How Personalities Affect the Work Environment
By Ruthie Jones
Dr. Larry Little’s book “Make A Difference: In the Lives of Those You Love, Live with, and Lead", helps us to understand ourselves, others and build healthy relationships.
Knowing yourself and how personalities affect the work environment will help develop healthy relationships, mutual understanding and respect. If I don’t know myself, tendencies, quirks or personality then how can I interact with those that I work with, live with and love? I may not agree with you or your actions but if I understand my personality or the other individuals make up, I can better relate to and connect with them on many levels rather than just writing them off.
This is applicable for married couples as well. When you accept that you cannot change your spouse’s personality, you spend less time trying to change one another. You are then able to speak each other’s language and learn more acceptance and tolerance for each other.
Our personalities are shaped through our genetics, our DNA. We all have a unique recipe in our brain and everyone is different. Behaviors are how we cope and react to stress or other things in our environment. Let’s examine these personalities a little closer:
Much Loved Monkey—People oriented, likes to laugh and tell stories, enjoys being in groups of people and loves to have a good time, because they are people oriented they can be sensitive to others needs and able to check the atmosphere of a room.
Leading Lions—Task oriented, they see the big picture, visionary, they are about getting the job done. They may seem as though they are not interested in people but they are, they like a challenge and ready to move on to the next task.
Competent Camel—Task oriented, highly values the process, likes rules, likes details and structure.
Tranquil Turtle—They are person oriented; they value 1:1 relationships. They do not like being the center of attention, they have a lot of wisdom, insight, they work in the own time and are easy going.
We learn that everyone does not view the world the same way we do and that others do not view us the same way we view ourselves. This keeps us from being selfish and self-centered. In the work environment, you need all four personalities on your team. In our families, notice the uniqueness that each personality brings to the home environment. Click here to learn more about these personalities and how it can help develop your leadership.
Ruthie Jones is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker with Eagle Counseling.