“The only number surpassing the number of different personalities in the world is the number of different personality classification systems”. At the first glance, this sentence is a gross exaggeration. At a second glance, it still is an exaggeration, but maybe not so gross any more: one can classify personalities on all kinds of criteria: sexe, religion, ethnicity/cultural background, family structure etc. and every person has at least one system to comprehend her surroundings.

Is the world then really waiting for another Enneagram, Briggs-Myers, or whatever system to help understand our surroundings? For me, I look for simple explanations (“the simpler the truthfuller”), and I found the following helpful. You decide for yourself.

Scientists

Most professionals do their work for the content of it: one chooses to become fireman because of the inherent attraction of putting out fires. These jobs are focused on actually doing a particular activity: you use a fire blanket and not water because it extinguishes the fires instead of fuelling it. Activities are based on facts, rules or principles, and fixed, pre-determined working hours. These activities could be both product or services oriented. Examples are waiters, athletes, secretaries and researchers. With these functions we can generate products and/or a services proposal.

Operational managers

As soon as scientists need to cooperate or be managed, not only real facts drive decisions, but also interpersonal relationships: how does one constitute a team. Decisions are not solely based on facts any more, but on the interpretation of social factors, social skills are a prerequisite. Examples are: team leaders, project managers, operational managers. Now we have products that have been produced or services that have been rendered.

Sales managers

It is great to have designed (and produced) the world’s greatest mouse trap, but is the world really waiting for this? To clarify the benefits of these products and services to the customers we need the Account Managers of this world. In their job, principles and practicalities not always need to play a role: they produce promises, and facts play a subordinate role to interpersonal skills convincing the client to sign at the bottom. Now we have products that have been sold.

Politicians

Humanity has come to the realization that the three roles above are not sufficient. About the much maligned politicians it is said: “We do not really know what they do, but still they are indispensable.” Of all roles, they are the farthest away from principles, the most flexible, both in standpoint and in working hours. (In The Netherlands, the summum of political significance is apparently being included in the evening telephone calls after the Sunday 8 o’clock news.) The focus of operation here is “the process and nothing but the process”: do the right institutions approve to get to an agreement? Here also the trade-offs among topics are made and a perfectly good standpoint might be abandoned for a bigger and greater good. Difficulty often is that not all of these factors may be publicized, so one sometimes has to defend a particular decision with a ‘hand tied behind your back’.

In Summary:

Conclusion

One could say: a scientist is responsible for products, an operations manager for profits, a sales manager for revenues, and a politician for strategy. Before you read further: what type of person are you?

Ultimately, every organization has a focus on one of these categories: e.g. a chemical firm on Science, a BPO firm on Operations, an apparel firm on Sales, and a municipal government on Politicians. Now it is the job of a Management Board to make sure that in her organization the right mix of all profiles is represented. Much wisdom in making your decisions!

(Originally posted January 22, 2015)