Linear and Lateral Thinkers

Welcome to Headhunter Secrets, where I’ll share perspectives about the search business. We hope you’ll use our services to execute searches. Nonetheless, I wanted to give you some insights I’ve gained from doing search work since I was 23 years old.

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Linear and Lateral Thinkers
Which one are you?

Every organization basically runs on two different kinds of minds. The linear thinker moves from A to B to C, building conclusions step by step, each one resting logically on the last. The lateral thinker jumps from A to Q to K to E to Z, arriving at an answer through an association, an analogy, or a helpful hunch.

Neither way of thinking is inherently superior to the other, but different work requires different skills. Linear and lateral thinkers approach challenges very differently, and confusing the two when hiring for specific roles and assigning tasks can cause a surprising amount of organizational dysfunction.

Linear thinkers are most productive in established, reliable systems. They excel at data management, process execution, process improvement, and risk mitigation. Their strength is following an established infrastructure process. Given a defined goal and a legacy infrastructure of support, they will get to the intended outcome efficiently and predictably. Linear thinkers are great at process but weak at solving unexpected problems. Highly capable linear thinkers often flounder when trying to create infrastructure from scratch or solve unexpected challenges quickly.

Linear thinkers thrive in compliance, accounting, finance, and operations roles, where there is an established infrastructure, consistency of process, attention to detail, and comfort with rules. Linear thinkers tend to want clear scope, explicit criteria, obvious process, and feedback tied to defined milestones. Ambiguity reads to them as a management or infrastructure failure. 

Lateral thinkers rely more on their peripheral vision. Their gift is noticing that the problem everyone is trying to solve might be the wrong problem, or that perspective from an unrelated field like biology, music, auto repair, or something else that’s not tangential surfaces the solution path. They are entrepreneurial thinkers. They can create something from nothing. Lateral thinkers are less reliable at grinding through a long, well-defined task but indispensable when the task itself isn’t yet clear or the problem is unexpected or seemingly unsolvable. But pure lateral thinking without linear discipline tends to produce brilliant ideas and no finished projects.

Because of their tolerance for ambiguity, lateral thinkers are best suited for developing strategy, opening new markets, designing new products/services, and addressing unexpected problems that require a high sense of urgency. Lateral thinkers tend to want context and latitude. Tell them the destination and the constraints then get out of the way. Excessive process reads to lateral thinkers as a roadblock to problem resolution.

To be an exceptional employee, one should develop both linear and lateral thinking capabilities. Doing so makes one even more ready and capable to take on a broader set of challenges.

And to be an exceptional manager, one must learn to tell the difference between the linear and lateral thinkers—aware that most employees have a default and dominant way of thinking. Knowing such helps when building and leading a team, assigning projects, and reviewing an employee’s contribution. It also informs management style. To apply a single management style to both linear and lateral thinkers will alienate one or the other and reduce overall productivity. 

To be a great leader, one must understand why companies need both kinds of thinkers across the organization. Lateral thinkers help companies identify “the new,” while linear thinkers help companies manage “the old” and evaluate, analyze, and process “the new.”

The mistake most hiring managers make is treating “smart” as a single axis, when really, they’re choosing between two different axes. 

The best hiring decisions aren’t made by asking who is more capable. They’re made by asking what kind of thinking the role requires. Organizations that learn to recognize the difference between linear and lateral thinkers build stronger teams, achieve better outcomes, and avoid the costly mistake of putting the right person in the wrong job.

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Hope these insights are helpful.

We at Leyendecker have been doing search work for 40 years. We’ve completed over 100 C-level searches, most for CFOs. Most have been PE portfolio companies, but we’ve also helped owner/managed and publicly-held companies. Our placements have helped their employers go through almost 50 successful liquidity events.

Keep us in mind when you seek talent that will get you over the goal line. We hope you’re having a great year!

Doug