(Part 2 of 3) Why personality types understanding is not only important but crucial for team leaders and managers.

Here is part 2 of the discussion over the importance of personality types or we can call them Temperaments.

IN THE PREVIOUS PART OF THIS ARTICLE

In the previous part I had specifically focused on why understanding personality types of the team members is not only important but crucial for team leaders and managers and pointed out that introducing the understanding of personality types in the organization is not at all worth if the implementation of the same is not done with the same intent and specially by the leaders and managers themselves.

In this part let's focus on what the history of these personality types are and how we can make their understanding simpler and easier to implement.

WHEN I WAS INTRODUCED TO TEMPERAMENT

To start with I must say I was introduced to the theory of personality types in the year 1998 when I was just out of Indian Army and was associated with an alternate franchising company. That was the first time I had heard about these personality types and discovered some very fascinating things about myself and others around me. Infact the exposure to the personality types, which I would rather address as Temperaments, has given me answers to many unanswered questions which were bothering me since I had started observing people around me and my own response and reactions to the situations.

Questions like why I am not able to speak freely while others do that very easily? How can someone share their mind without even thinking of anyone while I used to think about a lot what others will feel or say about my thoughts? Why are some people so easygoing, calm, and collected while others are finicky and always on the edge? Why do some procrastinate a lot, and some make decisions so fast? Why Some are so touchy feely that they are offended or hurt by ridiculously trivial things, even some unintended jokes while others are so thick skinned that they do not bother even bigger insults? Why are some people workaholics and others need more time to relax? Why are some naturally good at details and perfection while others struggle with it very much? Why do some people very easily make friends and being comfortable with even strangers while others struggle to even speak up in the group? and a lot more observations, questions, queries like these.

And when I was introduced to Temperaments, I started having clarity about why people react and respond differently in the same situation. This exposure opened a doorway for me which has changed the whole course of my life and my perspective on seeing the world. Even if I say I am the product of Temperament Understanding, it will not be an exaggeration.

Then I started going deep inside it and found out that this curiosity to understand human behaviour had been there for a long time or I can say since around two and half centuries. There are more than fifty systems in existence for understanding human nature or personality. Out of these some are incredibly famous and effective like MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), DISC Profiling, Enneagram, Personality types, Keirsey Temperament, and others...

All these systems have their unique way to come out with some groups, different people belong to, their unique characteristics, unique strengths and weaknesses and the dynamics of their interaction. And as with all theories when there are so many out there and every one of them tries to highlight, they are the best, there must be confusion and difficulty in understanding which one to follow. And the same thing happened to me and that led me to take the most obvious path of going to the root and see it from there.

GOING TO THE ROOTS

And when I went to the roots, I found out that these all are coming from the ancient Four Temperament Theory which was popularized by Greek philosopher Galen and is based on the?four humours ?model of?Hippocrates . I am not going in details about the above-mentioned systems or theories, as a lot of information is already available on the internet or in the books which the curious reader can go through. But I will share with you all what I did when I found out that despite these all theories being available and being used in various capacities in the organizations and with individuals the implementation and exposure is still very very limited and even today that is after two decades of my exposure I regularly meet individuals, companies, educational and professional institutes who have not even heard anything like this. And this is not a surprise anymore for me as I have gone through some of the theories in detail and found out that they are more technically complex than easily understood and that's why their implementation and effectiveness are extremely limited. And I also know that human nature is not simple either. We are not one-dimensional people we are all multi-dimensional, with multifaceted personalities and with complex emotions. And I know there is no easy or uncomplicated way to understand the behaviour or human nature. But at the same time, I also understood that the more complex we make this the less effective and less implementable it becomes. So, I decided to go to the roots of the Temperament Theory and worked on simplifying it to the level that at least the initial observation is made so simple that even an 8-year kid can understand that.

This led me to the works of Florence and Marita Littauer who made this simple enough to reach more and more individuals, families and organizations and did a lot of work in their community. I worked on their observations and did a little bit of observational changes and tried to make it more Simler and more applicable at least for the beginners so that the initial curiosity to understand oneself is dealt with and the potential of deeper work can be explored.

FOUNDATION OF MY MEANING-CENTERED COACHING

In 2008 when I took a deep plunge to follow my inner calling of becoming a coach, I made this Temperament Understanding my foundation on which I based my meaning-centered coaching. I worked with individuals, professionals, corporates, educational institutes, entrepreneurs, groups and even teenagers and found out that the simple method of understanding temperaments really worked and whoever was introduced to these four temperaments were astonished by how this simple observation proved to be a game changer and perspective shifter for them - in their professional, personal, and private life. And this also gave me confidence and conviction that knowing and understanding our temperaments is the first step to know and understand the worlds around us - which includes our bosses, subordinates, colleagues, kids, spouses, friends and most importantly our own selves.

In the next and last part of this article I will be giving you a simple brief idea about those for temperaments and why knowing and understanding them proves to be one of the most important understandings in our personal and professional life.

Thanks for staying with me till now.

Glad to be with you.

Mahesh