will question the status quo':
You should consider framing your strength in one of these contexts at job interviews.
- Will often see new ways of doing things
- Can be very creative - be careful they're not just being contrary!
- They have an entrepreneurial spirit - this can be very useful in new projects without established patterns
- They have what is commonly called 'Vision'
How 'questioning the status quo' can be seen as a weakness
It is important to understand how your personality strengths come across to others - this can be useful at job interviews but also in any situation where you are trying to maximise your strength and need to bring others along with you.
- Can be seen as disruptive - to minimise this, ensure you explain how your new way will improve the existing system/process/product
- People with this strength tend to try and avoid routine/predictable situations
- They can be poorer than others at sticking to established systems - training can overcome this for when it's necessary to stick to systems/routine.
How to become better at questioning the status quo
To become better at questioning the status quo you need to cultivate a habit of looking at products, systems and processes and think of how they can be improved. You can also learn from others who have already bucked the trend and examine what kind of things they spotted - e.g. how did Red Bull come in to a saturated soft drinks market and make so much money?
You will need to embrace the concept of change and change itself in order to become better at this strength. Understand that change is necessary to move forward - often radical change is needed - but try and be pragmatic about it i.e. pick your battles. If you run around trying to change everything you will have far less impact.
Read more about entrepreneurs and how they succeeded - you will almost always find that they had this strength in abundance. Consider this quote by Charles Darwin, who clearly had this strength in bucketloads:
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."
Training Materials
These training materials will help anyone who wishes to become better at questioning the status quo. I have included some other useful links, which may not be considered as classic training materials but nonetheless will increase your awareness of quesitoning the status quo.
- Entrepreneurial Skills from Mind Tools
- Change management skills from Business Balls
- Charles Darwin quotes
- Success is questioning the status quo
- History of Red Bull on Wikipedia
- A study of Red Bull's success
All products recommended on Amazon are specific to improving this particular strength and have a minimum of 4 stars (most often 5) where rated
What now?
You should decide which strength you wish to extend the most or which weakness you wish to mitigate and purchase one or more of the training materials available at the bottom of each strength/weakness page.
You can also post a message below to chat to Matiogi or others about this strength.