It doesn’t matter which profession we’re in, or what skills we possess, we all have a personality, and it comes packed with strengths, weaknesses, and everything in between. Exploring our personalities can help us both personally and professionally, so it’s something we should all probably take a little time to do.
“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.”
Abraham Maslow
So here are just five reasons why we should all get to know our personalities a little better:
Personal Branding
Personal Branding is a hot topic at the moment and it’s seen as a way through which we can better sell ourselves. But what use it a personal brand without a personality – the very thing that makes us truly unique? Our personalities can also be a part of our skillsets; are you good at helping others? At making and driving a plan? Are you creative? When we factor in our skills and our personalities, we really get to the areas where we can add value to an organisation or team, and this works really well when developing a personal brand.
Motivation
Our personalities play a large part in what motivates us. Take for example the personality scale that determines how we make our decisions: Thinking vs feeling (T vs F). Thinking types are more likely to be driven towards intellectual pursuits – activities that involve logic, data, analysis. Feeling types are more likely to be driven towards tasks and activities that involve people – not just interacting, but helping, understanding, and connecting. This is profession and skillset independent, so it applies to every job and purpose, and the T vs. F scale is just one part of our personalities that can act as an indicator to our motivation.
Improve the way we work
Some people are more naturally organised than others, some are more creative, some are more outgoing – have you ever wondered why this is, and where you fit? Once we apply our personalities to our work style we should start to see why some tasks come more naturally than others. This doesn’t mean that ‘if we’re not naturally good at organised tasks, we can’t be organised’, but if we know this isn’t our natural strength we can start to manage this and create safety points (such as lists, structures, etc.) which can really help with day to day activities.
Improve the way we learn
Similar to the point above, learning some topics will come more naturally than others. Not only this, but the way you learn will differ depending on your personality. Some people prefer experiential learning (jumping in and ‘just doing’), some people prefer to ‘read up’ and reflect. There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to learning, so it’s important that we are taking in information in the way that best suits us, and our personalities serve as an excellent starting point when we’re looking at our learning styles. Again, like the previous points, this is completely independent of subject and applies to whatever we’re learning.
Meeting new people
The extravert vs introvert (E vs I) scale is a really good predictor for how much energy we get, or lose, from meeting new people. For Extraverts, their energy will increase and they are more likely to find it easier making small talk (conversation without an obvious purpose), bouncing ideas around and working in groups of people they may have never met. For Introverts, their energy will deplete in groups, and they will be reenergised when they’re back in their own company. As such, they may find it more difficult to meet new people and work in groups. Conversely, Extraverts may find it difficult to work for long periods of time by themselves, whereas for Introverts, this will come much more naturally. Understanding this can really help. For Introverts, they may find it helpful to ask open questions when meeting others so that other people open up and the ‘spotlight’ is off them. For Extraverts, they may find that they get bored quickly for long periods of time by themselves, so meeting others will be a great way to bring their energy levels back up. Again, the E vs. I scale is just one part of our personalities, and only paints part of the picture, but it’s a good start when understanding why some people find it easier meeting new people and interacting in groups and others don’t.
If you’d like to learn more about your personality, take the Personality At Work Test – it takes just a few minutes and you’ll receive an instant, in-depth personality profile. The test is based on Carl Jung’s theory of type, which is widely recognised as a common personality language and has helped thousands of people around the world.
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
Carl Jung
We really hope you found this useful and it starts you on your own journey into discovering your personality. If you have any comments, questions or experiences, please drop then in the comments section – we’d love to hear from you.