Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.

Working in an enterprise world has its rewards and, obviously, its challenges. I work with a lot of people on a very big project. All of which are very smart people. These are people who know their craft and their business really well. I’m honored to be considered the same ballpark as them. It’s been a great learning experience.

That being said, we’re working on a very large project with a lot of people. And with some very large personalities. Identifying types of personalities throughout the office is a pretty important part of working in the enterprise. And even more important is learning how to adapt to those different personalities.

I’m a huge fan of human psychology and just human nature in general. I’ve read quite a few books on the subject, but I’m by no means an expert. These are a few of the personalities that I’ve been able to identify in my adventures.

Dominating Personalities

This personality comes across as very controling and demanding. Their opinions feel very absolute. “This is how you do it, because I know best.” Sometimes this is often referred to as “passion.” But I’ve noticed that quote often passion can easily come across as fanaticism or worse, just a plain assholism.

Dominating personalities persuasion typically relies on dominative behavior. They speak in deep tones. Their posture goes upright. I can often times feel the tension in the room when a dominating personality is trying to get a point across. Or if things get “heated.”

Depending on the audience sometimes the dominating personalities will rely more on fear tactics than dominating a conversation. They can speak in a manner that portrays “I’m in charge. Period.”

Personally, I’m not a fan of this personality type, but it does have it’s pros. Dominating personalities are typically good at getting people to do things – in the short-term. They can make tough choices and just get people to shut up and move on. The con for dominating personalities, is that they probably have a tendency to pick up a lot of enemies along the way; which, in my opinion, can put you in a tough position at some point down the road. Especially if you’ve got people “aiming” for you based on how you treated them in the past.

Charismatic Personalities

Charismatic personalities are very good at finding consensus amongst a group. They tend to listen to all the options and make logical decisions based on their findings. They’re also pretty good at convincing a group of something. The con with charismatic personalities is that sometimes they can ‘sit on the fence’ for too long and can often times be pushed around by dominating personalities.

Personally, I like this personality type. They’re much more likeable in terms of what they’re trying to accomplish. I think its downside, however, can sometimes be sitting on the fence for too long. I think in the governmental politics this is often seen as “flip-flopping.”

Submissive Personalities

Submissive personalities often think a lot about things. They’re much more apt to share their opinion and then just let others make the choices. Submissive personalities are often times viewed as “push overs”, but I find them much easier to work with. I prefer collaboration and actually coming to conclusions on problems via civil discussion rather than manipulative or demanding conversations.

Anyhow, I’m sure there’s many more personalities and I’ll keep an eye out for them. In the meantime, I’m going to go work on Huddle some more.