Your Business Toolkit, Part 1: Personality Awareness

Any good business leader has developed their strategy for individual and corporate success by accumulating good practices--tools that help them engage productively with situations and individuals.

I’d like to address one of those elements of the “Business Toolkit” today that is key for interpersonal relations; Personality Awareness.

Recently, a long time client and I had a tough time connecting. I referred to the Personality Awareness tool represented in this graph for assistance with my mindset - a picture is worth a thousand words!

My client's personality type is represented in the upper left corner; decision making is not about speed and the focus is people and values. My personality type is represented in the lower right corner; decision making is based on what is in the best interest of future success and it follows a process and makes logical sense.

This awareness helped me format the intentional "move" I needed to make to meet my client. Why? Because, there is truth in the saying, “People don't care how much you know unless they know how much you care.” In order to have a conversation with my client, I needed to acknowledge her values, her decision making guidelines.

Understanding Personality Awareness is the first step. How do you proceed from there? What do you do with this knowledge? How can it help?

An understanding of Personality Awareness can help you form a lexicon. The words you choose will have more impact if they are shaped to the hearer; think about phrasing when talking to someone who responds to logic and process-related terms and choose language that will speak to them directly.

This tool can also help you listen. If you know that an individual leans a particular direction, personality-wise, try and apply this knowledge when you are having difficulty understanding their point of view. If someone doesn’t prioritize speed, for instance, it’s not uncommon for those who do to perceive a lack of it as a disrespect for the time of others. Try and filter your tendencies so that things aren’t taken personally, and use the opportunity for clear communication. (“It’s really important to me that this be done quickly. How can we make that happen? What do you need from me?”) 

Adding Personality Awareness to your business toolkit can help you connect with others, both in business and in the rest of the world. You may be wondering how you develop Personality Awareness, and the answer for that is simple; aim for connection, acknowledgement of the uniqueness of every individual, and respect for differences.

The benefit of connection, acknowledgement, and respect is increased Personality Awareness, and the potential outcome of that is improved long term relationships and commitment. Who doesn't need or want that?