Managing workplace personalities

IT is rare that you can choose the people you work with, so understanding the personalities in your sphere of influence and adapting your own approach can mean the difference between winning over colleagues and clients or hitting roadblocks, DBM Asia-Pacific president Rod Watson says.

DBM looks at the different personality types and how understanding them can better help you further your cause:

* There are those in the office who seek self-glory, shamelessly communicating their successes in front of the entire team including management. To manage how your contribution to the project is perceived without “blowing your own trumpet” send an email to provide everyone with a “heads-up” on the progress of a project. Doing this reminds people that you are the owner of the project and the main driver.

* Complainers walk around the office dragging their feet. Every request for work is a major effort. Investigate whether there is any merit in what they are saying. If not, talk to them in private and explain the landscape of the project. Once they understand that everyone is under the same pressures, they may reverse or reduce their feelings of being victimised or downtrodden.

* Enthusiasts can be great at bringing innovative ideas to the table and their energy can spread to other members of the team. However, they also need to be managed otherwise they may leap at a new idea without paying necessary attention to the detail, resulting in an incomplete project.

* The “office friend” wants to get along with everyone in the workplace. They find it hard to push back on work or disagree with a decision they think is wrong. Explain to them that they will receive more respect from team members in the long run by actually providing valuable feedback rather than agreeing for the sake of it or taking on more work than they can handle.

* For an effective team, there needs to be a mixture of personalities. Being aware of your own personality and those around you will help you balance competing needs and whims and ensure you achieve both individual and common goals.

DBM – www.dbm.com – is a global human-capital management firm, annually guiding more than 7000 organisations and 250,000 individuals through transitions caused by changing events or ongoing employee changes. DBM has 230 locations, serving 85 countries.

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