Tag: Teams

Character and Personality: Time

Posted on by Gary Monti

characterpersonalityTIMEWould you like to be able to quickly determine where synergies and problems exist in an organization? Come along to see how knowing individuals’ temperaments can help predict possible outcomes in team situations.

Traits

Temperament refers to preferred ways of thinking. Traits refer to preferred behaviors. They correlate well. Let’s look at a mythical company with the following temperament mix:

  • CEO – NT (intuitive thinker)
  • Senior staff member – NF (intuitive feeler)
  • Operations manager – SJ (sensing judger)
  • Programmer – SP (sensing perceiver)

Of course, none of them want their time wasted. The problem is with their perception of time. Here is the order in which they each prioritize past, present, and future. Also, their nicknames have been included to give a hint as to where their priorities lie.

TRAIT       Nickname            Past    Present   Future
NT               Field Marshal           2              3              1
NF               Organizer                   3              1              2
SJ                Enforcer                      —             1              —
SP               Doer                               1              2              3

So how does this play out in the work place? Take a look at each of their POSITIVE traits…

NT (Field Marshal)

  • Sees where the company can be in the future
  • Sets standards and holds to them
  • Delegates today’s activities to others
  • Strategic thinker
  • Holds on to the vision throughout difficulties
  • Leads the way and doesn’t waver
  • Main interest is achieving dreams and accomplishments
  • The past informs the future. Incorporates lessons-learned into future plans

NF (Organizer)

  • Takes interest in others and how they are brought together to get things done
  • Pays attention to the overall-balance among key factors
  • Puts “teeth” into the NT’s strategic plans
  • Will look towards the future by focusing on generating cooperation today
  • Works as a shock absorber between the NT and lower ranks

SJ (Enforcer)

  • Focuses on NOW
  • Stays on task and gets things done
  • Knows the limits of available resources
  • Tactically-oriented
  • Supports the strategies that come down from above

SP (Doer)

  • Prefers a structure be presented within which work can be performed
  • Wants to know what the orders are for getting work done
  • Prefers others develop strategies
  • Wants involved when tasks are defined

As you have probably guessed by now, there can be a dark side to all this. Now, let’s take a peek at some of their more… ahem… challenging aspects…

NT (Field Marshal)

  • Doesn’t hesitate to change on-going work in order to leverage the future
  • Believes the project is complete at the moment of delegation
  • Does not want to be distracted by problems from the present
  • Risk management is for nay-sayers. It can distract from the future
  • Positive criticism downplayed or ignored
  • Negative criticism emphasized
  • Little interest in people and their requirements
  • Can ride roughshod over others and have a short memory regarding those behaviors

NF (Organizer)

  • Can lose sight of the need to mend problems from the past since there is push for today and the future.

SJ (Enforcer)

  • Rules are to be enforced, not questioned
  • The past can’t be fixed and the future is out of reach so don’t waste time on either of them
  • Finds strategizing, planning, and spending time on what-ifs boring
  • Wonders if strategies are sane

SP (Doer)

  • Wonders if the plan is sane
  • Can be rebellious yet wants no risk
  • Can go in own direction without informing others
  • Gauges work and others based on how the SP was treated in the past
  • Change is viewed with suspicion. The past needs to be resolved

The Leadership Challenge

You can see that avoiding wasting time can quickly turn into a multi-dimensional problem! Making the effort to understand others can pay huge dividends by providing clear vision as to strengths and limits in various situations with your team. With that understanding as a base, planning and execution can proceed realistically.

Are any of these traits familiar to you from team projects you’ve worked on? How about in your family?

Gary Monti has over 30 years experience providing change- and project management services internationally. He works at the nexus between strategy, business case, project-, process-, and people management. Service modalities include consulting, teaching, mentoring, and speaking. Credentials include PMP number 14 (Project Management Institute®), Myers-Briggs Type Indicator certification, and accreditation in the Cynefin methodology. Gary can be reached at gary.monti@aureliuspress.com.

If you’d like to submit a Jungian-focused blog on working with different personality types (in professional or personal settings), please contact Jennifer Rojas, our Blog Editor, at jennifer.rojas@aureliuspress.com.

Character and Personality: Orientation and Energy

Posted on by Gary Monti

orientationenergyWhen shopping online, when do you decide to purchase? If the features are fairly close to what you want, do you go ahead and buy? Or, do you search and search until all the facts have been gathered before making a decision and hitting that “Buy Now” button?

What about when you are on the road for work? At the end of the day, would you like to go explore a new restaurant with one of your fellow team members, or does going back to the hotel room to just “be” and decompress feel best?

In one of our previous blogs, gathering and processing information preferences were discussed. Here we will look at the two other major components that go into determining one’s temperament: orientation and energy source. As with the gathering and processing of information, orientation and energy are also about preference. Each of us practices all of the temperament traits, but based on neural wiring, we have preferred ways of orienting and obtaining energy.

Orientation

Orientation refers to how we prefer to interface with the outside world. There are two approaches:

Judging, or J, which means there is a desire to come to closure on an issue. The person who buys online once, fairly close to the desired goal, is J, and;

Perceiving, or P, which means there is the desire to find more information. The person who researches online (even after making the purchase) is P.

Let’s avoid some common misperceptions regarding these terms. Judging is different than being judgmental. To repeat, judging is the desire for closure and is neutral. Being judgmental is making value statements; e.g., “That person is good (or bad, as the case may be).” Perceiving is the desire to gather information. It is not having special insight or a crystal ball.

Energy

There are two possibilities for gaining energy:

Extraverts, or Es, gain energy from being around others, socializing, and wanting to deal with exterior things. Es can tend to make many contacts without going deep, and;

Introverts, or Is, who prefer going off by themselves to gain energy by turning inward. Is can tend to have few contacts and go deep into relationships.

Es are often called “solar panels” because they like excitement and soaking up energy through interaction with others. Is are often called “batteries” since going off and recharging depleted energy stores is a must.

Keep in mind that it’s from where one draws energy that determines if their temperament is E or I. In other words, you can have quiet Extraverts and energetic Introverts. A shy person can be an E and someone who is outgoing can be an I. Culturally, there is a good deal of confusion over this issue.

Energy, Orientation, and Teams

What value does all this information have? Here’s a big one: Knowing how a person accesses energy, plus their orientation, can both explain and help resolve conflict!

For example, an EJ (Extraverted-Judger) may get tired of working on a task, feel he’s done enough, and want to improve her sense of well-being by talking with someone on the team and getting their attention. If the person whom they approach is IP (Introverted-Perceiver) then sparks can fly or feathers could get ruffled. Why? The IP may get his sense of well-being by being left alone to both stay centered and go deep on a particular task and get more information.

Some examples: Have you ever been working on a project, gotten to a point where you need feedback in order to proceed, but the person you need to schedule a meeting with is either elusive or keeps re-scheduling? Conversely, maybe you’re the person who needs more time to think the task through – and having a meeting about it now seems premature or even disruptive to your workflow. You can probably see where this is going.

When we look at the combinations associated with E vs I and J vs P it becomes increasingly clear how holding a team together can be a big challenge.

Do you have some examples from work or home that highlight different team or family members’ energy and orientation preferences?

Gary Monti has over 30 years experience providing change- and project management services internationally. He works at the nexus between strategy, business case, project-, process-, and people management. Service modalities include consulting, teaching, mentoring, and speaking. Credentials include PMP number 14 (Project Management Institute®), Myers-Briggs Type Indicator certification, and accreditation in the Cynefin methodology. Gary can be reached at gary.monti@aureliuspress.com.

If you’d like to submit a Jungian-focused blog on working with different personality types, please contact Jennifer Rojas, our Blog Editor, at jennifer.rojas@aureliuspress.com.