Workplace Personality Conflicts

Human beings are social animals and when they live together conflicts are very much natural. In same way workplace personality conflicts are bound to happen because each individual in his personal capacity gets influenced by motivations whose control is sometime beyond his control. We all are different and when different people come together to achieve common goals we spell a term “team work” for it. But just like the world is not saner the way we would like it to be, in similar manner the workplace personality conflicts are natural part of our working and something we at times cannot avoid. But understanding its nature and digging deep into its roots gives us an opportunity to minimize them and make them more productive then destructive.

Carl Jung and Briggs Meyer have come out with an important personality Test where you take a set of questions and in the end it asses the results for you. The results tell each individual about their personality and how they fit into the whole spectrum. Additional use of this test is to help people asses their personality types to get the jobs that are most suitable for them. The results are in form of indicator that asses attitude, functions, and lifestyle. They help you asses whether you are introvert or extrovert, you take decisions by sensing or through intuition, you are thinking or feeling types and are your decisions judgment or perception based. This test is an important step to determine personality types and how each combination like ENTJ, ENFJ etc. fits into the whole spectrum.

Taking the above test highlights an important aspect that we and the people we work with are not same. Yes, we often feel frustrated and get involved in a conflict only because we don’t get the things the way we want it to be. If the behavior we expect or the outcome we desire is not to our expectations, it generally turns us off and makes us angry. Natural result always shows in the form of conflict.

However if you go by Briggs Meyer test you would be surprised to know that each person working with you is totally different and demonstrate the behavior that suits their personality. It is important to under stand that

1) Different-We all are different and are not of same personality types. We come from different background and have been brought in different environment.

2) Unique- We all are unique and there is no two of us. Infact thinking everyone to be same is a utter mistake.

3) Motivated- Each individual has different aspirations and they get motivated by different stimulus.

4) Workflow- Each individual has its own style of working not only to deliver numbers but also the quality

5) Information-Each individual has its own way to process information and make conclusions.

The idea here is to emphasize individuals are personality types of their own and there is no use indulging in conflicts that gives nothing but bitterness. One can safely achieve this by keeping the following Points in Mind.

1) You cannot change other people- The outcome of Briggs Meyer test is simple- each individual is different. You can control their certain behavior by influence but you cannot change them. They would continue to work by virtue of their own personality types and there is hardly anything you can do till the time the person himself is committed to change.

2) The best you can do is to understand them- Understanding people and their nature gives you enough clues on how to work with them. We have choices in front of us and if we realize consciously about difference in personalities; it gives us enough thoughts to mould our behavior to suit the situation.

3) Change yourself keeping in mind the person in front -It always work best to bring changes in ourselves rather then keeping expectations from others. You need to be friendly and help people relate to yourself rather then expecting the same from them.

4) There are better ways to get work done- Conflict should never be your choice. There are always better ways to get work done and conflict is the worst option to choose from. When you know that each person posses different personality then avoiding workplace personality conflict becomes much easier.

5) Nothing is above your peace of mind- Conflicts of any form including workplace personality conflicts disturbs the peace of mind. There is nothing above in this world above your peace of mind and you should at no point upset yourself when you very well know that each individual is different. There is ways to motivate people then go in conflict with them.

I have always believed that it is important to cure the problem then waste your resources in rectifying the symptoms. Indulging in conflict is like poking in symptoms only rather then understanding different personality types of the individual.

Briggs Meyer personality test gives different insight into people and how they behave. But main motivation of this test is to help people understand that each of us is of different personality types and our behavior is resultant effect of it. Understanding this concept is an important step to avoid workplace personality conflicts. So next time before indulging in workplace personality conflicts think hard and think smart.

Picture- Sean Gill