Personality Styles
Over Christmas I met an old friend who is working away in the same company for nearly 25 years. Terrific loyalty, working away, the mortgage is being paid and the kids are growing up.
There was an opportunity for promotion some years ago and it didn't work out, so he kept doing his job dutifully and came to the conclusion that promotions weren't for him. He's a Subject Matter Expert, and why wouldn't he be after 20 years in the same team? Good wages, good company, no real financial constraints at home. Familiar, a good place to work, and then he said, it's "kind of boring though". So we got to chatting about what happened. A quiet guy by nature, but friendly and chatty at the same time, the experience of missing the promotion had an effect.
No-one explained why. We got to chatting about different people and though the HR department and his line manager in the company ensured employment contracts were up to date each year, and there were financial incentive programmes, there hadn't really been anything done on the softer side of working life.
He is an expert technically and when he spoke about others he worked with, he used some familiar language - "oh yeah, sure he just can't make a decision on time", or "she spends all her time on email", or "you can't talk to him unless he has eaten his lunch". That sense of not fully getting to grips with other people. I'll nail down the 9-5 and head away home then would be the outcome.
We talked a little about styles - there are different personalities. Just because others are different doesn't mean they're not clever, sensitive, knowledgeable and so on. Often it's about pitching yourself the right way while having grasp on the fact that we're all different. When we're pitching ourselves forward for a promotion, or changing roles and want to get off to the best possible start, or you have a new idea and you need to influence others for career development, awareness of these styles will make a difference. So I sent him this, a much shorter version of the chart, in this blog and his interest is piqued - "I'll give this a go - something new and interesting to learn"
Just as importantly if you're a little shy #shyness or sensitive, knowing what will and wont work with the different styles will help you to move with more confidence in the workplace. #confidence
Good article
Good insights on personality styles