Understanding the Types of People You Work With
The first step to unlocking a door is to locate the key hole. Quite obvious! Well then, the first step to deciphering the art of effectively dealing with people at work is to recognize ‘their type’.
After having worked with lots of people, I have come to believe that each one of us fundamentally belongs to one of the four types enlisted below:
1. Inert
2. Passive
3. Active
4. Hyperactive
This classification covers the whole array of energy levels i.e. peoples’ readiness to involve in a given activity.
The inerts are the ones who are perfectly happy in their cocoon. They are concerned about nobody or nothing as long as their basic needs of food, clothing and mind block (read, something to keep busy: routine work, TV, sleep etc.) are fulfilled.
The passives are the ones who may be willing to listen or may even empathize with after listening to what you say. Unless you give them a clear cut picture of what needs to be done, you will get pretty nothing.
The actives will show willingness to listen, participate, and fill in the missing gaps in the plan. In short they exhibit signs of entrepreneurship. You always need some of them to get a plan executed successfully.
Finally the hyperactives – they are the ones who would show willingness to listen to you but would not let you speak because they will have so much of their own inputs to give. Finally when you assign them a part of some work, you will be surprised with the end result. Why? They will interpret your directives in their own way and take all decisions on their own. The biggest danger of having to work with this kind of people is that, they try to become the show-stopper unfazed by the fact that they entered the scene very late.
Having said that, I don’t rule out existence of the transient lot – people who may exhibit personality swings from one category to another. But even as exceptions don’t diminish the utility of thumb rules in our lives, the above classification would nonetheless be useful in charting out ways to effectively deal with people and get the most out of them.
About the author: Nishant Bhaskar has an extensive experience in dealing with people, organizing events and promoting socially responsible causes. He is currently working for a leading OEM in India.
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
photo©iStockphoto.com/deanm1974
