Don’t overgeneralize or make assumptions on what the true diversity of thought, knowledge, wisdom, experiences and insights are included when putting together teams, hiring new personnel or assembling committees. The truth is held in the life experiences of each person, not in generalized labels based on demographics or personality.
Research conducted by University of Edinburgh tracked changes in a target group of individuals for over 60 years, as the group aged from 14 to 77. While the study is not perfect, it does cause consideration for the effects of a lifetime of experiences on personality. Phoebe Weston of DailyMail.com cited one of the researchers who said, “There are large individual differences in these patterns (the test studied self-confidence, perseverance, stability of moods, conscientiousness, originality and desire to excel) and lots of that depends on what’s going on in a person’s life.”
“…personality can appear relatively stable over short intervals – increasingly so throughout adulthood. However, the longer the interval between assessments of personality, the weaker the relationship between the two tends to be.”
Consider how often organizations use some sort of personality assessment tool once in an employee’s stay, if that. And oft times the leadership does not participate. People’s lives change their perspectives, values and responses, sometimes over brief periods of time when something significant happens, either good or bad. The point is, people are more than labels – any labels – and the secret to empowering, unifying and connecting them to each other and the organization is to understand them as individuals, while also encouraging them to understand themselves without labels, too. Consider these three actions and make them part of your organizational culture to create an environment that empowers people for growth, development, success and satisfaction.
Think More About the Person and Less About the Label
Labels make for convenient packaging or solution development – “Manage Millennials such-and-such way because they believe…” – but they miss the real opportunity to …. (finish the article here.)