Personal Communication
Here’s another survey result. This one tied for 5th place on the list of Biggest People-Problems at Work: “Dealing with difficult personalities and behaviors.” Comments went on to describe examples such as “unfriendly people”, “passive-aggressive people”, and “people playing power games”. One person explained, “Nobody wants to work with some people because they don’t like their behavior or personality. “
Seriously? Kind of makes you wonder what people are saying about you when you’re not there, doesn’t it? Actually, our work life does not need to put personality first, or even second. Work is about producing results: solving problems to produce results, communicating to produce results, and yes, working with others to produce results.
So when somebody brings their personality to work, maybe we could just let them be however they’re being? Maybe we could have a conversation that will help put our attention on the results we want to produce out of our interaction?
Oh, wait. I forgot there are people who want to produce a result by fixing (or dissing) the person, instead of a result for their work responsibilities. So, I have a message for those of you who want people to be some other way than the way they are: get over yourself. Let people be, and get back to work. Your company, agency or organization wants something from you. They even pay you to produce it – products, services, or communications they want you to create, assemble, or deliver to internal or external customers.
Sorry, that’s just me being crabby about people-fixers. I promise I’ll offer some suggestions for reducing people-annoyances soon. Meantime, I’m going to get my personality checked so I can be a better person by the time I write the next blog post. Thank you for listening.
PS – If you haven’t checked out the Personal Communication “diagnostic”, take a couple minutes and you’ll get to see your communication profile. It’s useful to find out which conversations you’re already brilliant with, and which ones need a little work.