Personality type – what personality?

 By Angela Bensemann

Most of us think we’re pretty nice people really and get on well with everyone. But then again we can all recall times in the past where we’ve had really bad run-ins with people.

In one of my early workplaces I worked with a woman called Pam (not actually her real name).  At the time I was a young fresh-faced 20 something forging my way in my first communications role working in health.

Pam would have been in her 50s.  I can’t remember the details of what we fell out over.  It could have been when I crashed her car at the very start of a work road trip, or maybe it was that we butted heads over every single idea either of us put forward.

Whatever the reason I vividly remember my manager’s solution to repair the relationship.  He sent us away on a course together and we were sharing a room as well!

I really didn’t think it was going to go at well at all. Call it gut instinct but when I offered Pam a stick of chewing gum and she said ‘oh that sounds like fun’ (fun - how can chewing gum be fun?) I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

However despite the shaky start it transpired a few nights away together made us both realise we each had something to offer even if we did go about it in different ways.  We had different personalities, were from different generations and quite frankly had very little in common.

The thing with work is you can’t slam the door, swear and walk out.   You need to work through the issues, find a solution, but more importantly find a way to continue working together. 

Finding out your personality type and those of your team can be really useful for working out what is important to people, how they view the world and how you can structure your team to play to people’s strengths.

Or you can do what I did and go out on my own.  However, I am no longer a sole operator!  Jane and I have set up WorksWonders together and we too have also sussed out our personality types.

Kind of spooky because we both came out the same we are both ESFJ which means we promote cooperation and teamwork. We encourage and motivate others, engender team spirit, and try to overcome any conflict by finding common ground and ways in which people can agree.

How inspiring!  Despite these similarities we still play to our strengths and weaknesses. Jane is more introverted and tends to avoid face to face or phone when she can hide behind an email but has way more tolerance for rambling meetings and persevering on technical problems.

Together we make a great team and are on the same wave length – a bit like marriage really but we don’t have to live together!

If you want to work out your personality type there are plenty of free online tests you can do – we tried this one.