Uniqueness of Character

This week I attended a webinar discussing different personality traits and how the classic 'types' perform at their best. I think this is something we inherently know but often we impose or expect our own character type from others and get frustrated when things are not dealt with in our way.

The uniqueness of individuals should be encouraged and the differences in character promoted in the correct manner to bring out the best in each of us.

I have always said that we all have value to add, we just bring it about in different ways. Just as the loud-mouth individual is annoying to the quiet introvert, the extrovert has similar sentiments towards the seemingly distant reserved person.

Knowing and accepting how each classic type best operates, you can relate to people in a way that will bring out the best in them and have a mutually beneficial interaction. For example, forcing an introvert to speak before they are ready only puts them under immense pressure and is likely to clam them up and the gem they were processing in their mind is unlikely to be brought out. On the other hand, some people like to think out loud, in conversation, and need that arena to be available to do just that. Keeping them in a silent isolated think-tank won't bring about the same results. Having these two personality types working together could be disastrous if they do not respect each other's preferred working methods and provide some leeway to accommodate each's style.

We get to choose the friends we spend time with, but at work, we often don't get to choose our colleagues and if we are honest, there are those individuals we would rather choose not to spend time with. However, understanding a little about their personality may provide a key to the best way to interact with them. Achieving the results most effectively may actually be the way to improve a difficult relationship. Of course one side has to first try to be accommodating for this to work and, I think, accepting that we are different and we do things in different ways is the first step to this process. Trying to change or mould someone into something they are not naturally inclined towards, will, in most cases, result in less than optimum results. This is not to say we shouldn't try things out of our comfort zones or encourage others to try new things to develop them, but people usually perform best with their inherent abilities in an almost instinctive manner. Time will of-course allow a person to develop new abilities, confidence, etc... but at a set point in time allow the individual to bring their gem to the table in the way they know best. Respect the fact that they are different and bring out the best in them.