The head of operations is a high Fact Finder who needs weeks of data, while our sales head is a high Quick Start who acts on instinct. Their constant bickering is stalling our execution. How do we get these two to stop fighting and start leveraging their opposite conative styles?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a high Fact Finder and a high Quick Start clash on a leadership team, it is not a personality conflict. It is a collision of natural, instinctive striving strengths. Your Sales leader instinctively strives by taking risks, experimenting, and moving fast. Your Operations leader instinctively strives by gathering deep data, researching historical precedents, and reducing risk. Neither of them is wrong, but their natural methods of operation are in direct opposition. To resolve this friction, you must first make their conative profiles visible. Administer the Kolbe A Index to both leaders and map their scores on a whiteboard during your next session. Help them realize that their tension is conative, not personal. Next, establish a rule of engagement for your leadership team: use their strengths sequentially rather than simultaneously. When evaluating a new operational initiative, let the Quick Start pitch the vision and define the upside. Then, pass the ball to the Fact Finder to define the data requirements and identify the operational risks. The Quick Start must agree to let the Fact Finder do the research, and the Fact Finder must commit to a hard deadline to deliver the findings rather than entering analysis paralysis. By showing them how their opposite instincts protect the company from both stagnation and reckless errors, you turn a toxic peer conflict into a powerful, self-regulating partnership.