Conflict & Personalities

Thanks for a great week!

I found an interesting blurp on the internet about understanding and using personality styles during conflicts. The following exerpt is from http://www.leadershipconsulting.com/dont-eliminate-conflict-in-business-manage-it.htm:

"Developing the capability to understand and respond to differing personality styles is very important but easily mangled. Many executives have participated in personality typing trainings such as the DISC or Myers Briggs (MBTI). Those tools are helpful mostly because they highlight the fact that people are different and you need to adjust your communication and management styles to accommodate those differences if you want to effectively influence them. However, there is a very real danger in using those systems. People, unfortunately, frequently end up pigeon holing each other into categories, e.g., He’s a “red” and therefore he will ALWAYS think and act like _____." Once you’ve pigeon holed someone, you limit them.

As a psychologist, I’ve been working with people for over 30 years and I am constantly surprised as to how hard it really is to understand others and how frequently I’m pleasantly surprised. I’ve been most successful at working with others when I’ve followed Mark Twain’s aphorism, “The smartest man I’ve ever known is my tailor. He measures me anew each time he meets me.”

Do your best to really get to know whom you work with and manage so that you can understand their unique talents, needs and desires and then look for ways to align those three ingredients with yours and those of the organization. If you can understand the other person’s agenda, you’ll be better able to find a way to navigate the inevitable conflicts that arise by finding mutually beneficial and acceptable solutions."

How can you use this information to help you relate with those different personality styles that you encounter daily?