During my Leadership Academy for Women Course, one of the most popular workshop segments is when the participants take a leadership assessment and discover their core personality strengths and preferred communication styles. Most of them obsess over their areas of weakness for weeks following. It's very important to really understand who you are and how you operate.
This knowledge is really helpful in helping you find success at work and in your personal relationships. BUT, in my opinion, the real gift here is when you are able to look outside of yourself and begin to realize the patterns and personalities of those around you.
Before embracing this knowledge, we assume that our way of doing things is the right way and that everyone we work with and live with should be doing them the same way. We spend a lot of time frustrated and annoyed with the way people do things and waste a lot of time re-doing things to our own standards of perfection.
As a creative, impulsive, extremely outgoing extrovert with a love for being on stage and in front of an audience, I used to get frustrated when others didn't want to volunteer to give a presentation or handle a media interview. Because I come up with ideas and implement them quickly, I constantly put people on the spot, asking them for an immediate opinion or expecting them to roll out a new project in days or weeks instead of months or years. For so many years I did things myself or did the work of others because they weren't fast enough for me. Even though I considered myself to be friendly, helpful, and efficient, it seemed to others as if I were running right over them. They felt that I was demanding and impatient. They were often intimidated, sometimes threatened, and usually very irritated! When I finally realized what was happening, I learned to make a few adjustments so that my team could work alongside me instead of constantly trying to catch up.
This week I am sharing two important videos with tips on managing introverts and extroverts. The tips I share in these videos took me YEARS to learn but weeks to implement. You'll want to have a pen and paper handy to take notes this week, friends.
First, let's discuss those who are naturally introverted. Introverted personalities make tremendous employees. Often they are the ones that create important policies, research, and life-changing inventions. A happy introvert may be crunching your numbers, helping you to reach important financial goals, or alerting you to compliance issues that could cost a bundle.
You definitely want these folks to be engaged at work. but there are a few things you need to know and especially the things you need to avoid when managing this personality type.
Here are my best tips to keep your introverted team members motivated, happy, and on track at work:
Interesting, right? Now, let's talk about extroverts. These folks make great sales and customer service employees and are often dynamic and beloved leaders. Be careful, though. There are a few things you need to know and especially the things you need to avoid when managing this personality type.
Here are my best tips to keep your extrovert team members motivated, happy, and on track at work:
One of the most important things you can learn as a leader is managing people by embracing their strengths/personality traits.
If you live with or work with a personality type that is opposite from you, give these strategies a try and let me know how they work.
