How Meta Roles Boost Your Career

 Meta Role #2. Dreamer

Dr. June McCarroll, an Indio, CA physician, had enough of being push off the road by inconsiderate truck drivers. She proposed putting center lines on highways. The year was 1917, but the all-male county Board of Supervisors didn't see a need.

Undeterred, she got on her hands and knees and painted a two-mile long white stripe down the middle of the road in front of her house. Even so, it wasn't until 1924 that state highway officials adopted striping roads, after being bombarded with letters from members of the Woman's Club of Indio. By the way, Doctor June wore a six-shooter when making house calls.

It's in the best interest of companies to urge employees to dream and come up with new ideas and challenge old ones. Some will work and some won't. It's the excitement and satisfaction of dreaming that makes a difference.

Meta Role #3. Dissenter

We call them rebels, outliers, and obstructionists. They not only "rain on our parade," they can be disruptive—and that's not acceptable. Everyone gets the message: stay in line or else.

Even so, Wharton School's Adam Grant, author of Originals (the science of standing out), contends in the Harvard Business Review that "conformity is dangerous because it means following other people not because you believe in their ideas or agree with them, but because you want to fit in instead of standing out." As Grant points out, not everyone agrees. At hedge fund Bridgewater, nonconformity is a core value that says "no one has the right to hold a critical opinion without speaking up about it."

All of this is to suggest that while we may enjoy being around agreeable people, they may be the least effective in moving the organization forward. Being on the same page doesn't necessarily mean it's a page that makes a difference.

Meta Role #4. Deliberator

How many mistakes in business are made by failing to analyze and understand the implications of decisions? The answer: a lot. On the one hand, the urge to act trumps thought. Getting input is confusing, causes delays, and derails plans. It's almost as if some people fear deliberation; it may lead to altering or rejecting their ideas.

This is why even potentially helpful and useful ideas get a bad rap. Those who are capable and interested in offering helpful information and guidance remain silent, rather than wasting their time.

More often than not, good ideas fail because of overlooked details, miscalculation, and lack of knowledge. All of which can be avoided by vetting them through deliberation.

Meta Role #5. Doer

While analyzing problems, dreaming about possibilities, taking exception, and arguing issues creates a dynamic that spurs involvement and innovation, the first four Meta Roles are useless unless someone follows through and acts. This is the Doer.

As someone said at the end of every meeting, "Who's going to make the coffee?" In other words, who's going to do what to whom and when? Making decisions has value only if there's action.

In summary, Meta roles aren't some abstract exercise that has little or no practical value. They're functional. Their goal is to make a difference. And that's why they should be guarded, protected, encouraged and rewarded.

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John Graham of GrahamComm is a marketing and sales strategy consultant and business writer. He is the creator of "Magnet Marketing," and publishes a free monthly eBulletin, "No Nonsense Marketing & Sales Ideas."