Have you ever wondered why you work really well with some people and seem to clash with others? Why you can predict how some team members will react to situations and others leave you completely surprised? Or (in my own experience), why a job you’ve spent years getting qualified for leaves you unfulfilled.

The chances are it has a lot to do with individual personality , yours and your co-workers.

Everyone has different thinking preferences that make up their personality type and some personalities work better together than others. Your particular personality type might make it really easy to work with one colleague and leave you struggling with another.

For example, someone with what we term an ‘A-Quadrant’ personality, who thinks in binary terms of logic, numbers, statistics, black and white, right and wrong will likely struggle in a profession dealing mostly with people (teacher, nurse, customer service etc). In the same way, they may struggle to see eye to eye with their co-workers who are more likely to be what we term “C-Quadrant” thinkers, who understand the world more in terms of emotions and relationships.

Our personality types — along with different work ethics, values, and approaches — make it difficult to get along perfectly with everyone all the time. However, being aware of your own personality style makes you more likely to observe the traits of those around you. This allows you to adapt your style to theirs or provide them with information in a way that will get their attention. This can go a long way towards helping you understand yourself, as well as your colleagues!

The Herman Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) offers great in-depth analysis into the primary personality preferences and tendencies — heart v head, extraversion vs. introversion, adventurous rebel v by the book, etc.

Your personality has a massive impact on your success in the role you chose (consciously or un-consciously) to spend your 2000 weeks in. Understanding individuals and people in general is key to the principles behind the lecturing, coaching and mentoring philosophy of 2000weeks