Know your strengths, understand your style
Know your strengths, understand your style
That’s the way to proper staffing
"Employers who understand different styles of behavior and share that information with their employees have an advantage over the competition. They can harmonize relationships within their agencies and effectively counsel employees on how to skillfully navigate the often-rocky shoals of in-home situations, as well," says business management specialist Laura Hamilton, who is also a certified speaking professional.
Hamilton, president of Waxhaw, NC-based Seminars Inc., sees getting people to realize that everybody has special gifts as an important purpose of her presentations. "Some people will never be able to do certain things," she says. "No. 1, they’re not motivated, and 2, they may not have the skills to do them."
She describes people as fitting into one of the four basic personality/behavioral types. "I think we all move around within those categories, but predominantly we belong to one."
Being typecast
The types are:
1. Doer: Doers are very bottom line-oriented people. They are impatient listeners, motivated by power and authority, and tend to be quick decision makers. They love power, are usually extremely confident and want to get the job done now. Their greatest weakness is tending to bulldoze over others and forget that people, not tasks, bring the results.
2. Influencer: Influencers love being around other people and are motivated by having fun. They tend to make popular decisions because they want everyone to love them back. They want to form committees, get feedback from people, and empower others. They’re often perceived not to be working, because others think they couldn’t simultaneously be working and having so much fun. They need to know they are doing a good job because they just love to talk to whoever is telling them that. Their greatest weakness lies in not paying sufficient attention to detail.
3. Steady: Steady people are process-oriented and motivated by structure. They want to know what’s going to happen next. Their perfect world is having a schedule they can stay on that tells them what’s going to happen every minute of the day. They are slow decision makers because they don’t like change and they need to hear they are doing a good job of following the structure. Their greatest weakness is that they have a tough time saying no. They are so accommodating by nature they tend to end up other people’s work, as well as their own.
4. Controller: Controllers are perfectionists, very detail-oriented and motivated by facts. They make objective decisions based on what they’ve already factually figured out. They are there to get the job done. Their greatest weakness is also their greatest strength: they love details. Sometimes they can detail you to pieces, explaining how the watch works in response to being asked what time it is.
Hamilton says that doers and controllers are principally task-oriented while steadies and influencers are people oriented. She estimates that about 80% of the people who are hired for health care — and for most service work — fall mainly into the steady and controller categories.
"The problem for them in health care today is that there’s nothing steady or structured about it," she says. "In my opinion, that’s the reason you see such a large personnel turnover in health care.
"For example, it used to be that when you went to work every day in a hospital, you did the same every day and now it’s not like that," she adds. "Nurses now have to worry about budgets; something they didn’t learn in college or expect to be a part of their job descriptions. The expectations for people in health care are multifaceted now."
Hamilton says the influencers who do private duty home care are probably the ones clients most often get request because of their enormous people skills. Steady people, she says, can get along with anybody. "They are the most under-appreciated people on earth. They do not cause trouble, are very accommodating, and will always go the extra mile and never complain. But they are often seething inside from all that accommodation of others. They can get very upset because others can’t read them, but the reason we can’t is that they so rarely let us know where they stand."
Right person, right job
Hamilton emphasizes that all four personality types can make wonderful employees. "They just have to be correctly assigned."
She says that everyone has the ability to move between categories in response to specific situations, and points out that most people are very different at home than they are at work. "Most of the time that’s because our jobs require us to pull up strengths we may not necessarily need at home."
Even different segments of work can evoke a style not basically our own. "I know I’m very different in my office than I am when I’m speaking on the platform," Hamilton says. "But in the office, I’m very much the controller. I want things done correctly. When I’m speaking, I’m all influencer. I become the opposite of myself depending on what I’m doing. I love details, but I don’t really want to mess with them. I love people, but I’m really just as happy by myself."
According to Hamilton, most people will "move toward neutral" in their behavior in order to get through the illness. "Though the ailment itself may, to some extent, dictate the personality pattern followed most of us tend to fall into the steady pattern of behavior. We want structure so we know what’s going to happen to us next. If we take the prescribed amount of medicine, when are we going to feel better, stop hurting, etc.? The patient wants everyone to remain calm, but that doesn’t mean he or she exhibits that kind of behavior when well. Patients also often show controller characteristics, becoming consumed with the details of their illnesses."
Most often, Hamilton says, family members are thrown more into a doer mode because they have to concentrate on the bottom line. And the private duty home health caregiver winds up dealing with two personality types that are opposed to each other.
Matching behaviors is essential to success
Matching behavior patterns between private duty caregivers and the person in charge in the home may be even more important than matching behavior between caregivers and their patients. Hamilton gives the example of a critically ill male patient with a wife who is extremely detailed.
"If I were assigning duties," she explains, "I would send an extremely detailed person to that home. An influencer will experience instant problems, because the wife will see him or her as not taking the situation seriously enough. Personally, if I ever get sick and can stay in my home, and an agency sends a controller to me, I will send that person away. I’d have to have an influencer hanging out with me, making me laugh or finding me something funny on TV. Now if I were in a hospital, I’d want the controller’s extremely detailed orientation."
Innate patterns of behavior can also dictate relationships within an agency. For example, Hamilton says that "influencers will do just about anything to get people to love them, and get their feelings hurt when others don’t do what they think is the appropriate people’ response. But controllers and doers do not show affection and rarely pay compliments. So if a doer and a controller are the bosses for influencers and steady people, they need to give more praise to the influencers and steadies."
Hamilton emphasizes that all four types have the right point of view — from their point of view. All four want to influence others to their point of view.
"The truth of the matter is we can never change anyone — not their point of view, behavior, not the way they look at the world. If I could teach people just one thing, it would be to understand that everyone looks at things differently and no matter what kind of persuasion or motivation we put on others they will not change for us because they believe they already have the right point of view."
Hamilton suggests disconnecting from our cherished beliefs about how we think things ought to be and moving toward what she describes as "living in neutral," which means understanding what makes others behave as they do and blending your style to accommodate theirs.
"When you do that," Hamilton says, "your stress level goes down and your people skills go up; so how can you lose?"
• Laura Hamilton, Seminars Inc., P.O. Box 129, Waxhaw, NC 28173. Telephone: (800) 753-3347. Fax: (704) 843-3308.
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.