Controlling Emotions at Work: Part of Core Employment Skills?

Controlling Emotions at Work: Part of Core Employment Skills?

 

Lesley Wright’s recent article in the Arizona Republic offered some insight into a new book by author and ASU professor Vincent Waldron.  Waldron’s book, titled, “Communicating Emotion at Work”, due later this year, will include information from his 20 years of studying emotions in the workplace.

In the book, “It’s Not You It’s Your Personality” similar topics are covered in chapters about emotional intelligence and concern for impact.  Concern for impact may be defined as how much we care about how others perceive us.  In the Arizona Republic article, “Waldron argues that emotional communication should be a core employment skill.”  Emotions are a buzz word in the workplace since Daniel Goleman helped increase the popularity of emotional intelligence with his book about why emotional intelligence could matter more than IQ. Books about emotions in the workplace can be a very effective tool to help explain why people act the way they do.  This can be very important, especially in a team setting.  As more companies are creating teams, understanding one’s fellow employees and their emotions can be critical to the success of a team and their projects.

Some of the things that Waldron pointed out in his interview with Wright tied into having concern for impact which can be an important part of one’s success in the workplace. Waldron claims, “The theme of this book is that emotions, both positive and negative, have in a sense evolved to serve a purpose. Emotional communication is a tool for making our organizations and our lives richer, more moral, more humane and potentially building better workplaces. Sometimes that means regulating and suppressing emotions. So we need to be competent at understanding the emotions and learning to regulate them. I’m sort of arguing for a heightened awareness of how emotion makes us good. I don’t think there is any competitive disadvantage to being emotionally competent.”

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Do Introverts Make Good Speakers?

This is a very interesting topic that was recently brought up in one of my foresight in technology courses I teach.  Many of my  technology students are introverts. The Myers Briggs MBTI classifies people as introverts and extroverts.  The introvert tends to think before they speak. The extrovert tends to think as they speak.  Because of this, many may assume, the time lag preferred by an introvert may not make them the most likely candidates to be a good speaker.

However, really good speakers have spent long hours in preparation of their presentations.  This is an ideal way for the introvert to deliver information.  They have time to think and arrange their thoughts in a way that comes across in the way they intended. 

Classic introverts, like Bill Gates, can deliver wonderful speeches.  The problem introverts may experience in the speaking circuit would probably have more to do with the question and answer session at the end of the presentation.  At that point, once questions are asked, the introvert speaker could answer things very quickly if it is something they are familiar with and have answered previously.  However, should a heckler get into the crowd and ask something way off topic, in that case, it might not be the ideal situation for the classic introvert. 

An example of an introverted leader/speaker feeling as if they are under pressure during a Q&A session would be the Mark Zuckerberg video where he had flop sweat.

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Are Humans Getting Dumber as Our Brains are Shrinking?

via google.com

Did you know that our brains are actually shrinking? NPR.org reported, “Cro-Magnon man, who lived in Europe 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, had the biggest brains of any human species.  In comparison, today’s human brain is about 10 percent smaller.”

The human brain is still an enigma is many respects.  Are there differences in the human brain that cause people like Einstein to achieve so much?  Studies were completed on Einstein’s brain and they actually found he had some differences.  There is speculation that due to the way that Einstein’s brain was missing a part of a bordering region, that this enabled neurons to communicate more efficiently.  

With all of the technological inventions, one might think that people should be getting smarter. However, in the NPR article, this decreasing in brain size may have a negative impact, “The experts aren’t sure about the implications of this evolutionary trend.  Some think it might be a dumbing-down process. One cognitive scientist, David Geary, argues that as human society grows increasingly complex, individuals don’t need to be as intelligent in order to survive and reproduce.” 

If this is true, the movie Idiocracy may be foreshadowing some frightening possibilities.  The movie displays what life would be like if people continue on their current path of finding entertainment in reality shows, tattooing, partying and enjoying other less than useful activities.  This movie seemed to play off of studies done by Lentz in 1927 that claimed the intelligent people were having fewer children than the less intelligent people.  This would lead to a society of less intelligent people.  The Examiner claims Lentz’s work has merit, stating “This conjecture has been confirmed by studies like that of Hernstein and Murray (1994), who demonstrated that in the U.S. females with an average IQ of 111 had 1.6 children, whereas females with an average IQ of 81 had 2.6 children.”

The Examiner claims that there is hope for improvements, though, due to something called the Flynn effect. “Even if genotypic IQ is heading towards a decline across the world, there is still phenotypic intelligence that has increased over the last few generations. This phenomenon, also known as Flynn effect, is attributable to advancements in nutrition, education, and a more intellectually stimulating environment. The Flynn effect has led to gains of 7.5 IQ points a generation, much greater than .43 IQ points decline in genotypic IQ.”
There is something called Spearman’s g that refers to one’s general intelligence that was postulated in 1904 by Charles Spearman.  g, written in lower case like, now refers to general intelligence. A neuroscientist named John Duncan explained Spearman’s work in his book How Intelligence Happens.  The Wall Street Journal explained, “Mr. Duncan makes a convincing case that these brain areas constitute a special circuit that is crucial for both Spearman’s “g” and for intelligent behavior more generally. But his book elides the question of whether this circuit is also the source of IQ differences. That is, do people who score high on IQ tests use the frontal and parietal areas of their brains differently from people who score lower? The answer, discovered by other researchers, turns out to be yes.”

It appears that our brains are decreasing in size, more people with lower IQ scores are having children, but we can increase our education and nutrition.  We can also learn more about how our frontal and parietal areas can be improved.  There is hope that we are not necessarily headed for an Idiocracy-like future.

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Dwight Schrute is an Obsessive Pleaser: It’s Not You It’s Your Personality Gives Readers Insight into What Makes People Tick

PRweb Press Release – It might be obvious that Dwight Schrute is a control freak. But, who knew that Chris Rock was an introvert? Understanding how to read personalities is important according to mother and daughter co-authors, Dr. Diane Hamilton and Toni Rothpletz. They blow the lid off what many thought they knew about personalities in their latest book: It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality. This is the ultimate handbook for understanding the inner-workings of not just celebrities—but co-workers, friends and family. Chris Rock, like many celebrity comedians is, indeed, an introvert according to a popular personality test. Are people prepared to work with the Rock and Schrute personalities of the world? Hamilton and Rothpletz help answer some important personality quandaries like this as well as: How should people interact with introverts? Does the boss’s birth order matter? How does one climb the corporate ladder of success by developing emotional intelligence?

There’s no question that Diane and Toni are the type of authors that readers would want to hang out with. It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality is as fun of a read as the title dictates. It takes readers on a journey through the many ways one can analyze personalities. Along the way, a lot is learned about the personalities of celebrities, coworkers, friends and family. The Myers-Briggs personality test, also created by a mother-daughter team, indicates Ari Gold of “Entourage” fame has the personality trait of a “thinker.” Though not all thinkers are cold-hearted, the “thinker” is all business. There is no time to worry about how others are reacting. Truly, however, even Ari has a soft side—or viewers wouldn’t continue watching. People, including Ari, have different personality preferences. Even a “thinker” may sometimes be a “feeler,” depending on the circumstances.

“With It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality we are taking what would normally be a tough topic to address—personalities—and making it fun and light-hearted,” says co-author Dr. Diane Hamilton, “The celebrities we know and love are out there to analyze, so why not have fun with the personality name game?”

It’s Not You, It’s Your Personality is geared toward the new generation of workers, those generally born in the late 70s and beyond who are currently in the workforce. This generation, dubbed by Hamilton and Rothpletz as the “NewGens,” is taking a large chunk of the job force as baby boomers are set to retire. As cited in the book, companies far and wide are now trying to find new ways to train and interact with the NewGens. Personality tests abound. Which ones are the right ones? How can these assessments be used for success?

“We recommend that you get a jump start on knowing your place in the office environment before you land that job,”says co-author Toni Rothpletz, “There are plenty of free tests out there. Being ready to deal with people is half the battle at any job on a day to day basis. By giving celebrity examples of personalities in our book, our hope was to better explain people’s individual preferences, while still entertaining the reader.”

There is a noted severe uniqueness of very strong personalities in the NewGen community. Even with the advent of technology, people are the most valuable asset. Turnover costs money. Hiring the wrong person (or personality) costs money. Job hunters that know themselves the best, are setting themselves up for success because ultimately how they handle themselves on a day-to-day basis is what will get them ahead in the long term.

So what about the personality preferences of Chris Rock, Ari Gold or Dwight Schrute? Bottom-line is it doesn’t matter the personality—certain things cannot be changed. However, the way people interact can be changed. Knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses is the key to advancing from even the seedling of a career.

To find out more about their writing or to schedule an interview, visit Dr. Hamilton’s website at https://drdianehamilton.com or her blog at http://drdianehamilton.wordpress.com/.

Review copies are available.

It’s Not You It’s Your Personality –December, 2010 ($19.95/Amazon). ISBN: 9780982742839 Approximately 220 pages

Rebecca Crowley – PR Contact – 649-619-1178

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What is Your Favorite Celebrity’s Personality Type? See How Your Personality Compares to Theirs

Have you ever wondered if you shared a personality type with a famous celebrity?  While it is very important to learn about our own personalities, it can also be very helpful to learn about other people’s personalities as well.  By looking at famous celebrities and their personality types, it can help us recognize qualities that we may possess that can be helpful or hurtful to our own success.

People are often described as being introverts or extroverts.  How can you tell which one you are?  One way is to answer the following question:  Do you find that you often speak before you have had a chance to really think about what it is you want to say?  If so, you may be an extrovert.  Extroverts are often thought of as outgoing because they can be talkative. They can be talkative because they are processing what they are thinking out loud. You might think that Hollywood celebrities must be extroverts.  That is not necessarily true.

Think about how you prefer to process information.  If you think as you are speaking rather than taking time to process the information, you might be an extrovert.  If you are an extrovert, here are some famous people that share your personality type:

  • Matthew Perry
  • Tom Hanks
  • Oprah
  • Johnny Depp
  • Robin Williams
  • Bill Cosby
  • Jim Carrey
  • Jerry Seinfeld
  • Bruce Willis
  • Madonna

There are actually more extroverts in the world than introverts.  Introverts like to take their time to develop their thoughts before they speak.  If you prefer to process information this way, you may be an introvert.  There are far more introverts in Hollywood than you might expect.  If you are an introvert, here are some famous people that share your personality type:

  • Michael Jackson
  • Marilyn Monroe
  • Britney Spears
  • Brooke Shields
  • Ashton Kutcher
  • Julia Roberts
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • Lady Gaga
  • Tom Cruise

There are a lot of different personality tests out there that give information about personality preferences.  The previous examples of introverts and extroverts are a part of what the Myers-Briggs MBTI personality test can explain about our personalities.

There are plenty of other assessments that can give insight to who you are.  A lot has been written about birth order, and how it affects personality.  Are you a first-born child?  Then you may be interested in learning that the following celebrities are also first-borns:

  • Jessica Simpson
  • Nick Lachey
  • Josh Hartnett
  • Sylvester Stallone

If you are a middle child, you share that in common with the following celebrities:

  • Elijah Wood
  • Bill Gates
  • Jay Leno
  • Princess Diana

If you are the youngest, you may be interested in seeing which celebrities were last-born children:

  • Halle Berry
  • Cameron Diaz
  • Rosie O’Donnell
  • Whoopi Goldberg

If you are an only child, you may relate to these celebrities:

  • Freddie Prinze, Jr.
  • Alicia Keys
  • Tiger Woods
  • Natalie Portman

To find out more about how to analyze your own personality as well as those in others, check out the book: It’s Not You It’s Your Personality.  Millennials and post-boomer groups should be able to relate to many of the examples in the book.  Some of the top personality assessments are explained, along with celebrity examples so that you can visualize the personality traits.  The following personality assessments are also discussed in the book:

You might have noticed that emotional intelligence is covered in the book. Part of being emotionally intelligent is having the ability to understand your own emotions and personality as well as those in others.  The book, It’s Not You It’s Your Personality, includes a fun way to develop your personality skills.  You can also learn tolerance of others’ personalities, while being able to compare your own traits to some famous celebrities as well.

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