Somewhere along the line someone will ruffle our feathers. Conflict can be caused by many different things, such as clashing personality types, culture, gender and stress. Working well together in a team is essential to achieving harmony in the workplace.

Everyone is different. This can be a very good thing as it gives the workplace balance, by utilising the strengths of everyone. But personality can also be one of the main culprits in creating office tension and conflict within teams.

I want to present to you the three main types of personality – Thinker, Feeler and Doer. There are many different personality tests using different words to describe each type – but they all can be reduced to 3 types – Thinker, Feeler and Doer. Of course there are blends and depending on which test you use blends can range from 9 to 24. BUT if you can understand the three basic types; it will help you to be a better manager, co-worker and team player. Let’s now look at a short summary of each.

1st … The Thinker

• They are extremely intelligent and consider every angle before making a decision.
• They’re a details person, a perfectionist, and they plan things.
• They finish stuff.
• They don’t draw attention to themselves.
• They view things as black and white – they need rules to guide them and expect others to follow the rules.
• They like making rules.
• They value truth and honesty.
• They need peace and quiet to recharge their batteries.
• They’re always thinking – it can be like a committee meeting in their heads, so they read before going to bed or drink alcohol to try and get their mind to slow down enough to be able to sleep.
• They find it hard to work in a noisy busy environment.
  • We like them because they are: consistent, cautious, extremely loyal and have high standards.
  • They annoy us because they are: slow to make decisions, won’t take risks, inflexible, critical, follow the rules and unaffectionate.

Next … The Feeler

• They are very intuitive and can be a little psychic.
• They can pick up on the emotions of others even when they are trying to hide their emotions.
• They’re an excellent listener and love to help people out – even if it’s just being a sounding board over a cup of coffee.
• They like to talk to everyone before starting work for the day.
• They like hugging people.
• They are people pleasers to the point that they follow the crowd even if they know that what the crowd is doing is wrong.
• Feelers are slow to give up on the defeated and will continue to forgive, giving others another chance.
• People are more important than accomplishments and relationships more sacred than outcomes; they are, in short, encouragers.
  • We like them because they are: caring, loving, make us feel good, light up the room when they enter it, tell good stories, enthusiastic and impulsive.
  • They annoy us because they: hog the conversation, are untidy, don’t know when to be quiet, pout when they don’t get their own way and think life is a party.

Lastly … The Doer

• Is a straightforward person who has an uncanny clarity toward life.
• They look at the big picture, they are the visionary and charismatic.
• They tend to have a passion for adventure and anything out of the ordinary.
• They love competition.
• They have a healthy ego.
• They don’t see obstacles.
• They are able to motivate others to accomplish goals.
• They don’t finish projects as they are moving on to the next project or have several projects going at once.
  • We like them because they are: independent, confident, have big ideas and get things done.
  • They annoy us because they: have huge egos, push people to get outcomes, always thinking about the next project, you’re either with them or you’re against them, rules are meant to be broken or bent and take too many risks.

SO what does all this mean?

Thinkers like being in quiet spots where there are not too many distractions or people whereas Feelers like it busy with people around them.

Thinkers will come in early to get on top of their work whereas a Feeler will come in late and say hi to everyone before they do any work.

Thinkers can take forever to get things done and do not like change – but they will make sure the change works.

If you criticise what a Thinker has done they will take it as a personal attack on themselves – their identity is in tasks. A Feeler’s identity is in relationships – bad mouth their friend and you hurt them. A Doer’s identity is getting tasks done through the people they have around them.

Doers have the vision/dream for new projects and are able to rally people into a team to start the project but need to make sure they have Thinkers to get their projects done on time, on budget, by the rules and Feelers to make sure the focus is not all about outcomes but people as well.

Doers need to be challenged, Thinkers need rules/guidelines and Feelers need people around them working together as a team.

How do YOU communicate if YOU’RE the boss?

For a Doer – use words like – not sure if you can do that, prove it can be done, I challenge you to get it done,  didn’t think we could do it but you did it, you will go far, this was a good idea you had.

For a Thinker – I would value your opinion, really like the effort you made … and then highlight what you appreciated about it using words like – detail, cautious, well thought out, neat, tidy and legal.

For a Feeler – I appreciate how you make our customers feel good, you brighten up the place, how do you feel about the project, give them a pat on the back.

Thinkers need feelers to remind them to have fun.

Feelers need doers to remind them of what they need to be doing.

Doers need thinkers to get their projects done.

Some Common Problems that I see:

The feeler always wants to talk to the Thinker or give them a hug as they feel the Thinker is lonely. If a Feeler annoys a Thinker too much they will try to bring in a rule for peace and quiet or keep the door shut to their office or wear earphones.

The Doer pushes those around them to the point of bullying them or abuses the Thinker for being too slow or the Feeler who is talking too much. Some Doers egos are so big they have their own postcode.

The Feeler feels isolated as no one talks to them (they call it avoiding) or they are given a task that requires them to be by themselves or its boring.

The Feeler wants to celebrate someone’s birthday with cake – the Thinker will consider it a waste of time and not turn up or be very embarrassed if it’s their birthday whereas the Doer is either in a meeting or turns up for only a few minutes.

The Thinker comes in an hour or two earlier in the morning and stays back at night for an hour or two as it is the only time they can find enough peace & quiet to get their work done.

The Doer tells the Thinker if they weren’t so slow they would not need to stay back – but forget they have changed the rules of the project several times and the Thinker can’t keep up with the changes.

At Finding The Light we can help you to achieve harmony in the workplace by:

1. Identifying your team leaders’ personality strengths and areas of growth.
2. Identifying team members’ personality strengths and areas of growth.
3. Helping your team leader to understand how each personality views their role.
4. Creating high performing teams through the strengths of each personality type.
5. Improving communication in a way each personality understands.