Monday, September 6^th 2010

All Career & Vocation results

The Boss
“This place would be nothing without me.” “If it weren’t for me nothing would ever get done around here.” Does this sound like someone you know? Welcome to the boss. What’s that? The person you’re thinking of greets the customers in the front office? No matter … in their own mind they are The Boss.

Sure, every business or office needs someone who is a take-charge personality that will keep the business running smoothly, but in order to keep peace in the firm that appointment needs to follow appropriate channels.
Bosses are confident, demanding and dismissive and often assign themselves responsibility above their station and authority. Monitoring the comings and goings of their peers, they are quick to point out the shortcomings of others. They think that they are the only ones who know what’s really going on and how to get things done, so instead of focusing on what they should be doing they are directing everyone else around them.
Sometimes even the real boss.

The Brown-Noser

“Can I do that for you?” “You did an excellent job settling that customer dispute yesterday.” These are the pedantic platitudes offered incessantly by one of the least appreciated members of the company: The Brown-Noser. In the 1960’s TV’s Leave it to Beaver character Eddie Haskell introduced the world to the Brown-Noser in training: “What a lovely dress that is, Mrs. Cleaver. And Mr. Cleaver, I must say that young Theodore is beginning to show the signs of your excellent parenting.” Say what?
Everyone appreciates the occasional well-placed compliment. Life and business are challenging and the career professional takes it on the chin day in and day out. Compliments in our society are generally few and far between, which opened the door for the career Brown-Noser. They fly under the radar and ingratiate themselves to their boss in an effort to avoid scrutiny for less than stellar work.

But watch out … as diligently as the Brown-Noser will work to gain favor, their self-protective nature makes it wholly acceptable to sacrifice others (even if they have to manipulate the situation) to serve their own interests.

The Bully

It seems that bullies are rampant in every aspect of society, from the tiny toddler who refuses to share his toys to the office manager who berates and publicly humiliates her staff at every turn. Bullying was once considered to be a male trait that played out either on the playground, or through the gauntlet the bully and his entourage would establish along the route home or in athletic locker rooms and playing fields. We now know it for what it is: a non-gender specific personality trait that feeds the bully’s need for self-importance.

The bullying behavior may stem from early confusion about how to behave in new, intimidating situations. This makes the individual feel vulnerable and confused. By displaying aggression, the bully takes control of the situation and drives away the fear by turning others away from them. To the bully, fear = power = respect.
In the professional world the bully tends to demean their coworkers using sarcasm and thinly veiled humor to avoid crossing the lines of harassment.

The Free Spirit

“It’s gonna be great! I’ll develop the ad and negotiate placement with the newspaper to get the best exposure, and in a month you’ll have more customers than you know what to do with. There’ll be no looking back!” So you give this startup creative firm the job, excited about the enthusiasm and potential of your new creative team. Just yesterday you spoke with the artistic director to ensure that they would meet this morning’s deadline. You walk in to the conference room and … nothing. The creative team flaked having taken on another, more exciting project. Welcome to the world of The Free Spirit.

The highly creative and artistic members of our society are drawn to music, advertising, writing and other pursuits that offer opportunities for personal expression. However, the Free Spirit has difficulty maintaining focus and achieving long-term goals due to their constant need for stimulation. With proper direction, however, the Free Spirit can achieve truly inspired results.

The Independent

You know the type: they strike off on their own for six months and crow about the joy of being self employed. The next thing you know they are excited about a new management job they accepted at a local firm. Three months later they are back on their own: “Those people just don’t have a clue how to make it in business.” And the cycle begins again.

The Independent has good ideas and a firm vision of how to drive a business, but lacks the people skills to achieve the full potential of their vision. When working in a group environment they become frustrated by the expectation that they will function as a member of a team performing alternatively as a leader or a follower as needed. This personality tends to get stuck along the way, paralyzing and frustrating them until they leave out of a sense of self-preservation.
With patience and partnership with another well-suited to bringing their ideas to market, The Independent can achieve the business success that they know is waiting for them just around the corner.

The Prima Donna

“I’m not sweeping the floor … I’m the stylist, not the janitor!” “They are out of maple scones and you thought an oatmeal scone would be a suitable replacement? Do you plan to saddle and ride me at lunch time?” “Honestly, if I didn’t toss my coat directly on your desk you’d never hang it up.” Hello, Prima Donna! She doesn’t think that the world revolves around her … she knows it does!
Living and working with the Prima Donna is exhausting and demeaning, and often there comes a time when the subservient partner has reached the limit and terminates the relationship. Naturally, the PD is amazed, but moves along confident that it was the ridiculous childishness of the dearly departed that caused the breakup – not the abusive nature of the PD.

The best way to survive life (or business) with a Prima Donna is to pick your battles wisely. Look for opportunities to interject your own ideas and reality into the relationship. And if the PD firmly stands their ground … move on.

The Saboteur

“Here, let me organize the inventory for you. I’ll get it all sorted out and help you meet that deadline before the end of the month.” You turn over the job with great relief … it’s going to take hours to get the inventory done and the financial reports you are preparing will take at least another ten hours to get ready for tomorrow’s meeting. Knowing you’ve left the inventory job in capable hands you lock yourself away in your office and crunch numbers. Emerging well after dark you are shocked to see the boxes of inventory items still sitting on the floor, inventory on the counter and post-it notes with illegible notes and numbers jotted on them. Aaargh! The Saboteur has struck again!

This particular individual sucks you in every time with their assurances that they’re there for you and that there’s no way you should have to do all this on your own. You place your trust in them (gratefully) but shouldn’t be surprised that they’ve left you hanging. This is a passive-aggressive trait that sets you up for failure … much to their delight. If you have a Saboteur on staff, you don’t need to fire them. Just monitor their progress to make sure the job gets done right … and on time.

The Stoner

“Ah, man … we hit the concert last night … it was totally narly! We rolled in this morning just in time to shower and catch the train to work. I almost missed my stop, but it was worth it! Give me a ring if the boss-man drops in … I’m gonna catch some zzzs. Later!”
Years back The Stoner personality was pretty easy to spot. Everything about them from their appearance to their attitude to the pace at which they moved through life denoted a slacker. But today’s Stoner is smarter. They’ve learned to function in modern corporate America and their engaging, fun-loving personality ensures that they’ll have lots of friends on staff to help cover their tracks.

Managing the Stoner is challenging unless you can isolate them and put some pressure on them to make them perform without the protection of their peers. But give the challenge serious consideration. If the Stoner is a particular creative force or an IT whiz, you can’t afford to force them out by putting too much pressure on their free spirit, so pick your battles wisely.

The Too-Friendly

“Good Morning! I’m so happy to see you! All weekend I thought about things we could do to make the week fun. I brought cookies that I baked last night and tomorrow I thought we could go out to lunch … or order in. And how about drinks on Friday after work? I’m so thankful to work with such fun people!” Whew! Good morning, Too-Friendly.

The Too-Friendly has an engaging, gregarious personality, but tends to be quite needy. They truly speak from the heart, which is why it is so difficult to get them to back off a bit. They wear their hearts on their sleeves and are crushed by the intimation that they’ve stepped over the boundary that separates being a friend from being a burden.

If allowed to progress unchecked the Too-Friendly will kill you with kindness. They’ll stuff you full of goodies, coddle and fluff you insane, and hug you until your bones crack. With gentle persuasion you can temper their enthusiasm by giving them specific tasks that take time to complete. In their enthusiasm to help and please their new best friend they’ll accomplish even the most rote of tasks with the precision of a surgeon, which makes everyone feel better.

The Wheeler-Dealer

“Sure, I can prepare that report for you, but I think you could do it better. That will free me up to hit the new business development list and bring in some new customers.” The Wheeler-Dealer is always jockeying for position. They won’t say “no” outright, but they see every new task as an opportunity to manipulate their way further up the food chain. It’s not a negative trait, but it’s damaging to the team spirit when WD constantly seems to get the jobs that he or she wants while everyone else takes what’s assigned to them.

This is an individual that has learned to apply their creativity and charisma to advance their career and make their life more enjoyable by picking and choosing their way through the day. Wouldn’t you enjoy your work more if you only had to do the things that you enjoyed and could pass the rest on to someone else? Well so does the Wheeler-Dealer. They’ve just found a way to make that concept a reality.