Working with different personality types

All people harbour different traits and hence can be grouped according to their behaviour, outlook, demeanourand character, to name just a few qualities. If you know the personality traits of people who surround you at your workplace, you will perform better.

Different types of personalities that you could bump into at your place of work can well be many. However, their major categories are as follows; the likelihood of people having a combination of sorts cannot be discounted:

· Performing types: Frank, smart and likeable, this lot is adept at gelling with others. They possess excellent PR skills and can generate widespread popularity even if contributions made by them are minimal. When promoted to senior appointments, these people are more prone to not appreciate the performance of subordinates and have a tendency to make critical remarks. It is thus essential that in the eventuality of such a personality over you, necessary cataloguing of all orders and directions be done, together with the results attained. Likewise, in the case of as similar personalities as subordinates, you should not get swayed at all.

· Casual & easy-going types: They are reluctant to shoulder additional duties and refrain from taking initiatives. By temperament they are reserved, comply with orders and prefer to work in isolation. If such a person happens to be your boss, he is unlikely to be amenable to new proposals; accordingly you should try to flock with birds of your feathers. But if you have juniors of this category, you could end up being driven round the bend and hence need to give them comprehensive directions.

· Pleasing & appeasing types: This category is amiable and never decline appeals because of their inclination to regard everybody as their kith and kin. Resolution of crisis situations apart, they have apprehensions facing them. Appeasers in senior positions rarely offer positive censure and hence you have to rely on others to get advice. Junior appeasers place immense stress on personal ties and tend to disregard organizational interests; they thus are unable to point out mistakes and hence call for regular exhortation.

· Interlopers: They are generally scornful and contribute to low workplace confidence. Interlopers suffer from a superiority complex and are highly critical of others in all forums. In most instances, they lead juniors to the verge of collapse. While dealing with bosses of this category, you should try to not have frequent interface with them. Junior interlopers can discourage others and hence should be periodically counselled on man-management methods. Interlopers should be considered for their ability to assume disliked assignments and make impassive resolutions.

· Persuasive: They are more often than not brusque and generally refrain from frittering away their time on small points. Without intending to affront anyone, they invariably give up on diplomacy to assert their viewpoint. There is also a marked tendency amongst them to retain control and not entrust responsibilities. While dealing with senior among this category, you should endeavour to build confidence with them and exhibit your intentions to accord precedence to arrangements and outcomes. In junior appointments, they could be excessively forceful and antagonistic; you should leave the implementation part of assignments to them but make known in no uncertain terms the final result that you intend to achieve. Intransigent types:This lot is indisposed to fixed arrangements and do not go well with regulations. They generally miss out on finer points and have problems in meeting deadlines. Their relative ineptitude can be disturbing. If they happen to be your seniors, you should not expect provisioning of requisite infrastructure and hence the responsibility to formulate operating procedures and targets has to be yours. Intransigent types have a tendency to render their bosses redundant and it is recommended that they need not be given any assignments that entail long-term accountabilities.

· Critical: This category is painstakingly scrupulous and has a tendency to get involved in minutiae. If any new proposal is given to them, they get into the negative aspects of it and may even recommend its rejection. Extremely guarded in their approach, checks and verifications run in their blood. Bosses who are critical of ingenuity too and hence, while dealing with them, you must not accept any mistake so that their confidence stands maintained. If such category happens to be your subordinates, you should be mentally prepared to be overloaded with information. The forgoing necessitates restricting your pursuits to large game-plans.

Which type of personality are you? If you are able to discern your type, you will be able to use the information to decide on the methodology to be adopted in undertaking tasks and discharging your duties. You will also be able to envision how others would be doing their bit. And once that happens, all your moves will be in order.