THOUGHT 4 THE WEEK

During the past 4-decades of coaching and writing about inter-personal skills in general and Primary Personality in particular, ten questions recur. Here is my reply to numbers 5 & 6.

5. Can Interpersonal Skills Awareness Genuinely Improve Team Productivity?

Absolutely, subject to correct assimilation! Ask any organisation with disproportionate staff turnover how much they invest in inter-personal skills awareness and the honest ones will admit not much. Too many good staff are lost to the competition because mangers don’t know how to work to their people’s strengths. Misunderstanding becomes dissatisfaction, then disaffection, then dejection and finally, defection!

Each personality can be appropriately ‘accommodated’ so that small niggles never escalate into big niggles, and happy people more willingly donate themselves to the cause of greater productivity.

We have coached clients to significant increases in productivity in a matter of weeks. We maintain it is the responsibility of every leader, at whatever level, to constantly strive to understand what behaviour matters to their people's effectiveness. To work to their positive traits and teach/coach/manage them to want to modify any negative traits (see BEST YOU: Part II Mutually beneficial Leadership).

During this enlightening process, mutual understanding builds between everyone ~ “I Like Me BEST When I’m With YOU”.

6. Does Motivation Determine Behaviour?

Motivation is WHY someone does something, or keeps on doing it; not HOW they do it, which is personality. For example, religious leaders often possess the same primary behaviour traits as business leaders. So, when each sit down with their respective councils/directors, we observe similar behaviour at work, but driven by different motivating-values.

Remember, personality determines HOW someone does something, motivation determines WHY they do it! [For insight into WHY people do things see, BEST YOU: PART III Motivating Values].

To explore this paper or arrange your workshop, email info@uetp.co.uk

Complicated IS Easy! Simple IS Hard!

During the past 4-decades of coaching and writing about inter-personal skills in general and Primary Personality in particular, ten questions recur. Here is my reply to 3 & 4:

3. Won’t People See Me Faking It?

Whether you are conscious of it or not, you role-shift to other people to a certain extent or you would enjoy little or no social interaction at all. Our students, however, actively improve their effectiveness with others by a factor of several times, meaning they get along with more people in life enhancing situations more of the time.

Imagine multiplying your happiness and income when it really counts, and you will understand and appreciate the effort put in to mastering our principles of inter-personal skills awareness.   

4. Do Certain Personalities Really Perform Certain Work Better?

There is no doubt, that every organisation hires its problems - period!

Given appropriate skills, relevant qualifications, and sustained motivation just about anyone can perform just about any role. Yet, it is evident that when the traits of work fail to harmonize with the traits of behaviour and motivation inconsistent productivity and greater supervision is the outcome.

Here is an example of an international corporation who got it wrong and cost them dearly in the process.

A cautious, careful, calculating Cool/Asker was hired on a large salary as a technical consultant. Doing well in her first year the company required her to accept a driving, directing, decisive Cool/Teller management role over others doing her former job.

Every working day she returned home emotionally exhausted until, within 12-months as a manager, she tendered her resignation, and joined a competitor as, guess what, a technical consultant. PDQ!

To explore this paper or arrange your workshop, email info@uetp.co.uk

Complicated IS Easy! Simple IS Hard!

During the past 4-decades of coaching and writing about inter-personal skills in general and Primary Personality in particular, ten questions recur. Here is my answers to the second:

2. Surely Everyone Possesses Traits From Each Personality?

Pure Primary Personality, though exceptional, is easier to recognise.

Most people, however, also possess the traits from a back-up personality, meaning their primary traits are compensated by the traits of one of the other personalities.

For example, the high-assertive, low-emotive pure COOL/TELLER, which represents 1-in-10 of the tested population, predominantly behaves in a demanding, dominant, driving and decisive manner.

Possessing a back-up personality of their opposing WARM/ASKER, would offer compensating traits to include being supportive, sentimental, steady, and social.

With a vertical back-up personality of the COOL/ASKER, they would be compensated with caution, concern, circumspection, and contemplative traits.

With a horizontal back-up personality of the WARM/TELLER, they would be compensated with interactive, inducing, inspirational, and influencing traits.

From the above, we learn that Primary Personality is more often influenced by a Back-Up Personality.

NOTE: When facing high stress situations, however, each personality initially reverts to their primary traits meaning, their first response to antagonism is to become more of what they are.

Full personality profiling may be obtained on application.

To explore this paper or arrange your workshop, email info@uetp.co.uk

Complicated IS Easy! Simple IS Hard!

We are what we habitually do!

During the past 4-decades of coaching and writing about inter-personal skills in general and Primary Personality in particular, ten questions recur. Here is my answers to the first:

1. Are People Really This Predictable?

You don't have to take my word for it; test it for yourself!

The 5th century BCE physician and philosopher Hippocrates noted that his patients could be placed into four distinct behaviour groups. At that time he thought the cause of these commonly identifiable traits was due to 'humours' or physical conditions.

Two-and-a-half thousand years later, during the first half of 20th century, William Marston and Walter Clarke produced their famous DISC model based on the psychological conditioning of everyone's first 5-years of life.

To identify your own or anothers Primary Personality, simply ask yourself two questions:

Q1) How do I - or the person I'm observing - attempt to control the display of emotions when dealing with others? Either you or the person in front of you tends to be emotionally reserved or emotionally volcanic!

Q2) How do I - or the person I'm observing - attempt to control the thoughts and actions of the people I am/they are with? Either you or the person in front of you tends to tell people what they want (assertive) or ask people for what they want (non-assertive)!

On paper - or in your mind - lay the emotive dimension horizontally and the assertive dimension vertically bisecting the former. You have created four quadrants and identified the four individual Primary Personalities, which we call COOL/TELLER; WARM/TELLER; COOL/ASKER; and WARM/ASKER.

To discuss this FAQ and how to behave with the different PPs, email info@uetp.co.uk

Complicated IS Easy! Simple IS Hard!

Continuing from last week, when PART 1 explored Preparation and Professionalism, this paper alerts recruit and the recruiter to common mistakes of job interviewing:

PART 2: Personal Integrity and Teamwork

6) Misrepresentation - Interviewees and interviewers who are economical with the truth about experiences and opportunities invariably fall foul of scrutiny. Telling it like it is allows both parties to probe work/career potential based on real experiences. As mentioned in PART 1, a keen attitude to becoming something better offers a growth asset to a team. So, never distort or fabricate information no-matter how good a candidate or situation may appear.

7) Bad Mouthing Past Situations – Everyone from time to time comes across a boss, colleague, subordinate or candidate who was a pain in the proverbial, which probably contributed to this face-to-face interview. But spending too much time complaining about the shortcomings of others reveals an intense lack of integrity – from either side. And, when specifically challenging prior relationships as a discussion point, keep comments positive by focusing on what was learned.

8) When To Lead / When To Follow – Unless you are applying for a solo round the world sailing voyage or seeking such an undaunted individual, no-one truly works independently on the job. Everyone has a boss and colleagues, and every boss works with colleagues and subordinates. Recognising and accommodating the primary personalities is key-critical to maintaining inter-dependent relationships, especially in times of disagreement. Effective inter-personal skills can only maximize productivity – the whole point of seeking the right person for the right position! Each party needs to match behaviour with accountability in the workplace.

9) Individual Personality / Job Personality – The goal of both candidate and interviewer is to find a fit. That sometimes-illusive perfect match of the right person doing the right thing, right. Both candidate behaviour-description and job behaviour-description highlight defined traits. Individual-behaviour dictates HOW someone will perform. Job-behaviour dictates HOW the work must be performed. This is where applied psychometric assessment fulfils a critical role that perception alone will not. And, remember, every organisation hires its problems.

10) Do You Want To Meet Again? – Choosing to meet again is a joint decision that brings everyone closer to a productive working relationship. Whatever the outcome, however, both parties need to feel the exercise was worthwhile; that it was a mutually beneficial experience. In this way, an unsuccessful candidate remains a center of influence to those s/he communicates with after the event, possibly introducing a friend as a further candidate. And the interviewer will keep on record a candidate that may become suitable for a position that is not yet available or has not yet been ‘invented’.

To explore PART 1 and/or PART 2 of this paper, or arrange your Selecting B4 Recruiting workshop, email info@uetp.co.uk

 Complicated IS Easy! Simple IS Hard!