Is Expressive & Emotional a Productivity Style? (Yes!)

Supportive.

Expressive.

Emotional.

Seriously. Are those three characteristics really a Productivity Style that moves business, strategies, and revenues forward?

Heck YES.

Popular culture has taught us that those personality traits can’t or won’t thrive in business. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The magic is making sure you have this Productivity Style in the right role.

Meet The Arranger.

An Arranger is just that – supportive and expressive, he or she thrives on emotional thinking.  He or she encourages teamwork to maximize work output and makes decisions intuitively, in real time, as events unfold, blocking out time to complete work.

An Arranger excels at partnering with people to get work done and is an effective communicator with project teams. He or she likes to maintain visual lists, often using color, and intuitively knows what tasks must be completed.

Arranger strengths include:

• Anticipating how others will feel and understanding their underlying emotions
• Intuition
• Persuasion
• Teaching

Arranger pet peeves might be:

• Lack of eye contact and other personal interaction
• Impersonal approach or examples, relying solely on data and facts
• Tone of urgency or demand

They love:

• Interactive conversation and approach
• Opportunity to process feelings and emotions
• Acknowledgement and appreciation
• Opportunity to discuss questions and concerns

Famous Arrangers: Composer Chopin, non-violence advocate Mohandas K. Gandhi, humanitarian Mother Teresa, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, musician and activist Bono

Classic Quote: “Maybe stories are just data with a soul.” Brene Brown, Author

How does an Arranger communicate? The typical Arranger tends to be talkative, often using stories about people to illustrate points and speaking with warmth about personal issues. An Arranger expresses concern about people and will frequently ask questions about the way a particular project or task will benefit others.

An Arranger prefers to have information presented through an open, informal discussion. Arrangers prefer eye-to-eye contact; they generally listen actively and appear devoid of hidden agendas, using expressive body language and tone of voice to engage and connect with others. Arrangers typically ask “Who” questions: “Who are the primary stakeholders in this project?” “Who will benefit most from this process?” “Who else is involved?”

An Arranger will react with emotion when receiving feedback and needs to feel enthusiasm.

How does an Arranger use space? An Arranger’s office environment and personal work space is typically welcoming and inviting. It often includes photos, personal objects, or mementos, and has music playing. When you walk into an Arranger’s office you can get a sense of who they are from the personal memorabilia, pictures, and tchotchkes that surround you.

How does an Arranger make decisions? An Arranger tends to approach decision making by intuitively sensing how others will feel. An Arranger recognizes interpersonal difficulties and picks up on non-verbal cues of stress. He or she is skilled at using an understanding of the emotional elements of a situation in persuading and teaching others.

What productivity tools excite an Arranger? Productivity tools that appeal to Arrangers include voice-translation dictation apps like Dragon Naturally Speaking and Dragon Dictation or the web-based application Copytalk, collaboration tools like Go To Meeting, WebEx, SharePlus Office Mobile Client (an app that enables them to collaborate with their team from anywhere and sync their Sharepoint files automatically), and Join.me (an app with a mobile viewer that lets them quickly and easily attend meetings).  They also love visually and kinesthetically pleasing office supplies—things like notebooks with unlined pages and pens in a variety of ink colors.

Does Arranger sound like your partner, your boss, your colleague…you?

Find out here. 

Carson Tate is the author of Work Simply, published by Penguin/Portfolio in 2015. "Work Simply is not only rich with solid, practical, grounded advice about reclaiming your time, it’s infused with heart, warmth, and humanity to boot," says New York Times best-selling author Sonia Choquette.  

Follow Carson on Twitter: @thecarsontate.