Workplace Personalities are Operating Systems More Than Obstacles
How understanding this helps organizations better move through conflict
A change in reframing and approach could help workplace interactions and relationships move more smoothly and increase collaboration and productivity.
People often can seem like the root problem of upset and conflict. Maybe that’s not entirely, always true, one expert says.
"When leaders understand workplace personalities as operating systems rather than obstacles, team conflict transforms from a barrier into a business advantage,” asserts Brian Rollo, a leadership specialist and founder at Brian Rollo Consulting Group, where he helps organizations develop capabilities that impact retention and performance.
Rollo talks about how to go about this shift in thinking.
“The first step is realizing that all leadership is situational,” he begins. “A good leader adapts their approach to current conditions and those conditions are always influenced by the personality and behavior of the different human beings involved.”
He elaborates to further explain.
“In my experience, personality is an adaptive framework that we each create as our operating system for dealing with the world,” Rollo says. “We each have behaviors and beliefs that feel comfortable to us while retaining our agency to act completely differently if we really want to. A smart manager is aware of this.”
He details how that leadership perceptiveness and understanding works.
“They can largely anticipate how their people will respond to different situations and the chemistry that is involved when people with different operating systems encounter conflict,” Rollo says.
“It’s about both creating self-awareness in people to see their own operating system for what it is (comfort, not destiny) and the ability to recognize and work with their colleagues’ operating systems.”
This worthwhile managerial task can aid in professional development for the people under a leader’s charge.
“Teaching employees this skill helps them see conflict as a necessary step to finding solutions, not a personal attack,” Rollo explains.
“It helps the team move forward without the passive-aggressive, or sometimes just aggressive baggage, that weighs most teams down.”
I love this perspective, Michael.
In my experience, so many workplace conflicts come from assuming someone is the problem, rather than noticing how different approaches and styles interact. Treating personalities as adaptable frameworks is a game-changer.
Happy Wednesday!