In an ideal world, your workplace would run as a cohesive well-oiled machine with moving parts that fit perfectly together, generating maximum productivity and operating efficiency.
Everyone would get along well, always be on the same page and completely support each other’s needs. Your work would be so enjoyable and meaningful you wouldn’t even be sure why you were getting paid to do it! Now step back into reality. Nothing is perfect and different individuals and personalities at the office can greatly enhance or inhibit the success of your business. When personalities and worlds collide, it takes great leadership and mediation to avoid production coming to a halt. Or when times get tough, you might need some positive reinforcements or innovative new ideas from creative dreamers. The key to a healthy working environment is to identify the different personality types of your team members to then enable each individual’s strengths within the overall system and determine how they can best support each other.
Fortunately for us the team at Mindjet has put together a neat system, called Workology that looks to help people enable each other in a healthy work environment by allowing them to better understand the innate personality characteristics of their coworkers. Now similar to the zodiac, the “Workology Zodiac” divides work personalities into different types: The General, The Workhorse, The Mediator, The Medic, The Artist, The Dreamer, The Cheerleader, and The Number Cruncher. Of course it’s not an exact science but with greater awareness of the personality types that surround you comes smoother collaboration that focuses on individuals strengths promoting greater success. According to Brian Uzzi, a sociologist at Northwestern University, companies with well-acquainted workers are 2.5 times more likely to be financially successful than teams of strangers. See each personality fits into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Belbin Team Roles, where each type has different strengths and potential blind spots.
So how should these personalities all fit together for the greater good of the group? The Workplace Zodiac looks to answer this by organizing all eight personalities based on how they can support each other best.
The General
The general is the boss, makes big decisions, is a source of inspiration and leads his troops by example.
The Artist
The Artist is a source of creativity and strives for visual excellence.
The Workhorse
The Workhourse is constantly on the ball and focused on the task at hand.
The Cheerleader
The Cheerleader provides moral support and is always positive.
The Number Cruncher
In the era of big data, it takes a Number Cruncher to unlock its secrets.
The Medic
The Medic will help heal and troubleshoot your problems.
The Mediator
Sometimes you need a Mediator in order to smooth things out.
The Dreamer
The Dreamer always think big and provides innovation to the team.
How can these different personalities enable your team?
So what’s your work personality type?
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