How Do You Relate to Different Personality Types?
If you followed my suggestion to learn more about your personality type, I hope you found it to be a fun exercise and that you gained valuable insight. People who take time to learn about the way their own mind and emotions work often have an easier time setting and achieving goals. Self-knowledge helps us have better self-control when facing life’s challenges and successes.
This self-knowledge is also important in building relationships. When you took your personality test, did you browse through some of the other types to see how they compare? I’m sure you found some traits in other categories that are similar to your own type, but there may have also been some traits that seemed completely foreign to you. If you have ever been in a difficult relationship where it just seemed like you and the other person live on two different planets, that person may have had a lot of those traits that just don’t make any sense to you.
Even when we connect with people who are very similar to us, it’s not a foregone conclusion that we’ll be close friends. We still have values, opinions, culture, and beliefs that factor into every relationship. Differences in people make our world an interesting place. It is a much more pleasant place when we use our own self-awareness to relate to others for respectful and positive interactions.
Respect for Personality Differences Promotes Dynamic Interactions
Whether in your college classrooms, your dorm, your clubs or sports, or your workplace, you can rest assured that you will have to work with people who have different personality types than your own. A variety of personalities is generally a positive group characteristic. When too many people think the same way, they fall into groupthink. Groupthink happens when everyone in a group agrees on everything, which sounds good on the surface. The problem with groupthink is that it leads to tunnel vision. No one in the group is looking for unintended consequences, ideas that may have been missed, or flaws in the plan.
In a group setting with many different perspectives, there is less risk of tunnel vision. Ideas will be explored from many different angles so that the final solutions have been thoroughly examined. In order for a group like this to work, though, there must be mutual respect for differing personalities and thought processes among the group’s members. Conflict arises when individuals expect everyone to think or approach issues the exact same way they do.
Every Team Needs Diversity of Thought
Understanding personality types different from your own can help you be an effective leader and diplomat. When you consider your own personality traits without placing any value judgments on them, it makes it easier to objectively assess others as well. Personality traits are not good or bad, or positive or negative, on their own. They are just styles of brain wiring.
For example, let’s say you are an introvert. After spending time with a group of classmates for a project, you feel drained and as though you can no longer think at all. You need alone time to recharge your battery and reclaim your creativity. While in your alone time, you remember many of the ideas being passed around by the more talkative members of your group. They seemed to leave the meeting high on life and full of energy. Those extroverts were charging their own batteries in the group setting. Now that you’ve had some quiet time to consider the discussion, you have several thoughts about some of the ideas and are excited to share them with the group so that the project can move forward.
Had everyone in the group been one personality type, the project may have stalled. But because of the dynamics of different people (and healthy mutual respect), it will keep moving forward towards a successful conclusion. An objective view of different personality types will help you not only reserve judgment of people who think differently, but actually appreciate and respect their perspectives.
Study Yourself to Relate Well to Others
If you haven’t shared your personality test results with any friends, I would encourage you to do that next. Ask them to take the 16 Personalities test as well, and then compare notes. Look for some differences in personalities that you really like about each other. You may also find a few “aha” moments that explain something about them that you never could put your finger on. The more you get to know the personality types in your own inner circle, the easier it will be to start identifying traits in others. Not that you should psychoanalyze everyone you meet, but it is helpful for reducing conflict and promoting collaboration.
If your journey through self-awareness is a bit intimidating because you’re not sure exactly what you’re supposed to do with the information you discover, contact me. I have covered the 16 personalities extensively with many clients and can help you strategize a self-discovery path that leads to success in your own life and in relationships.