How Does Our Personality Affect Our Performance?
- Sep 9, 2021
- 6 min read
Written by: Katie Stoddart, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
High levels of performance in business can be achieved in many ways. Though there are various tools and strategies that can benefit most of us, such as the Pareto principle (80/20) or using the Eisenhower matrix (Important/urgent) for prioritizing; our personalities and personal preferences radically change how we might go about reaching this peak state of performance.
In this article, I will highlight key aspects of our personality that modify our progress in daily circumstances: Saboteurs: Restless, Stickler, Pleaser; People or task orientation; Start to End and End to Start.
1. Saboteurs
When we are growing up, we develop coping strategies and mechanisms to overcome challenging situations. This leads us to have great strengths. Yet these strengths can also become a hindrance. For instance, if you have learned to strive for achievement – this is great but can lead to becoming a hyper-achiever, which means that your self-esteem is directly correlated with your achievements.
In positive psychology, there are nine saboteurs: Hyper-achiever, Restless, Avoider, Stickler, Controller, Victim, Rational, Judgemental, Pleaser. You can take the test for free on the positive psychology website.
Let’s look at how three of these can affect your performance.
Restless Saboteur
If you are the type of person that cannot spend a minute in passive action, that always feels the need to be busy, that gets a buzz from always being on the go, then there is a high chance that you have a restless saboteur.
Here is how this saboteur is directly affecting your performance. You achieve results quickly; you are a fast thinker, and you don’t often procrastinate. These are the strengths of this type. On the downside, you lack reflection time (which is essential for peak performance!), and you most likely rarely take any breaks. This can lead to burnout, and in the best-case scenario, diminished focus.
To get the best out of your ‘restless tendency’, you can appreciate that you are an action taker, with high energy; and start to incorporate reflection time, and breaks (even just 5 minutes every hour is better than no breaks!)
Stickler Saboteur
Do you get lost in detail? Do you struggle with validating your work and always feel you could improve it? This is the inner world of perfectionism – linked to the stickler saboteur.
Yes, it comes with high rigor, discipline, and excellent standards but at a high cost! The time and energy spent on constant improvement are not always worth it. Furthermore, perfectionism can be a source of ongoing procrastination: the feeling that the work is never good enough to be shipped.
Use your perfectionism and don’t let it use you! Enjoy the high quality you strive for but start to notice when you are going into details that no longer serve you or your work.
Finding that right balance of good enough to satisfy you, without over-spending all your time and energy is a constant development for sticklers. The more you practice this, the easier it will become for you to hit that sweet spot of greatness!
Pleaser Saboteur
It is such a great quality to have high levels of empathy, to be of service to others, and to contribute. For some of you, however, it can become your main source of motivation. When you are asked to deliver a report for your colleague, it is a no-brainer, but when you need to do something for yourself, what an effort it becomes!
This pleaser tendency – correlated with the obliger in the four tendencies by Gretchen Rubin, is very common and it can also be worked on!
Some of the main aspects that pleasers benefit from working on are being more assertive – understanding what is important for you and standing up to it; learning to say no – people will respect you all the more for it and having clear boundaries – linked with saying no.
2. People or task orientation
Once you are aware of your main saboteurs and how they correlate with your performance; you can start to look at your preference for people or task activities. This is very well represented in the I and C types in DISC, and can also be seen in MBTI – when looking at extroversion/introversion types.
People orientation
If you enjoy working with others, your performance will improve with teamwork, direct contact with colleagues, talking things out loud.
As a more extroverted person, you gain energy from these interactions. This means that your performance will suffer if your work is too solitary. A few methods to cope with this: add calls/ interactions throughout the day - maybe even a brief call or seeing a friend around lunchtime can help; work with music on; have a social evening to look forward to.
Planning coping strategies to add more 'people' energy will change your energy throughout the day if you are extraverted. Having high levels of energy is an essential aspect of peak performance! If you notice you are lacking the interactions you need, start to implement some more calls/social moments in your day.
Task orientation
On the other hand, if you are on the more introverted side of the spectrum, you will thrive in quiet, calm environments with little interaction.
Your work will no doubt suffer if your schedule is filled with calls and meetings. The most efficient way to proceed is to avoid having too many calls in a row; schedule some quality deep work time with no booked meetings, and take breaks after each long call/meeting.
3. Start to End or End to Start Planner
Do you enjoy starting projects but run out of steam after a few weeks or months? Or on the contrary, do you spend forever planning how you will begin a project and struggle to get going? The two most common approaches to project management are: start to end and end to start planning.
Start to End Planners
The enthusiasm is high at the beginning of a project. You don’t struggle with getting going that is the fun & energizing aspect for you! Often, you take on too many projects and then notice that you are suddenly overwhelmed.
Consistency and finishing projects are your weak point: continuing your projects after the dazzling start. A few techniques that can help are adding variety to your project, so it always has a ‘new’ aspect; teaming up with an ‘end to start’ planner; thoroughly reflecting before launching another new project; having an accountability partner who makes sure you honor your commitments.
End to Start Planners
You might envy the enthusiasm and ease that ‘start to end’ planners have because what a hurdle it is for you to get going!
Procrastination, analysis paralysis seep in and you might take months (or years) to begin! Once you have started though, you have great preparation behind you and the quality of your work is fantastic! Continuing and persevering are easy once you have climbed that first hill!
For ‘end to start’ planners, it can be useful to embrace a ‘done over perfect’ mindset; work with a ‘start to end’ planner; have a tight deadline; have an accountability partner (to get started!)
Overview & self-awareness
There are so many ways in which our personalities modify the way we work, and thus impact our overall performance. The most effective way to work on this is to start to notice, raise your awareness regarding your triggers, your thoughts patterns, how you deal with emotions, your preferences, your favorite working hours and circumstances, etc.
It is only through in-depth self-awareness that you will be able to get to the core of what drives you, how you process information, and how you manage your workload. Once you know this, then you can start to build the strategy and habits to reach peak performance!
Katie Stoddart, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Katie Stoddart, founder of ‘The Focus Bee’ is an award-winning, international, high-performance coach, speaker and podcast host. Katie supports leaders and business owners to reach & sustain peak performance in their business.
For her weekly podcast ‘The Focus Bee Show’, Katie interviews leading experts in high performance. Passionate about living intentionally; Katie challenges each and every person she works with to re-focus on what matters most. Katie works primarily with entrepreneurs & executives through 1-1 coaching & workshops on: Focus, Leadership & Performance.
