The most important skills in business today are “people skills and emotional intelligence.” These are sometimes, and erroneously in my opinion, called soft skills.
First, let’s look at exactly what is emotional intelligence?
According to Daniel Goleman in his book “Emotional Intelligence”, it’s the ability to recognize and regulate the emotions in ourselves and others. That’s not always easy to do. But there is another tool that you can use to increase your emotional intelligence. It’s personality.
We all know people with different personalities. I’m suggesting that the more we understand them, the more we can figure out why people behave the way they do. Understanding personality styles adds another dimension to working with other people, whether it is a friend or a customer.
Why is it important to understand personality styles?
Because people want to be understood. They want you to consider their views and perspectives on different issues and situations. Knowing the different perspectives of each personality style will help you understand and even predict how others will behave and react to different situations. It will help you understand why some are fearful of change and others will embrace it. It will help you understand why some people take considerable time to make a decision and others make them quickly. There are many dynamics of personality that will help you to adjust your approach and therefore improve your emotional intelligence by regulating your responses to others. In particular, personality styles will help you understand, and even predict people’s communication styles, how they make decisions, their values and what motivates them to action.
If you’re in leadership, knowing the Personality Styles of your team and your colleagues will pay huge dividends. Just as we are learning the styles of clients and prospects so that we can build strong relationships, that same skill is required internally. It’s hard to work as a team if you don’t understand the players. Whether in your own department, or across the silos of your organization, these soft skills can make a positive impact on your bottom line.
The concept of ‘personality’ has been around for thousands of years starting with folks back in ancient Greece like Hippocrates. He started labeling the four styles by naming them the four bodily fluids. I won’t get into that detail! But over the years many different assessments came out that show four styles, five and even up to sixteen with Myers-Briggs. Personality assessments are good for predicting how people behave and respond. It’s critical in understanding team dynamics and how to be the most effective leader to your diverse team.
What is personality?
“Personality is the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. It is believed that personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life.” It’s your default system. It’s your view of life and how you respond to day-to-day situations and your interaction with others. It’s a predictable and consistent indication of others you work with. My wife and I are the same style and both extroverted, so it’s easy for us to see eye to eye since our point of view is very similar. We like to entertain, play sports and we’re both very competitive.
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Stu Schlackman is the Relationship Selling Expert. After more than 20 years in corporate sales, Stu formed his sales training firm to focus on helping his clients achieve superior sales results. Leveraging his competitive nature, he focuses on training and coaching sales and service teams to reach peak performance.
Before starting his own company, Schlackman was instrumental in increasing revenue and growing the client base of large corporations such as Capgemini, EDS, and the former Digital Equipment Corporation. His focus on relationship building led his sales teams to exceed sales projections by more than 30% percent annually.
Today, Schlackman uses his “Four People You Should Know” Personality Styles Assessment to help companies build high performance teams and increase sales by connecting with the four different personality styles.
www.StuSchlackman.com
Stu@StuSchlackman.com
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