Personalities are an interesting thing. Everyone has one, yet everyone’s personality is uniquely different. We know this; it’s common sense, yet it’s difficult to apply this in the work place when we come across a coworker with a personality that doesn’t mesh with our own. Learning how to deal with personalities so completely different than our own is important for success in our careers, but also necessary to ensuring a happy life; and a productive and harmonious work environment, after all, we spent most of our waking hours with our coworkers, shouldn’t we have great relationships with them?
Two personalities that may encounter friction in the work place might be, as defined by Insights Discovery, earth green energy and fiery red energy. Each personality has their strengths and weaknesses, but two personalities that are exact opposites may have a more difficult time understanding why they do the things they do. For instance, earth green energy has a tendency to be more introverted than people with fiery red energy. While fiery red energy does their best work thinking out loud and taking action to solve problems, earth green energy is doing their best work when they are quiet and thoughtfully considering how to solve a problem. This may not seem like it would present a challenge, except for when red energy thinks green energy is daydreaming, rather than taking action, and green energy thinks red energy is taking action too quickly, without considering all the ramifications.
Consider two employees on the same team in a company, one leads with red energy and one leads with green energy. During meetings it may appear to green energy, that red energy thinks she is running the show even though the two employees are supposed to be working together. Red energy talks nonstop and, not wanting to interrupt, green energy can hardly get a word in edgewise, and possibly is given no time to think through all the possibilities, and how people’s needs are being met. From red energy’s perspective, green energy is just sitting there reflecting, while red energy is coming up with some great ideas and taking immediate action. If green isn’t going to engage, then red better take action! And on it goes…
Think how much more collaborative and productive these employees would be if they understood how each other worked through problems, and leveraged the best of both personalities together.
If this sounds like some meetings in your company, it might be time to explore how understanding personalities will benefit your team members. As a keynote speaker and facilitator on Insights Discovery, I deliver this information in a fun, easy to understand and remember way, making it easily applicable back in day-to-day life. For more information on Insights Discovery, follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter