In the last article, we talked about what Startup Founder’s Syndrome is, its symptoms, how it adversely affects a company and which personality types are most at risk of developing it.
Now let’s take a look at the steps that can be taken to deal with a sufferer of startup founder’s syndrome.
The path of a startup founder is a difficult one. Part commander, pioneer, and obsessive artist, a founder needs to wear many hats to make his/her vision come true.
A founder needs to have a combination of stubbornness, charisma, resourcefulness, and single-minded focus to overcome the many difficulties that come with starting a new enterprise.
So you're bored at work and planning your next move. You've taken a personality test, read up on the type of careers that are perfectly aligned to work style, and made a list of all the different options. You may have spent a fair chunk of time researching those options, matching them up to your strengths, interests, passions and hobbies, and a few have really captured your interest. In fact, you're currently having a love affair with so many different career paths that you just can't pin down a single option to go after.
Professional communication is vital in the business world. Sensing-Judging types -- the SJs of the 16-type personality system -- are adept at communicating important information clearly and concisely, and use it as a tool to move tasks along or educate others. Analyzing the overall goals of projects, we are quick to spot and fill in any gaps in information and use it to make sound, quick decisions.
Do you work for a boss who refuses to delegate certain tasks or who “does not have the time to teach?” If so, then you’re not alone. Many managers have received no training in delegation and the lack of this critical skill can make them really tough to work with. If your boss doesn’t delegate, then you might feel like she doesn’t fully trust you. Worse, you could end up feeling like you’re being held back and bossed around from task to task instead of being allowed to grow in your career. What to do?
In an ideal world, every employee would finish every item on his to-do list without any problems or stress. Back in the real world, the sheer number of things to do is dizzying and there’s only a finite amount of time to get them done. This means that time management—the art of using your time productively, based on the day’s priorities—is one of the most important skills your employees can have.
When people talk about pre-hire personality tests, they usually mean questionnaires like the Myers Briggs Inventory, the Big Five or the DISC profile. A test, like a numeracy or literacy test, has a right or wrong answer so you can pass or fail it. A personality questionnaire, on the other hand, helps the employer figure out if your strengths and weaknesses match up with the job requirements. You can’t actually flunk or ace a personality test—it simply shows if you’re a good fit for the job.
Shyness is not the same as introversion, although the two personality traits sometimes overlap. An Introvert needs time alone to recharge after busy work periods and gets mentally drained after spending a lot of time with others. A shy person is much more anxious about the social interaction itself.
Many of the ideals of achieving success in the business world are based on extraverted tendencies. The outgoing, sometimes brash individual that knows everyone and is constantly on-the-go is admired almost to the point of worship. Pursuing this extraverted ideal, however, can be exhausting for Introverts.
In part one of this series, we analyzed a bit of the history behind how Dr. Meredith Belbin created his team roles, a summary of the three action oriented roles, as well as the Myers-Briggs personality types that complement those roles.
In this article, we will analyze the remaining six roles, as well as personality types that resonate well with them.
Have you ever worked with a team in which everyone just seems to be on the ball, tasks got done on time, and the entire project was just a pleasure to see to its end? Or have you ever worked with a team in which every member is quite talented, morale is high, and all the elements needed to succeed are there, and yet nothing seemed to get done?
As a manager, it’s easy to put your direct reports into boxes. There’s the creative one, the empathetic one, the one who likes autonomy and the one who like clear boundaries and set routines. There’s also another special breed of worker in the world, and that’s the person who has borderline manic levels of productivity yet spends a lot of the time kicking back and doing...well nothing. Someone who is lazy and a hard worker, all at the same time.
How do you manage someone when you’re never quite sure where they’re at? Here are some tips.
The idea of working from home may have seemed unusual a couple of decades ago. But given the rise of internet technologies such as shared work environments, VoIP, the advent of smartphones and high speed internet, that’s no longer the case. According to the United States Census Bureau, around 20-30 million people work from home at least one day a week in the USA alone. And those numbers are growing every year.
Every well-constructed team should have a mix of personalities. Some people like to take the lead and work well with very little supervision. Others need a little extra help but are generally happy to follow the guidelines and detailed planning the manager has set for them. And then there are those who are not inclined to follow the rules at all. If you're in the latter group, you might be a powerhouse of generating ideas, and you might be among the most productive people in your department, but you just have to have flexibility in the way you do things.
More and research is revealing that bullying doesn’t just occur on school grounds anymore. According to The Workplace Bullying Institute, up to one-third of employees may be victims of workplace abuse. Further research from Stanford University suggests that productivity could decline up to 40% when workers become targeted and subsequently victimized by bullies on the job.
This comparison is fairly complex, so to give you some options, I’ll present it in 3 sections:
Feel free to skip to the part that you’re most interested in!
Next time your friendly office robot puts its hand on yours and offers you a piece of professional advice that absolutely nails your emotional state, don’t be shocked. The machine may know your personality better than you know yourself—and all from looking into your eyes.
Whether you work in sales, real estate, or in any service industry, you may have noticed that you seem to click with some clients more than others. Though it is by no means a natural law, we find it easy to relate to people with a personality similar to ours. As an INTP and a former real estate agent, I found myself naturally drawn to clients who chose which home to buy based on statistics such as location, square footage, layout, how it compares to similar properties, and the return on investment you could expect. You know, analytical stuff.
Most people consider having high standards a good thing. Constantly striving for excellence is a sign that you're committed to your job and support others by setting the bar high for their performance as well. You can easily spot a perfectionist, because he's the one who takes extreme care in finishing work, always wants to do more, and is insistent on driving up quality standards.
Money can buy you happiness—but only to a certain amount. Experts reckon the correlation peaks at around $75,000 per year, and employees whose salaries rise above this cutoff are not reporting any major boost to their happiness levels. They're not even feeling less sad. And that might throw a major monkey wrench into how we think about motivating people at work.