“Speak your truth quietly and clearly” – Desiderata, Max Ehrmann
Part 3 – Who Are You…?
- Did that story seem familiar? Is there an Estelle or Indy in your office?
- Who do you think was right?
- What do you think the Boss should have done next? And how would you have handled this situation?
- Can you identify with either one of them? Or, maybe a little bit with both of them?
Have you reflected on the different personality types at your work place and how they affect your ability to get things done? Take a blank piece of paper and jot down answers to these questions-
- What steps do you generally prefer to take while solving a complex problem?
- Where do you generally get your energy? How do you prefer to generate ideas?
- Do you get energized by the outer world and prefer to generate options by talking to others? If yes, jot down the letter E.
- Or
- Do you get energy from your inner world and prefer to start by looking for solutions internally? If yes, jot down the letter I.
- Where do you start looking for information?
- Do you prefer to start by focusing on real and tangible facts – what is present and happening? If yes, jot down the letter S
- Or
- Do you prefer to start by relying on your intuition and taking a step back – looking at the big picture? If yes, jot down the letter N.
- How do you generally prefer to reach a conclusion?
- Do you prefer to start by logically examining the pros and cons and making a decision based on a standard or principal? If yes, jot down the letter T
- Or
- Do you prefer to start by focusing on values and feelings, thinking about how each option affects the people involved? If yes, jot down the letter F.
- Finally, how do you generally prefer to implement the solution?
- Do you prefer to create an organized, well defined schedule with clear milestones and dates? If yes, jot down the letter J
- Or
- Do you prefer to start by having a flexible, open-ended approach? If yes, jot down the letter P.
You should now have a four letter code that has one letter from each pair in the rows below:
- E or I
- S or N
- T or F
- J or P
Keep these letters safe. We will talk about them in Part 4 of this blog post.
Think about the answers you jotted down…
- How have your preferred responses helped you meet your goals?
- When have your preferred responses acted as barriers?
- Would you sometimes like to “switch gears” and used a less preferred response to get better results?
Let’s also take a moment to see how these answers may affect team-work…
- For each question, can you identify at least one person with whom you share a similar preference?
- Conversely, for each question, can you identify one person who responds in a way that is different from yours?
- In each case, how do the similarities or differences affect your relationships?
- Are there situations where these differences have helped your team succeed? Or fail?
Now pause for a moment and look back at your answers. What questions come to your mind? Did this exercise reveal any new insight? Did you learn anything new about yourself or your team? Check in with us to read the concluding part of the blog post and learn how you can apply these ideas.
Read: Part 4 – What Next…?
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