Perhaps the hardest part of my job and life is managing all the different personalities that are in my sphere of existence. The dynamic of having four kids under the age of 7 is a nonstop management of different personalities and emotions. Then you add on it my company which has over 100 team members with different layers of experience, where usually the most experienced require the most time to manage their different personalities and needs. As if this weren’t enough, then there is my primary role of operation, which is managing clients, which creates a whole different level of management of people and emotions. It’s kind of like you run on a hamster wheel at 200 miles per hour, and you find very little time to manage yourself because of all the time you spend to manage the needs and personalities of someone else.
I have to admit that I crave the need to be constantly involved in doing something to stay busy, but I also admit that it would be nice to take a break from dealing with people sometimes. (Going back to the second sentence that even when I take time off and am not working there is still the management of little personalities that are by far the most important to me). But as there is a need of mine to constantly be busy at something which is in my nature to make quick decisions, it is also tested over time that the more I methodically and slowly navigate issues between all the different personalities the better the outcomes will be.
The trick to managing so many different personalities that I have found is to never let yourself get too emotionally involved. When you let your emotions run faster than your own ability to be level is when I find the most problems occur. Catering to so many different thoughts and opinions by those around me can sometimes be equal to a judge that is hearing both sides of a court case. You try not to pick a side based on what you like, think, or your own bias, but you try to remain as steeped in common sense as you possibly can be at all times. (Doesn’t always happen that way). But I find the outcome is always greater when you have time to be level headed and think through all the different situations that these different personalities throw at you.
What you have to remember as you manage all the personalities that you deal with on a daily basis is that everyone has their own agenda and will sell you on why their way is the right way. And what generally happens is people tend to make decisions that favor those who are more similar in nature to themselves. The moral of all this and the situation I found myself dealing with today reminded me that a big part of managing is dealing with all the different types of personalities. And you will only be effective in managing these personalities as you are at managing your balance of emotions and ability to hear and see all sides of a situation.