Personality Zone

Q&A with the College Advisor

Dear College Advisor,
As an Idealist Teacher, I find that I do quite well on group projects, but some types seem to have trouble.  Why is it easy for me and not so easy for others?   

Dear Idealist:
Teamwork comes naturally for Idealist Teachers and Champions above all other types.  The two that have the most trouble are the Artisan Craftsman and the Rational Architect who are the most attuned to independence.  That doesn’t mean that all Teachers and Champions are always successful with teamwork.  Anyone who has been burned on a team project can come to resent being on a team.  Also, those who are less natural team members can learn the communication and cooperation skills if they grew up in an environment where those skills were encouraged.  Both natural skills and environmental forces can work for or against teamwork.  Also girls get more training to be cooperative and boys get more training to be competitive. 

Dear College Advisor,
I’m a naturally bubbly and enthusiastic person and have lots of friends.  People say they enjoy my energy.  But every once in awhile I come across a person who just gets in my face and we end up enemies.  Is this natural for an Artisan Performer?  

Dear Artisan,
Luckily most people will continue to see your positive side.  The two things that contribute to getting stuck in a stand-off with someone else are communication snafus and values conflicts.  I recently saw this happening in a volunteer group where I’m a member.  The Artisan Performer was focusing on the needs of the organization and the outside non-member was focusing on their personal wants.  Neither did a good job of listening to the other.  They kept repeating their own positions over and over and neither acknowledged the position of the other.  This put them at an impasse and other people were brought in to intervene—I was one of them.  To help keep yourself out of this problem, you could learn more about “active listening.”  Part of it consists of being able to state the other person’s position even when you don’t agree with it.  Look up the term “Active Listening” on the Internet and you can learn more about this technique.  When you are more effective in active listening, you also become better at identifying each other’s values.  While they may not be in agreement, often you can find ways where they are not actively in conflict.  Also know that there are some situations where you won’t be able to solve the problem and then it’s best to see how you can minimize your contact with the other person.  In my volunteer organization, we assigned a different organization person to be the point of contact for that particular outside non-member and the situation eased up.