According to a 2013 article by Management Training Specialists, global leaders in employee management training, the number one reason for workplace conflicts is....wait for it….personality clashes. Who would have guessed? Often, conflicts arise from cases such as; Chatty Cathy meets Captain Curt and other scenarios where the communication and productivity styles are polar opposites or diverse and a collaborative effort is required in order to achieve a common goal. Imagine a workplace where everyone is Captain Curt, Chatty Cathy, Even Steven, or Debbie Do Right. The imagery isn’t ideal, however if one were to sift out all of the best qualities of each of these personalities and utilize them accordingly, we would witness Worktopia. Worktopia - place of gleaming rainbows and grazing unicorns, the perfect utopia for employees to thrive and achieve more.
It is important in personal life and also in work life to have harmony, stability, creativity and productivity which is why Mike Postlewaite created “Management By Strengths”. He considers MBS to be a program designed to help companies increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and employee morale through an improved understanding of how to work more effectively together. It functions as a solution to the interpersonal conflicts people face when trying to communicate or achieve common goals effectively. At Equiscript, we teach MBS to do just that, decrease workplace conflicts, increase creativity and productivity, and lastly, to foster a harmonious environment for employees. By using the four temperament traits of MBS, Worktopia is possible and here’s how: Each trait is carefully categorized and color coded by behaviors that can be used as strengths.
- Red - The red trait is the first MBS trait and it stands for directness. People with this trait are natural problem solvers, results driven, control oriented, and get right to the point when communicating.
- Green - The green trait is identified as the social trait by employees. This trait stands for extroversion and is associated with people and teamwork. People who have the green trait are talkative when comfortable, enthusiastic, natural delegators, like teamwork, and are generally outgoing and cheerful.
- Blue - According to MBS creator Mike Postlewaite, this trait makes up at least 80% of people in the healthcare industry. This trait is known as the pace trait. People with the blue trait focus on timing, harmony and cooperation. Other attributes of this trait include: uncommon patience, good memory, ability to remain calm and cool under pressure and an easy going, relaxed nature.
- Yellow - Last but not least, people with the yellow MBS trait are focused on structure because being right and doing right are paramount to everything. People with the structure trait ask lots of questions, they are naturally good organizers, they double check themselves and others, and they are very meticulous.
Commonly, people mistake the MBS traits as labels and are not always eager to accept their profiles. However, to paraphrase MBS creator Mike Postlewaite, MBS does not create labels, rather it removes the labels so that people can live and work effectively together. The MBS website illustrates that the attributes can be used to create self awareness when people are able to analyze and understand their own profiles. These attributes can also help people understand how to appeal to the temperaments of others for effective communication and collaborations in their personal lives and careers. Leadership teams use MBS to identify and capitalize on the strengths of their employees and teach them how to better support one another. In other words, there actually is a road that leads to a place called Worktopia and MBS is the vehicle that we drive to get there.
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Tekoa is a patient sales representatives and Management By Strengths trainer at Equiscript. Tekoa has worked in customer service, sales, training and management for over twenty years. She studied Business Management at Southern Wesleyan university and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Divinity through Liberty University Rawlings School of Divinity. Outside of her professional work, Tekoa regularly volunteers service and support for various outreach programs and holds monthly workshops to mentor women in life navigation. Tekoa is a singer, and songwriter and is currently learning to play the classical acoustic guitar. Tekoa is the loving mother of four wonderful children.