Work It Out, Revised Edition: Using Personality Type to Improve Team Performance

263 Pages·2006·2.32 MB·English

WORK IT OUT

W OR K
O U T
it
Using Personality Type
to Improve Team Performance
REVISED EDITION
SANDRA KREBS HIRSH JANE A. G. KISE
&
Davies-Black Publishing • Mountain View, California
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hirsh, Sandra Krebs
Work it out : using personality type to improve team performance / Sandra Krebs Hirsh
and Jane A. G. Kise.—Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-89106-212-7 (pbk.)
1. Conflict management. 2. Employees—Psychology. 3. Communication in management.
4. Interpersonal communication. 5. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® assessment.
I. Kise, Jane A. G. II. Title.
HD42.H57 2006
650.1'3—dc22
2006013314
REVISED EDITION
First printing 2006
For my children,
Katherine and Elizabeth, whose company, HirshWorks,
carries on the tradition of type in our family,
and Andy, who is a constant source of inspiration to me.
—Sandra
For Brian,
my husband, best buddy, and psychological opposite,
in celebration of working it out for 25 years!
—Jane

CONTENTS
What’s New in This Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
1 Working It Out with Type
Can It Make a Difference for You? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 The Extraversion–Introversion Dichotomy
The Case of the Communication Conundrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3 The Sensing–Intuition Dichotomy
To Improve or Expand? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4 The Thinking–Feeling Dichotomy
Executive Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5 The Judging–Perceiving Dichotomy
Deadline Dilemmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6 Function Pairs
ST, SF, NF, NT in the Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
7 Style-Changing Stress
The Inferior Function—the Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
8 Influencing Upward
The Problem Is the Boss—or Is It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
9 Coaching Yourself, Coaching Others
Putting Type to Work for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
10 A Leader Who Put Type to Work
Management Style with Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Appendix A: The Teambuilding Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Appendix B: The Coaching Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

WHAT’S NEW IN THIS EDITION
The first edition of Work It Outappeared in 1996, before Enron, the rise of Web-
based communication, the dot-com bubble demise, and other events that have
accelerated the rate of change in the world of work. Teams form and dissolve
quickly, membership changes, managers come and go, all adding to the difficul-
ties of working things out in the world of work.
However, the basic conflicts between people are still the same—we rush to
say, “What’s wrong with that person?” rather than take the time to ask, “How
are we different? What can I gain from that person’s style?” In this second edi-
tion, we worked to make the concepts of type, and the solutions it provides,
more accessible, with information and ideas that can help business leaders cre-
ate effective teams.
For anyone who is working on workplace relationships, this edition
provides:
■ Case studies that focus on real workplace issues, such as change, expan-
sion, mandated policies, executive coaching, stress, communication,
deadline issues, and more
■ Insights into how people with different type preferences view one another,
and how the resulting conflict can be resolved when the issues are revisited
as common, normal personality differences
■ More hands-on exercises that allow leaders to implement the teambuilding
techniques described in the case studies
■ More material on the hows and whys of coaching, including examples
of putting together coaching plans and tailoring strategies to meet client
preferences
The cases present examples of teams in conflict that put personality type to
work for them. We trust that these pages will help you work it out as well.
ix