10 Commandments For a Personality Inclusive Workplace

I wondered if anyone would show up for my presentation on Personality Diversity and Discrimination in the Workplace at the 2013 Society for Human Resource Professionals national diversity and inclusion conference. To my surprise, the room was packed with D&I officers from all sorts of big companies. Afterwards, the feedback I got was overwhelming; “I had no idea how powerful and critical personality diversity is. I have never thought of personality as a dimension of inclusion, maybe even more powerful than gender or ethnicity.”

Personality diversity is a fact. Personality Inclusion is a choice.

Are you choosing to include all personality types in your workplace, or are you just giving it lip-service by administering a personality assessment? Here are ten commandments for taking the next step to include all personality types.

1. You shall respect someone’s time and appreciate their productive work.
2. You shall respect someone’s convictions and appreciate their principled work.
3. You shall value people for who they are as human beings, no strings attached.
4. You shall let people have fun at work.
5. You shall give people time and space to recharge.
6. You shall help people get a lot of excitement in short bursts.
7. You shall apply to others ONLY the commandments that best fit them. (Platinum Rule)
8. You shall NOT assume your favorite commandment fits others. (Projection Rule)
9. You shall conduct engagement surveys that truly listen to the needs of all personality types (Gallup Q12 discriminates against three types).
10. You shall hold leaders accountable for the first nine commandments.

Want to learn more about how to include all types? Start with my new book, Seeing People Through.

Our Process Communication Model Leadership Profile and training programs give leaders the self-awareness, insight, and guidance to include all personality types at work.

Copyright Next Element Consulting, 2020