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The truth is no matter what, when it comes to work duties some people resort to old habits on how they normally handled
competition.
Either they resort to old programmed tendencies from home or prior school life. This could come from competing with a brother or sister or being picked on in High School.
There is that and then there's also different work style personalities.
Here a few tips that can help:
1. Think of Strengths
Every individual has strengths that can really be useful for the job. Concentrate on what those are and even list them out. When you are working together on a project discuss what these strengths are and how they could be useful to help complete the project.
2. Different Work Style Personalities
Just a few examples that you can point out...
Leader-Extrovert
Friendly boss. Likes to say, hello, how are you doing in the morning. Freely talks about his family and what they did in the weekend. Wants to learn more about you. May not be the most organized. Goal orientated and very creative. Visionary.
Leader-Directive
Just wants the facts. May not be the most pleasant individual and/or cheery. Short answers. Organized. Goal orientated. May need to be surrounded with creative thinkers to think out of the box. Visionary.
Worker-Extrovert
This worker is all smiles and can do a great presentation. Great with customers. She may not be the most organized - this is an area that she constantly works on. A great team builder. Big picture mentality.
Worker-Analytical
Simple with hello's and good mornings. Not a big chatter. Concentrates on the details. Can provide awesome facts and does the best charts. Phenomenal researchers.
Each personality type needs to learn how to work in the middle. For instance, the Worker-Analytical needs to know that the Leader-Extrovert may need a hello and a small chat about his kid's baseball game from last night then talk about the facts. The Leader-Extrovert would need to understand that Worker-Analytical would like to get to the point so she can go on analyzing and looking for more solutions.
3. Flexibility
This is the trait that we all need to work on. After learning a little more on how people work, look how you can come through in the middle to understand and listen more. Our ego's are naturally in for the defense --- but it is in our tactical offense where we can win together.
4. Now how about Toxic people...
In any work environment the most toxic employees are the ones that are out for themselves. They do not want to train anyone in their role because they are fearful of losing their jobs. They may complain about you to their or your boss on any little thing. They talk about you and others at work. They may sabotage projects.
If you come across and catch any of this behavior - speak with the individual privately. If this is your coworker, you may want to send an e-mail to your boss about the conversation just in case this person may twist or change anything that you both had agreed on. If you are their boss, make sure that you document the conversation and place a note to their file. A paper trail of evidence is very helpful.
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There are tons of books out there on effective communication, and these were just a few of my tidbits on what I've learned and used in my Human Resources career. Keep learning and re-educating yourself on different communication methods.
Keep sparkling,
Audeni
