Personality Style

Your personality style is your organizing principle. It propels you on your life path. It represents the orderly arrangement of all your attributes, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behaviors, and coping mechanisms.

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What Four Things Your Personality Reveals

Posted by Personality StyleNo Comments

 

Your personality reveals many things about yourself that you may not realize. It’s important to know your own personality style, which will help you in both your professional and personal life. Your personality style can help you further understand yourself and lead you in communicating and working more effectively with others.

These are the four personality styles and what they mean:

  • Direct – Someone who is upfront and realistic
  • Considerate – Someone who is thoughtful and compassionate
  • Spirited – Someone who is energetic and enthusiastic
  • Systematic – Someone who is organized and logical

These four styles and who we are guide our actions, decisions, and general life approach. Looking deeper, there is also expressiveness and assertiveness, which are learned behaviors that we use as a means of coping with the demands and expectations placed upon us. These help to explain how we can appear to have one personality at work, while actually having another in our personal life.

There are four main things that your unique personality reveals. These are only four benefits of knowing your own personality style – there are countless more.

  1. Your self-awareness

The more you know about yourself, the more you’re able to determine what you really need in your life. Knowing your personality style helps you become more self-aware.

  1. Where you get your energy from

When life throws you a curveball, you need to engage your problem solving skills. An introvert needs downtime in order to recharge, while an extrovert needs people time in order to recharge.

  1. Strengths and weaknesses

Reveal aspects of your personality by highlighting your creativity, personality trait and how you resolve conflict. The more insight you have, the easier it is to determine your strengths and weaknesses.

  1. Inform your career

Personality tests reveal aspects of your personality that are relevant to your work environment. Knowing your style can help you figure out your career path.

HRDQ-U and Keera Godfrey are hosting a free webinar on September 19th at 2 pm ET. Save your seat now!

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Three Tips to Improve Your Relationships at Work

Posted by Communication Styles, Corporate Team Building Games, HR Training, Personality StyleNo Comments

By Michael Bungay Stanier

Moving in the direction you’re aiming for at work, be it by promotion, title change or new responsibilities, will generally make you feel great. We spend a lot of time and energy worrying about our careers and discussing ways in which we can personally move forward, learn and grow.

But one thing that is sometimes overlooked when discussing our careers is the relationships in our workplace. Positive relationships can have powerful effects on how you (and your colleagues) feel at work.

I’m not talking about those relationships where you can chat with one another easily (though that in itself is no small thing). I’m talking about the comfortable — and beneficial — relationship that colleagues can achieve when both parties are working together to do more Great Work.

As a manager, the best thing you can do is ensure that you maintain such a relationship with your employees. Here are three tips on how to do that.

  1. Tame Your Advice Monster

 Many of us have the tendency to give advice when someone comes to us with a problem. It’s only natural, especially in a leadership role, to want to help with an issue we’ve been presented. But when we jump in with advice, we often don’t get to the heart of the issue because we’ve already set off trying to fix what we think is wrong. When you do this, the other person might feel like you’ve taken over, despite your good intentions, or they might feel that your advice is unhelpful. Neither option is good for your relationship.

Edgar Schein, in his book Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help, explains that when you jump in to help someone, you essentially put them “one down” in the relationship, and put yourself “one up.” In doing so, you categorize yourself as the smart one and the person in control. This status imbalance can have damaging effects on a relationship, as you can imagine.

The best way to increase the comfortability of the situation, and therefore create a better relationship, is to let the other person talk.

  1. Ask Questions

If you can manage to avoid giving advice, you can then ask your employees coaching questions — questions to find out what they really need from you — instead. By asking questions, you’ll encourage them to come up with their own answers and new options, and you’ll be promoting personal development in the workplace.

Not only does asking questions keep you curious, and therefore make the other party feel valued, but it also encourages learning. Having people answer questions increases their chance of remembering the information involved, and they will likely remember the conversation with you as being productive — and that’s another step toward an especially positive relationship.

  1. Coach for Development

Tips #1 and #2 are part of an overall coaching plan. In my book The Coaching Habit, I outline seven questions you can use to effectively coach your employees in 10 minutes or less. Coaching for performance is about addressing and fixing everyday issues. That kind of coaching makes you a helpful manager, but it’s your ability to coach for development that will make your relationship important to others.

Coaching for development is about coaching the person dealing with the everyday issues. This can begin with your simply asking questions, and it is the type of coaching that encourages people to learn, improve and grow. It makes people happy to have you on their team — which can take your relationships from good to great.

If that isn’t motivation enough, learning to coach well will also help you do less and have more impact.

This article was reprinted with permission from the author.

Michael Bungay Stanier and HRDQ-U are hosting a webinar March 1st at 2pm ET. Save your seat here!

Michael-Bungay-Stanier-headshot-200x300Author of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, Michael Bungay Stanier is the Senior Partner and Founder of Box of Crayons, a company that helps organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. It is best known for its coaching programs, which give busy managers practical tools to coach in 10 minutes or less.

Download free chapters of Michael’s latest book here.

 

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The Funology of Engagement

Posted by Communication Styles, Corporate Training Materials, HR Training, Personality Style, Team Building ExercisesNo Comments

By Marc Ratcliffe

FUN = enjoyment, amusement, or light-hearted pleasure.

OLOGY = subject of study; a branch of knowledge.

FUNOLOGY = A study of (learning) enjoyment!

Author Joanne Oppenheim wrote “when fun goes out of play, most often so does the learning…” I wholeheartedly agree. There is a misconception that we are not serious about learning if we are having fun. On the contrary, we can be very serious about our profession, the art of our instruction, the well-being of our participants and even the importance of our subject matter. This doesn’t mean we have to take ourselves too seriously. It doesn’t preclude us from bringing levity to our delivery and doesn’t deny us the opportunity to shine a big bright light on our content. Fun is not the enemy. The way that we involve learners and engage their learning is what counts and fun can be an effective vehicle for creating the kind of atmosphere where students feel comfortable and learning can thrive.

Having fun does not diminish learning capacity or marginalise subject matter. In fact, it is likely to make it more memorable and help the content to stick, if it evokes wonder and excitement! We are seeing this with the rapid expansion of gamification within the learning and development sphere. It is more than just a catchy buzz term; it as an educational movement which is fast gaining traction in the mainstream, because it works.

With fun you stop the clock watching, the sneaky email checking and the classroom snoozing. Because, if we are doing it right, we will be constantly involving the audience and inviting contributions so they haven’t got time to be distracted by other things. Fun is therefore a conduit to learning, focus and retention.

Moreover, we can use fun as a distraction TO the learning rather than a distraction FROM the learning.

Here are five tips to engage any audience:

  • Use a pre-training exercise- the sets the scene for creativity and honours those who are there on time. This could be a word puzzle like hang man, number puzzle like sodoku, physical puzzle like Pictionary or a short video used to stimulate interest in the following content.
  • Get them connecting in pairs/small groups- there is safety in the smaller numbers and some participants will need to build confidence in smaller groups first, before sharing with the group at large.
  • Recognise their experience and use it! The best trainers harness the experience of the whole group, rather than just their own. An experience line-up can be a quick way to identify the experience in the room and then you can encourage table regroupings based on a more diverse mix of experience. For instance in the activity “experience pods”, you could ask the class to form new table groups with a minimum combined experience of 15 years per table.
  • Chunk into bite-sized pieces- This has been a tenant of effective education for many years. We don’t want to overwhelm the participants, so we break the content down into more digestible pieces. This, therefore provides a perfect opportunity to inject fun in the form of quizzes, polls, problem-solving tasks, team-building activities, gallery walks and poster development as a way to promote retention and reinforcement and check for understanding as you go.
  • Involve the audience early and often- If they are not playing, they are straying so seek opportunities to involve the group in the flow of content. This could be in the form of self-reflective tasks like action planning and consideration of things to “start, stop and continue”; small-group activities such as poster tasks and table discussions; and whole group involvement though debates and sit-stand polls.

We have more to distract us than at any other time in human history; text messages, instant messages, push notifications and any number of other alerts finding their way to our mobile devices and wearable technology. Now is not the time to be drilling down on which cannon of classics we should be the focus for our students. Rather, we should be concentrating on how we keep them engaged and consider how to leverage their existing devices and current preferences for consuming media. If we can create dynamic and meaningful learning opportunities which tap into fun and enjoyment we can truly teach anything.

This article was reprinted with permission from the author.

Marc and HRDQ-U are hosting a free webinar on May 25thth a 2pm ET. Register here! 

Marc head shot 2Marc Ratcliffe is the CEO and founder of MRWED Training and Assessment, Australia’s largest provider of Trainer Training and five time-listed Australian great place to work. He has been involved in Workplace and Vocational Education for 23 years and has conducted more than 300 Training and Assessment courses since 2000. He is the author of the “The Trainer’s Toolkit” (2011) and “The Trainer’s Cook Book” (2014) and is a co-author of three of the “S.C.O.R.E. for Trainers” publications. He has presented workshops internationally in 12 countries and is certified to deliver Bob Pike’s Train-the-Trainer Boot Camp, the world’s most respected train-the-trainer program.

In 2009, he was listed as one of the top 10 young trainers in the world by US Training Magazine, was awarded a Global HR Award for “Strategic Leadership” by the World HRD Congress in 2012 and was named as AITD’s Learning and Development Professional of the Year in 2013. Most recently, Marc was named as a finalist in the Category of “HR Champion” at the Australian HR Awards (2014) and was presented with the “Outstanding Leadership Award” (2015) by the World HRD Congress in Mumbai.

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Judging EQ – Should You?

Posted by Communication Styles, Emotional Intelligence Assessment, Personality StyleNo Comments

By Ed Hennessy

Over the last year I’ve begun to see a trend in articles and blogs with people stating that “so and so has a high EQ or low EQ” simply by what they’ve seen, heard, or read about that person. Do we want someone judging our overall level of EQ by observation of a limited aspect of our life?

A high EQ is not a guarantee of success just as a low EQ is not a guarantee of failure. Success comes from the Latin word succedere or succeed, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as “to do what you are trying to do: to achieve the correct or desired result”   We determine our success in life. Others may provide their input, opinion, or judgement but ultimately our view of success is our own. Success in life is impacted by many things and our emotional intelligence is one of them. However, we need to take a closer look at what we mean by EQ to understand the impact the unique emotional Intelligence profile within each of us has on our life.

The concept of Emotional Intelligence has been presented in various models for about the last 30 years. The model I use and refer to is the EQ-i 2.0® (Emotional Quotient Inventory).  The EQ-i 2.0® model is one of the rare few that is scientifically validated and recognized by the American Psychological Association. This model generates an overall EQ-i score based on our usage of 15 different skills of emotional intelligence contained within composite groups of Self Perception, Self Expression, Interpersonal Relationships, Decision Making, and Stress Management. The model also includes a Well Being score that is separately generated.

One figure in particular that seems to draw a reference to a perceived low EQ is Steve Jobs. Most EI assessments do generate an overall EQ score but what’s more important for us to understand is how someone uses the 15 different skills of emotional intelligence. Simply stating “so and so has a high EQ or low EQ” is not the most accurate way to discuss emotional intelligence. If Steve Jobs took an emotional intelligence assessment and allowed his overall score to be published we could then say whether it was high or low. However, it is a flawed assumption to say he had a high or low EQ without having his score to reference. What I have observed when most people state Steve Jobs had a low EQ comes from what they’ve seen, heard, or read about him and his interaction with others. This is only one aspect of our overall EQ and originates in the Interpersonal Relationship Composite.  As I mentioned earlier, there is much more to our emotional intelligence than interpersonal ability.

Emotional Intelligence is also about our Self Perception which is our inner confidence, our passionate pursuit of things that bring joy and meaning to our life, and our emotional self-awareness. The Self Expression composite is our ability to express ourselves both verbally and non-verbally in a socially acceptable way and includes our ability to navigate ourselves through life. The Decision Making composite gives us an understanding on how emotions impact our ability to solve problems, fosters our objectivity, and allows us to respond to situations in a timely manner. Lastly, the Stress Management composite creates our resilience and adaptability as well as generating our optimism towards the challenges life brings our way.  Looking at ourselves and the people around us we can observe actions and behaviors such as confidence or optimism but neither one, or even both working together should be considered our overall EQ.

To accurately view emotional intelligence in action we should view EQ as not being a singular construct such as an IQ score which is high or low but we should reflect on what specific emotional intelligence skills we are observing in action, at what level of usage, and with what resulting impact. Are we seeing a low usage of Interpersonal skill such as someone being self-centered, transactional, and insensitive? While Interpersonal ability is very important to success for most of us it is only one part of someone’s overall emotional intelligence profile and should not be the sole basis for saying someone has a low EQ. The more correct statement is that “so and so is demonstrating a low usage of interpersonal skill”. Most people would agree that Steve Jobs may have been one of the most driven and confident people in recent history as he demonstrated high levels of Self-Regard and Self- Actualization. His ability to be objective and understand the desires of the consumer for products that were yet in existence was unparalleled and this was aided by the skills of Reality Testing and Empathy. Did Steve Jobs always use empathy in his interactions with others? I think most would agree he did not. His ability to create a positive vision of the future that people bought into is still clearly seen today and contributing to this were high levels of optimism and emotional expression. While I’ve mentioned several individual EQ-i skills these actions and behaviors he demonstrated come from a combination all 15 EQ-i emotional intelligence skills in action.

Ultimately, this is not about Steve Jobs. Emotional Intelligence is a set of skills we all use that creates an impact in our lives and on the people around us. These skills are dynamic and our usage of them can be measured. If there is an area of your life where you would like more success or something about yourself you’ve considered working on then focusing on certain skills may be the opportunity for you to discover and realize greater potential. If we choose we can create an action plan based on leveraging our strengths as well as identifying opportunities for development. Personally, I am actively working on a greater use of Empathy and Interpersonal Relationships. My assessment showed I had a score consistent with the level where most people would be but I know being more understanding, appreciative, and compassionate will bring greater depth and success in my relationships. For others greater comfort expressing emotion, becoming more confident, being more positive, identifying and pursuing meaningful life goals, or generating an overall greater degree of happiness in life might be areas of opportunity.  Emotional Intelligence is something we all have and our usage of the 15 skills is unique to each of us. While we may see others using or not using these skills to a certain extent would we want someone judging our overall level of EQ by observation of a limited aspect of our life? I know when I see someone not at their best I am going to use Empathy to try and understand what they might be experiencing as I know it’s not their overall EQ I am seeing but simply one piece of a great work in progress like the rest of us.

This article was reprinted with permission from the author.

Ed and HRDQ-U are hosting a free webinar on May 18th a 2pm ET. Register here! 

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Ed Hennessy is a Master Trainer in Emotional Intelligence and CEO of Leadership Call, LLC the leading provider of EQ-I 2.0 & EQ 360 Emotional Intelligence Certification in North America. He leads EI based leadership and performance improvement programs with corporate clients and organizations as well as training & credentialing other professionals as experts in EI. He is a U.S. Army Veteran and served 9 years with several assignments leading elite aviation units. He also has 13+ years Executive Recruitment experience working nationally with Fortune 1000 companies for mid to senior level positions. In his community Ed is a speaker with the University of North Texas Professional Leader Program as well as a participant in the Tour De Cure.  He graduated from Norwich University, The Oldest Private Military College in the Nation.

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Improving Staff Morale Through Authentic Appreciation

Posted by Coaching Skills, Communication Styles, Conflict Management Strategies, Corporate Team Building Games, Corporate Training Materials, HR Training, Human Resource Training, Personality Style, Team Building Exercises, Teamwork GamesNo Comments

By Dr. Paul White

In my work training and consulting around the country, the most common responses by employees when discussing employee recognition typically range from apathy to cynicism.  One woman stated, “I haven’t heard anything positive for two years and you expect me to believe that they value me?”

Why Most Employee Recognition Programs Don’t Work

While the purpose of employee recognition activities are well intentioned, they actually often lead to negative results.  For example, the generic nature of rewards that many programs use feels impersonal- when everyone gets the same “employee of the month” certificate.

Another problematic aspect is the focus on recognition in front of large groups:  30-40% of individuals indicate they do not want to go up in front of a group to receive an award.  In fact, one staff member emphatically stated, “They can give me the award, but I won’t go up and get it unless they carry me up there!”   Finally, most recognition programs heavily emphasize tangible rewards- plaques, certificates, gift cards, coupons, and small tokens.  While most people don’t mind receiving gifts, if they don’t also hear verbal praise, receive individual attention, or get assistance when it is needed, the objects received seem superficial.

Core Conditions for Staff to Truly Feel Appreciated

Four core conditions have been identified which need to be present in order for employees to truly feel appreciated (which differs from recognition just being communicated).  Team members will feel valued when appreciation is communicated:

  1. Regularly. What is ‘regularly’? It varies depending on the work setting, the frequency of interaction between co-workers, and the nature of the relationship.  However, ‘regularly’ clearly implies more than once a year at an employee’s performance review, or when someone receives the “Staff Member of the Month” award.
  1. Through the ‘language’ and actions important to the recipient. The key word is “recipient”. Most of us tend to communicate appreciation to others through the actions that we value- like giving a verbal compliment or sending an email. But not everyone feels appreciated in the same ways.  Some people appreciate words of affirmation, while others are encouraged when someone helps them with a task.  Spending time is another way to demonstrate support, like stopping by a colleague’s office to see how they are doing. Bringing a colleague a special cup of coffee when you know they’ve had a long day can be a “pick me up”.  Even a “high five” or a “fist bump” can be a form of celebration when a difficult project has been completed.
  1. In a way that is personal and individualized. While group-based recognition is a good start (“Way to go, team. Our satisfaction ratings improved significantly last quarter.”), if the appreciation doesn’t relate to what the individual team member did to help achieve the goal, the communication can fall flat. Team members want to know what they have done that is valued- that you appreciate that they stayed late after an event to help clean up.
  1. In a manner that is perceived as genuine and authentic. If the communication of appreciation is not perceived as being genuine, nothing else really matters. Actions of recognition can appear inauthentic when: a) the actions suddenly appear after implementation of a program on appreciation; b) a person’s tone of voice, posture, or facial expressions don’t seem to match what they are saying; c) how a person relates to you in front of others differs from how they interact with you privately; d) the individual has a history of “saying one thing and doing another”; or e) there is an overall question of the motivation of the deliverer- do they have an ulterior motive?  There are other potential factors that undermine perceived authenticity, but these are some of the most common mentioned.

Practical Steps for Communicating Authentic Appreciation

Helping individuals change their actions is difficult. No one is looking for more work to do.  As a result, the focus needs to be on making actions of encouragement more efficient- to spend time with those who value time, to send notes to those who are impacted by them, to help someone out who will be grateful for the assistance, and to give a gift to someone who will appreciate the thought.

Two important points should be emphasized:  1) appreciation can be communicated by anyone to anyone, and 2) any team member, regardless of position, can positively impact their workplace culture.  Employees report they want to know how to encourage one another- they do not just want to be recognized by their supervisor.

How do people know (or find out) what their colleagues value?  The topic of “how do you feel appreciated” is not a common workplace conversation and this type of question can make individuals feel somewhat uncomfortable.   But people do tend to think in terms of “encouragement” and “discouragement”.  So, the question to ask is:  “When you are discouraged, what is something that someone can do or say that would encourage you?”

Additionally, an online assessment tool is available that identifies the primary language of appreciation of individuals, along with the specific actions that are most important to them The results can be compiled to create a group profile and list of valued actions for a team who works together.

Getting Started

Focus on yourself first.  Commit to do what you can to communicate appreciation to others.  Don’t look to your supervisor or administrators to take the lead.  Start by doing what you can, where you are.

Team up with others.  Any behavior change is more likely to occur (and to continue over time) when others are involved.  Ask a colleague, your supervisor, or the team you lead to discuss how this could apply to your setting.  Commit to work on a plan of action together.

Persevere.  See what works, and what needs to be changed, but don’t give up.

This article was reprinted with permission from the author.

Dr. White and HRDQ-U are hosting a free webinar April 6th at 2pm ET. Register here! 

Dr Paul White HeadshotPaul White, Ph.D., is a psychologist, speaker and consultant who “makes work relationships work”.  He is the co-author of Rising Above a Toxic Workplace, The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, and Sync or Swim.  Go to http://www.appreciationatwork.com for more information.

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