As we continue our understanding of leadership, today I want to expand our Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, by discussing the importance of understanding personality types in the workplace.

Now, we’ve been hanging out together for a while and I just have to ask, Are you a square? No, not that kind of square!

Maybe you’re a circle or a triangle?

We can identify our personality tendencies with some simple geometry. Yikes - no formulas I promise!

We are multi-dimensional people and have many sides to us. However, we have natural tendencies that we can relate to one or two specific shapes.

It’s important to have representation of all of these shapes on your team and in your organization to bring different perspectives and ideas for problem-solving, and creating.

As always, I love to hear from you. What shape do you identify with the most and what shape value do you bring to the table?

What is the most challenging shape to work with and how have you learned to leverage those unique qualities of each personality type?

With love,

Maria

Micromanagement is really just FEAR-Management.

3 Ways to Build Leadership with Self-Awareness

In the workplace, fear-based leadership is manifested in a number of ways. We see fear in leadership when employers do not trust the employees to do the jobs for which they were hired. Many managers are fearful of losing control, resulting in micromanagement. Micromanagement is a classic display of fear.

I once had a student challenge me when we were discussing micromanagement in class. He thought the concept was exaggerated. I then shared with him an experience I had while working with a homebuilder:

We were opening up a new community in a different state than our corporate headquarters. After we selected a mailbox and a holiday green color (the same color as the community logo), management asked that we paint the mailbox we selected using the exact same green paint and then ship it back to corporate headquarters for the company president to approve the mailbox and paint color!

Are you aware of the areas that you tend to react to? When have you micromanaged others? What are some micromanagement situations you have experienced?

Being mindful, and the clarity that comes with it, helps leaders understand and consciously set vision.

With love,

Maria