Birth Order In Business

A business is most likely to prosper if the right Birth Order personalities hold the right positions.

The CEO is best if an Only. The Only sees the overall picture, pays attention to organization, wants to get things done right and creates a good emotional climate. This CEO can stand alone in a way the other Birth Orders cannot.

The First Born is best in research and development. Given the research thinking pattern of the First Born this person is open to new ideas, can accept them from outsiders as well as from employees. The First Born does not think up ideas in isolation so development is practical.

The accounting department calls for a Second Born. The Second Born's interest in details, perfectionism and self-discipline equip this person for number crunching. In accounting perfection is not only desirable but necessary, thus fitting the Second Born's penchant for perfection.

The super salesperson for the company will be a Third Born. He or she wants to help people with a good product, providing the incentive to sell. The Third Born moves from customer to customer without being derailed by rejection. One successful deal motivates the Third Born on to the next deal without stopping to celebrate the last triumph.

The Fourth Born fits the role of sales manager. The Fourth Born is a natural people manager from having studied his or her older siblings all those years of growing up. Also, the Fourth Born subconsciously expects others to be Third Born like his older sibling who made him into a Fourth Born. The Fourth Born recognizes qualities that make the Third Born a Third Born so this sales manager builds on the natural strengths of the Third Born salesperson.

Companies make two major mistakes in promoting people. One is promoting the head of accounting to the position of CEO. This is often done when a company is looking to be conservative after having done well. To save money the Second Born CEO cuts back on employee benefits, squeezes more production out of fewer employees, eliminates overtime and keeps wages low. Employees become demoralized so that they no longer enthusiastically support the company. Production becomes shabby, customer relations suffer and employees fail to warn about potential pitfalls. Without employee loyalty a company suffers.

The second major mistake is promoting the best salesperson to the position of sales manager under the theory that the good salesperson can clone himself. In promoting the super salesperson to sales manager the company loses a good salesperson to gain a poor sales manager. The qualities that make for good selling do not make for good managing. The Third Born sales manager fails to challenge the sales force as he or she is selling them on the idea of selling.

There are exceptions. For example, a Second Born who becomes CEO of a company already in deep difficulty is often able to bring the company to good health. The attention to detail is probably the contributing factor. A Third Born who starts his or her own company can function well as CEO because of the compassion the Third Born has for employees. This would not work in an existing company because the Third Born management style that really trusts people can be scary to the board.