Challenge #4: Manage Different Personalities
Practice communication with AI.
Hi leaders,
Welcome back to the leadership challenge. You explore your mindset, confidence, and career direction. Hop in if you haven’t done so yet.
For nine weeks, you receive a small task to work on.
You get a new task every Sunday until the 31st of March. (☛head to the previous tasks)
Today’s task is about managing different personalities. Because you often have no choice but to work with people you did not hire. Your team can become a steaming pot when different personalities don’t get along with each other.
People get angry all the time about things they can’t change. Like how some of their colleagues are. I bet you may have caught yourself saying something like:
“He’s chaotic and making trouble on my projects. I can’t work with him.”
“If she worked faster, it would be…”
I really don’t like working with …”
“If only he listened, … “
You cannot choose your team or boss. You need to work with what you have. So, how do you do it without frustration and stress?
Practice feedback and communication:
Managing different personalities is about communication. Right. Nothing new under the Sun. Yet, I want you to be ready for various arguments and the potential flow of the conversation.
That’s why practicing with AI will help you to think about the numerous answers people can give you. Prevent surprises and emotional hijacks.
Having different personalities in your team is great. Make it a source of innovation, support, and fruitful discussions. Don’t let egos make your team meetings or project battlefields.
Your task is:
Think about a coworker you have a difficulty to work with.
Describe why it is difficult to work with them and what personality traits they have.
Go to https://chat.openai.com/ and train to give feedback or have a conversation with this coworker. Be creative, and read well the answers.
E.g.
Write down two to three learnings and apply them in real life. Talk to your coworker. Give them feedback.
Managing different personalities is about communication. You should not talk to one and not to the other. Get rid of preferences and feedback to everyone equally.
Communication will get better between you and others or the whole team. Don’t try to change others. Learn to speak to them and ultimately work with them.
Join the Discord community for questions and get additional resources. On Wednesday, I will drop a few more tips on managing different personalities in the challenge thread.
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