Our VP of Operations is a high Follow Thru who wants to document every step of our new automated fulfillment system, while our VP of Sales is a high Quick Start who wants to launch it to clients tomorrow. How do we keep this conative clash from paralyzing our progress?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The tension between a high Follow Thru who wants to systemize and a high Quick Start who wants to launch immediately is a common conative clash on leadership teams. This is not a personality conflict; it is a difference in how they are naturally hardwired to take action when striving. Your VP of Operations (high Follow Thru) needs structure, process, and order to feel secure. Your VP of Sales (high Quick Start) thrives in uncertainty and wants to test ideas in the real market immediately. Both perspectives are valuable, but left unmanaged, they will paralyze your progress. To resolve this, use their Kolbe A Index profiles to build a bridge. Acknowledge that the Quick Start energy is essential for driving innovation, while the Follow Thru energy is essential for ensuring the system does not break. Create a compromise workflow. Allow the VP of Sales to run a small-scale, manual pilot with a single client to gather real-world feedback quickly. This satisfies the Quick Start need for action. Meanwhile, the VP of Operations observes the pilot to document the workflow and design the automated system before scaling it to the rest of your client base. This ensures your scaling efforts are both fast and stable.