From People Pleasers To Narcissists

Our work life is an ever-changing landscape – we’re either changing workplaces or the team in our workplace is constantly changing. This means we are constantly required to work alongside people who are vastly different to ourselves.
 
The workplace is full of introverts, extroverts, gossipers, micro-managers, complainers, high-performers, pessimists and ‘almost geniuses’. For many, this is a nightmare; for some, this can be - and is - highly entertaining. What’s required is awareness, some level of emotional intelligence, and the capacity to self-assess our own work-style.
 
Us humans differ on many different levels, namely:

   • Personality traits
   • Strengths
   • Belief concepts
   • Expectations
   • Life experiences
   • Priorities
   • Core Values
 
When differences are vast it can result in workplace irritations, frustrations, and conflict. Understanding we are all hard-wired differently helps us realise that our colleagues may not be irritating us with intent – they may just be doing things the only way they know. This tends to help us de-escalate our emotions once we start to realise that our irritations may be our own doing through our own subjective viewpoint.
 
So how do we all get along? Be smart enough to remain curious…….
 
Key questions to ask yourself:

   1. What can they do that I can’t?
   2. How can my role benefit from these differences?
 
Choose not to focus on the negatives. As the philosophers say, “what you look for you will always find”. People will always irritate us as we can never all be the same. Choose to remain interested, curious, and entertained even! If you are wanting to work with people just like yourself, you will find that team has many weaknesses and gaps. Namely, there will be no-one to do the tasks you don’t like, and no-one to offer different perspectives on critical thinking.
 
Need more? Register for our upcoming ‘Difficult Personalities in the Workplace’ workshop to learn more about yourself & those around you.

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