Are your colleagues frustrating you? Here's why...

Are your colleagues frustrating you to no end? Here’s why...

In 2020, of British adults in employment – a staggering 79% commonly experienced work-related stress. A key way to start to manage your workplace stress is to learn how to identify the causes of that stress and that can only be done by learning your co-workers' personalities. Don’t fret, in my book, ‘SMASH IT! The Art of Getting What YOU Want’, I go into heavy detail on how to analyse your co-worker's behaviour. For now, I’ll give you a brief introduction to the DISC model, the model that will change your career for good.

The DISC model divides people's personalities into four categories each with a corresponding colour. Each category has its strengths, weaknesses and unique quirks. I’ll use a (hypothetical) 30-minute English test to help you visualise how the different categories are in action so that you’re clear on how to spot them. Keep in mind though, that we are all combinations of all the colours rather than just one colour, therefore the examples that I’ll be using will be the extremes of that category. Without further ado, let’s get right into it!

The Red Behaviour Types

The ones who first finish the test and ask the teacher, “Why did we need a whole 30 minutes for this?” are the task-focused extrovert Reds. The Reds are extremely confident and ambitious and love to look good in front of others. However, just because they are ‘task-focused’ and get the work done doesn’t mean it gets done well. After hearing other students talk about the test, they are the ones who didn’t realise the test paper was well… two-sided. 

The Yellow Behaviour Types

The Yellows are relationship-focused extroverts. While the test is going on, they will be at the back of the class whispering, trying to socialise and gossip. Maybe even talking about what they’ll wear to prom. Yellows are easily distracted and find it hard to focus constantly on a task, but when it comes to socialising, they could talk for hours on end. They can be seen to be loud and disruptive by others.

The Green Behaviour Types

The Greens are often dubbed the stable greens. They are usually quite timid, nervous and are hesitant to speak up. The relationship-focused nature means that they put people before themselves. If someone is feeling unwell during the test, a Green may alert the teacher telling them that a student might need attention. Their weakness is that they get too lost in their thoughts and lose track of time and the task. Even if you did manage to give them all day to finish, their worries of the question would mean they would never finish.

The Blue Behaviour Types

Lastly, we have the compliant blues. The blues will use up every single second of the time to ensure that there are absolutely no mistakes. They are task-focused introverts and to ensure that they complete the test perfectly, they will find a quiet corner to work free of distractions. Even if they wanted to socialise, they are a stickler for the rules and would therefore never dare break them just for a chat. A good way to spot Blue behaviour is that when face-to-face, their faces can be quite hard to read as they tend to lack a lot of expression.

Different personality types clashing can generate a lot of stress. However, now that you’re aware of the personality types that may be causing you stress at the workplace, you are already one step closer to eliminating the issue. There are various tricks, tips and methods that will help you navigate these people so that you can feel calm again. As an award-winning training provider with more than 25+ years experience of turning good teams into great teams, I can be booked to deliver a session about the ins and outs of reducing stress in the workplace. If you would be interested, visit our website for more information.

Furthermore, if you are a senior leader and you want to take your team to the next level, consider filling out the greatest free resource you will ever find, the Senior Leader’s Scorecard. Upon completion, you will instantly receive a fully personalised actionable resource which will help you transform your team’s motivation, communication and performance.