The Psychology of Money - An Investment Manager\'s Guide to Beating the Market

Case History 91

As with the thinking function, four of the team members have

a preference for thinking, with only one having a feeling prefer-

ence. As indicated earlier, most investment professionals are think-

ers. The advantage of having a feeler is that quite often that person

is the glue that holds the team together and smoothes over the rough

spots. Feelers are natural-born peacemakers. (It’s said that Paul

McCartney—a feeler—was the glue that held the Beatles together

through all their interpersonal battles.) The feeler on this invest-

ment team is no exception. Quick to joke and smile, he lightens up

the atmosphere and provides a friendly presence. Thinkers tend to

like locking horns and debating. They often look for win-lose

outcomes. It’s useful to have a team member who is naturally look-

ing for win-wins.

The other two scales—Extraverted versus Introverted (not

shown) and Organized (Js) versus Flexible (Ps)—are evenly bal-

anced on this team. Importantly, the presence of two Flexible types

(Perceivers) on the team helps keep the creativity level high. Per-

ceivers are natural “openers.” They like to ask more and more

questions and put additional options on the table. The tension

pulling them in the other direction—the balancer—is the judger,

who likes to close the discussion and settle on a plan. It’s useful to

have a judger as the team leader, which in fact this team does. His

inclination is to make a decision and move, which in the case of

investing is often more important than taking extra time to mull

over ideas.

The description of this team may sound ideal. All hearts and

flowers, perfect harmony. Not so. Along the way, the leader has

had to make some tough choices. To get the chemistry he wanted,

he had to replace two people. One person was ultimately dropped

because she had too much of a lion approach to thinking and team-

work. She tended to resist any new ideas, finding fault with them

immediately and arguing that the old, tried-and-true ways work

best. Eventually, the team leader removed her because the rest of

the team felt inhibited bringing up unusual, radical ideas.

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