Leadership Mindset Shift #2: Personality Is About Types IN People, Not Types OF People

Personality isn’t about animal names, quadrants, factors, colors, geniuses, or what planet you are from. It’s a real dimension of neurodiversity, it’s about individual differences in perceptual processing and communication behavior. 

If you surveyed the leaders in your organization, how would they answer these questions?

Have you ever;

• Taken a personality test and felt like the results put you in a box?

• Experienced labeling and stereotyping after going through training on personality differences?

• Experienced people becoming entitled and hiding behind their personality?

• Experienced trust problems with certain people?

• Been surprised to find out someone didn’t trust you?

• Heard people talk about valuing all personality types, but not adapting their communication or leadership accordingly?

When talking about personality, it’s common to refer to types OF people, using phrases like, “I’m a _________,” or “My boss is a _________.” This type of labeling isn’t supported by personality science. It’s not how personality works. It oversimplifies the complexity of human behavior, promotes stereotyping, and limits personal responsibility for behavior. 

How are you currently using personality assessments? Are people empowered, trained and held accountable for changing their behavior to communicate with different personality types? Or are they hiding behind labels and using personality as an entitlement program?

Shifting your leadership mindset about personality can make all the difference. Here is the second of eight mindset shifts that can transform a leader’s effectiveness.

Leadership Mindset Shift #2

Personality is about types IN people, not types OF people.

Unlike other personality frameworks, the Process Communication Model recognizes this. PCM is a behavioral model of personality with several distinct features:

• PCM measures the relative strength of six personality types that we all have IN us. No boxes, no overly simplified labels.
• PCM shows how each type takes in and processes the world around them, how each one prefers to communicate, how they are motivated, and how they sabotage themselves with negative attention.
• Best of all, PCM teaches specific leadership communication strategies to invite and leverage the unique strengths of each type.

Six Types In You, Six Ways To Shine

Here are the six personality types we all have in us, their signature character strengths, and where they shine.

A Leader’s Responsibility: Stewardship of Personality

Leaders are accountable to their organizations to deliver results. This means leveraging diverse teams of people towards shared goals. Also, leaders are increasingly being held accountable for fostering environments where each person feels heard, valued, included, and motivated. PCM helps leaders do both.

If people are an organization’s greatest asset, then personality is one of the most valuable resources that leaders have available to leverage that asset. Thus, leaders are stewards of their own and others’ personality assets. This means they are responsible to:

• Recognize and appreciate all six types in themselves.
• Recognize and appreciate all six types in others.
• Confront their own bias, prejudices, and discrimination around personality.
• Align policies and practices to support personality inclusion.
• Learn effective communication and leadership strategies to support the success of all types.

Contribute to Our Research: Take the Personality Inclusive Workplace Survey

Shift Your Mindset To Be A Better Leader

Learning how to recognize, appreciate, include, and leverage all six personality types in the workplace is the focus of one of the eight modules in the PCM Leadership Program. In this module, leaders will learn how to:

• Expand and better utilize the skill-sets on their teams.
• Prevent burnout and increase retention.
• Build a more inclusive workplace.

Contact us today to find out more about how PCM helps leaders recognize and maximize the critical intersection between communication and personality.

Why Choose the PCM Leadership Program?

People skills are the primary leadership differentiator: being able to connect, engage, resolve conflict with and motivate anyone are essential leadership skills. Today’s leaders must cultivate their self-awareness and agility to be successful in a highly diverse, global and virtual environment. 

The PCM Leadership Program is a collection of learning & application modules that apply Process Communication Model to solve the most common and important leadership challenges. 

Senior leaders will gain a greater understanding of how their own personality impacts their role and performance as a leader, how to adapt communication and motivation strategies to maximize the contribution of all personality types in the workplace, and how personality differences are best managed from a strategic level. 

Newly promoted and mid-level leaders will learn and apply critical social-emotional and communication competencies to improve their effectiveness in a wide range of leadership challenges such as communicating for greater impact, managing and motivating performance, dealing with miscommunication and conflict, building trust and engagement, and self-care.

We can help you assess your leadership development needs and design just the right program for your goals. Contact us today.

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