4 Employee Personality Types: Understanding and Managing Different Personalities in the Workplace

Dealing with different employee personality types can be a struggle. Especially if you don’t know how to recognize their traits and weak points.

Every person has a unique character. If you add age, cultural, religious, and gender differences into the mix, things may get messy. This is especially true in the office environment, where employees have to cooperate with each other in a way that brings out positive results.

Understanding and managing different personality types in the workplace is crucial if you want to improve productivity and create effective teams.

Moreover, as a leader, even though you are expected to treat everyone the same, this may turn out to be counterproductive. Because what works with one might not work with another!

We don’t imply that you should favor some and underestimate others. However, it is important to understand that motivation, inspiration, and effective leadership are intrinsic concepts that heavily depend on individual personalities in the workplace.

The benefit of understanding and managing different personalities in the workplace

It is every team leader’s dream to cultivate a drama-free atmosphere in the office, where everyone knows their place while feeling free to express their creative selves.

To harvest all the advantages of working with different personalities, you must first accept that no one is hard-wired to communicate with others in their personality type. And this is the root cause of all professional and personal conflicts.

Once you comprehend this simple concept you will become more tolerant of other people’s behaviors and try to reach out to them in their way, not yours. The next step to becoming the leader you’ve always wanted is learning and adapting to different work personality types.

This process will help you manage your team better by understanding each person’s individual traits and adjusting their duties accordingly. In that way, you will watch their talents blossom and their weak aspects diminish day by day.

Understanding employee personality types will enhance teamwork and collaboration among your employees as well, by bringing matching personalities together and avoiding unnecessary conflicts.

So, do you know everything about how to work with different workplace personality types? If not, we are going to provide you with some personality management tips in this article. But first, we’ll identify personality trait differences in the workplace.

4 different employee personality types

1. The Ambitious and amiable

This type of employee is smart, eager to learn, and can get along well with the rest of the employee personality types because they don’t like conflict. They are well-balanced individuals that aim for success without losing their sense of humor in the process. They also work well under pressure and can inspire others to follow due to their extroverted personality.

Furthermore, their ambition to move higher on the professional ladder makes them come up with innovative ideas that can greatly benefit your company!

Managing this employee personality type is relatively easy. However, always be on the lookout for inaccuracies, as this kind of employees might lack attention to detail. Finally, their aversion to conflict can sometimes prove to be a weakness, as respectful conflicts in the workplace are part of the collaboration process as well.

2. The Ηighly-functional Ιntrovert

Introverts as though they may be, they are your company’s pillars. They have probably been in the company long enough to know all the intricacies of their work and are fairly experienced in what they do. This personality type is quiet but always pleasant to be around. They focus on their tasks and take their job seriously. In essence, they love what they do and want to get it right.

Even though they are very thorough and reliable, their role is to provide stability and useful insights – not innovation.

Finally, their introversion will likely make them less expressive of their own needs, resulting in them being unhappy. Therefore, this type needs a leader who makes the effort to ask them about their well-being and not take them for granted. Treat them as the invaluable assets they truly are!

3. The Anxious Warrior

We are sure you have met this kind of employee before; they are always rushing to get something done while insistently complaining about their workload to everyone. They seem to never have enough time and they usually struggle to meet deadlines (if they ever do). However, they may compensate for that by working longer hours than anyone else and at least making the effort to keep up.

To get the most out of this personality, you have to find the underlying cause of their anxiety. It may be because they feel unhappy with their position or their workload.

Your responsibility as a leader is to actively encourage them to improve their work/life balance.

This means organizing their workload in a way that doesn’t seem unbearable. However, keep your eyes open for procrastination issues, and help them overcome them.

4. The Intense Temperament

This is the most tricky of all employee personality types. Sure, the workplace is admittedly a stressful place for everyone more or less. Yet, personalities with lower patience thresholds are the most difficult ones to manage. They may experience sudden bursts of anger or become easily irritated by minor incidents.

This behavior may seem irrational at first. Instead of dismissing their anger try to find the source of the irritability. Genuine anger, in most cases, stems from the inability to be heard.

As a good leader, you should take action to reverse the situation and change your team member’s attitudes in a positive way. Chances are, their behavior is greatly influenced by the office environment and poor management. Try listening to them closely and we are confident they will appreciate it!

Personality management for teams

There are several theories out there about the number and kinds of different personalities. The most popular ones include Myers and Briggs personality types which list 16 personality types and the other one is John Holland’s hexagon of six personality types. Both models can work miracles on employee productivity!

The first one aims to analyze different employee personalities based on Carl Jung’s theory (renowned psychiatrist/psychoanalyst). It is applicable to teams and all kinds of working groups for better management. It is ideal if you want to create effective teams that collaborate harmoniously.

The latter classifies people into 6 major categories, the so-called RAISEC model, according to their interests. Use this method to test and gain a more in-depth knowledge of the office characters and employee personality types available. Then, working with different personalities at work will be much easier if you know how to approach them individually.

Personality diversity in the workplace can be a driver for success!

By analyzing your own personality traits you will be able to better communicate with your team members and succeed in managing different workplace personality types more efficiently. By seeking to understand their unique qualities, you will find out how different types of employees can bring about effective teamwork and paint a colorful office culture in which everyone thrives!