Workplace Personality

In the workplace, it has been often seen that you get along nicely with some of your colleagues and with some, you don't even see eye to eye. If we don't get along nicely with someone in our social circles, we try to avoid that person and avoid meeting them, but, in the workplace, it becomes difficult to work along with acquaintances with whom you are not in the best of terms. So, it becomes important to resolve personality conflicts to improve teamwork in the workplace. It is crucial that we put maintain a harmonious relationship with people we work, and one of the best ways to do this is to get an insight into their personality types. Let us take a look at some personality types that we or our colleagues may broadly fall into.

Workplace Personality Types

• The Czars
  The Czars are the people in the organization who are known for their 'on your face' character. They hardly exchange any niceties and infamous for their phlegmatic attitude. While many of their sub-ordinates hate them, they are favored by the management for their dedication to work.
• The Rolling Stones
  These characters in the workplace, it seems are inspired by the likes of Kurt Cobain or Che Guevara! They are disinclined to structure and often complain about the rules of the organization, but, they are not known to be ill-tempered. Instead, they are warm, affable and ready to help their colleagues out.
• The Critics
  These are good at criticizing others. They never appreciate anyone and find faults with almost everyone except themselves. Critics can have a depressing effect on the morale in the workplace.
• The Charmers
  Cordial and amiable, the charmers think of their workplace colleagues as an extended family. They tend to avoid conflicts and place more emphasis on good relationships.
• The Performers
  Performers are the people in the workplace who have a knack of getting things done. They are blessed with the gift of the gab and use it to full effect. They are good at promoting themselves and sometimes, they may tend to take credit for something that they have got done by someone else.
• The Slackers
  The slackers are found in every workplace. These are the people who never take initiatives as they fear exposure. They like to work in a closed atmosphere and thrive when working alone.
• The Purists
  The purists are the people who look at minute details of the everything. They are averse to new ideas and if presented with one, they often focus on reasons why it should not be pursued.

How to Resolve Personality Conflicts in the Workplace

• The first step in resolving workplace conflicts is to understand the real issue and for that, you need to have a sound workplace communication. May be, what is communicated to you or the way you perceive a problem is not really a true picture of the circumstances.
• Once you have found out the root cause of the problem, take the point of view of both the people involved in the conflict and remain neutral with your approach.
• Ask the concerned parties what works for them and take a commitment of integrating positive aspirations from them.
• After you have taken a commitment from them, chalk out a strategy to achieve listed aspirations. For that, you need to know the positives and negatives of their characters. Spend time in knowing the history of the people. Understand their cultural background and way they have been brought up. This helps a great deal in understanding why an individual behaves in a particular way.
• Set a time-frame after which you will evaluate the decisions taken and whether or not there is any improvement.

The ability to manage workplace conflicts is a core area of competency for leaders at all levels. Most organizations nowadays conduct a workplace personality test to evaluate the traits of their employees. With the world becoming a global village, diversity in the workplace has become a common feature. So, it becomes more important now than ever to focus on study of different types of personalities in the workplace and the ways in which these can be made to work in a team.