by Sally Northeast
Does that sound like a truism, or a rather glib pop-psych pronouncement designed to sell a self-awareness course? If so, don’t listen to your inner sceptic and stay with me for a few hundred words so I can explain.
Some of the most impactful development I’ve done in recent years is leadership training. I’ve been fortunate to follow leadership programmes both at a county council and in my current NHS role. I now run one of the sessions on our current leadership essentials programme, covering culture, vision, values and strategy.
Without exception, the things that have stuck with me most from all those programmes are the bits about self-awareness, learning styles, working preferences and working effectively with others.
Now before you accuse me of self-indulgent navel-gazing and buying into hippy-dippy claptrap (sceptics – I feel this radiating from you!), just consider for a moment what makes the machinery of an organisation go round. It’s people. You, your team-mates, the person on reception, the chief executive. Every person in an organisation contributes to the way things are done and how it feels to work there.
So, the way we ourselves behave, the way we interact with others, the way we lead (or don’t) and the way we learn, adapt and change are all fundamental to the success of that organisation. We’re getting into the realms of organisational culture here and in the words of Peter Drucker: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Understanding yourself and how that self plays out in the workplace will help you see what – and importantly how – you need to learn. It’ll help you understand why maybe you experience tension with a particular colleague – because their style and preferences are completely different to yours, for example (I can attest to this – my manager is the complete opposite to me in Myers-Briggs and discovering that has helped us develop our relationship no end).
Understanding and leading self is covered in the first three sessions of our leadership programme at Dorset HealthCare. We start with finding out our Myers-Briggs preferences to understand things like our thinking styles, how we collaborate, how we make decisions and how we deal with conflict. There are many alternatives to Myers-Briggs – I’ve used the Skills Deployment Inventory in the past and others have recommended Insights. There’s a cost to these of course, and your organisation may already subscribe to one – ask your learning and development team what’s available. The free 16 personalities online tool is based on Myers-Briggs, which itself grew out of the theories of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung.
From there we go on a fascinating journey to look at how that type affects our behaviour and how we can recognise what might be driving behaviour in others. It’s not about pigeon-holing people, and you can certainly learn to work in different ways even if you have a particular innate preference. But it is a fantastic guide and starting point to help you identify where you need to develop.
And to bring the inevitable wellbeing slant to this, your personality profile can help you identify your trigger points and better manage your reaction and your next steps. In a recent WhatsApp chat, a friend revealed that they were worried about how angry they were getting at work. It turned out that anxiety sat underneath this, brought about by the behaviour and style of others in the workplace. Arming yourself with that self-knowledge, and recognising the effect that a different style from someone else can have on you, is a real game-changer.
It’s easy to moan about the way things are in your organisation, the behaviour of others and how stressed you are. It’s human nature, it can be really cathartic and most of us do it. A little self-reflection, though, can really help us to see our own part in those dynamics and what we can take ownership of to help things improve. As an extravert, introspection doesn’t come naturally to me, but I’ve learned to do it and it’s making a real difference. For more on this see my fridge magnet (pictured).
Sally Northeast is Deputy Director of Organisational Development, Participation and Communications and Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust. She’s also co-creator of learning and wellbeing event Comms Unplugged and an ESFJ on Myers-Briggs.
