It is true, while each of them might carry similar character traits you adapt who you are based on the circumstances or situations that you are in creating basically different personalities. Do not worry I am not suggesting we all have some sort of multiple personality disorder, but if you think about it the personality or persona you have at work is different than that when you are out with friends which is most likely different that the one you have for Sunday dinner with your family. Again, they all have similar character traits but maybe one of those traits is stronger in one situation compared to another trait in a different situation. For example, you may be more of an adaptive actress at work to get the job done while when you are with your friends your sarcastic humor comes more into play. So, I hear you thinking right now, ok makes sense but what is the point?
Well, I want you for a moment to consider the next level of this concept. It makes sense that you adapt who you are based on what you are doing because let us face it you cannot be a sarcastic smart mouth to your boss like you can to your best friend nor do you want to be working your sales personality to your grandma, right? However even with that adaptability of particular personality traits, I would venture to say that other personality traits are similar in each situation. For example, if you are super organized or if you are a visual learner, in every situation that you come across those types of character traits are probably the same. These character traits are usually about how you learn, how you see the world, and how you run the logistics of your life. I am also going to assume that by now you have noticed that they are probably not the same as they are for others you have met. What makes that remarkably interesting and sometimes difficult is because in those different situations we talked about earlier where you adapt the more social character traits you might just need to adapt these shall we call them learning traits as well. Why? Because let us face it we are all different socially even if just by a bit, but as I mentioned just a second ago, we are all different in how we learn and view/organize our world. You are going to come across people especially in work or organizational settings that you must collaborate with that have learning traits that are way different than you and that can be super difficult sometimes. I am sure that you can think of a situation that someone just drove you nuts, but you did not have a choice to work on that project with them. Maybe you are highly organized, and logic based, and they are more creative flow based. On surface level the potential for that to be an annoying work situation is strong, but I ask you to step back a bit and think of it on a broader prospective because I would venture to guess you were partnered for a reason. Together you make the perfect pair. They can see the big picture and maybe envision how what you are working on could work for people a year or 5 years down the road. You then can take that vision and plan it out logistically so that it can happen on time and on budget as well as preparing the presentation on it in a super organized and clear fashion to get your project approved.
So how do you do that when you want to pull your hair our right? I would say before you dive in deep to that project, recognize each other’s strengths and differences and have a positive conversation on how the project work is going to flow so that you bring out the best in each other and there for your project. If you are upfront, kind in recognizing what each other is good at and how working to those strengths will be best for all I think you will be surprised how well everything flows. Ask questions of each other, engage, respect each other’s abilities, and THRIVE! Much Love!
