Here are the basic different personality types in the workplace and how to work effectively with each:

The “Commander”

The “Commander” is goal oriented, focusing on individual tasks and the end result. They want to be in charge, and they make decisions quickly, sometimes even before they have all of the details. They can sometimes come across as rude or condescending – but most often don’t mean to. They have a clear path in mind, and are convinced that everyone else should come with them, without question. These people work best alone or in a leading position.

Working with this personality

The Commander can be intimidating, a “professional bulldozer” that requires you to firmly stand up to them. Don’t, and they’ll simply run you over (and although challenging, working with this kind of personality can be great not only for your personal but professional growth). If you work together, you’ll need to be as strong and confident as they are. If this is your subordinate, assign individual projects whenever you can rather than group projects.

The “Adventurer”

Always looking for the next challenge, Adventurers are goal-oriented, with very high expectations for themselves. They are very secure, high energy and need variety.

Working with this personality

The Adventurer is a natural debater simply because “challenge” is their key driver. If this is your coworker, step right in and become part of that debate; brainstorm ideas together. If this is your subordinate, he/she needs lots of variety and change, so give him her projects to start rather than finish.

The “Stabilizer”

This personality is a steady, slow sort, and works perfectly in a team setting. People with this personality like routine and the status quo. They aren’t comfortable with risk. Flexible and agreeable, they get along well with everyone else and don’t like conflict or disagreement.

Working with this personality

This personality is the perfect coworker or subordinate.Hand them any task and they’ll get it done thoroughly, by the due date – including anything the aforementioned Adventurer starts. This self-effacing personality does not need lots of accolades or approval – but since they’re so well-deserved, give them anyway, and learn to recognize and praise their work and their professional growth.

The “Perfectionist”

Another personality that’s introverted and prefers to work alone, they are very cautious and will check their work multiple times before they turn it in. They’re very analytical and logical, detail-oriented, and aren’t afraid to simply dig in and go through everything with a fine-toothed comb. Unlike the Stabilizer, the Perfectionist is more likely to get frustrated and to express it.

Working with this personality

This is another personality that doesn’t like conflict and tends to be quiet and shy but not antisocial – it’s just that he or she prefers to work alone. Casual conversation is unnecessary, so don’t be put off by that. They also avoid conflict at all costs.

If someone with this personality type is your subordinate, you can hand them particularly difficult quandaries to solve and they’ll have no problem simply sitting down and figuring things out, as long as you give them the time to do so. It’s imperative that you recognize this as a boss, not only for the health of your work environment but for your own and their professional growth.

Which personality type are you? How do you work effectively with different personality types at your office? Comment below!

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1. Use good manners. The same good manners that your parents taught you as a child are the same good manners that will help you communicate effectively in the workplace. For example you should never underestimate the power of saying please and thank you. When you thank a client for their business or you thank a co-worker for their efforts, this shows appreciation. When people feel that they are appreciated they are more likely to respect you in return.

Another fundamental aspect of displaying good manners is being a good listener. It is important that you fight any tendency to cut people off. You have two ears and one mouth. Do you exercise that ratio accordingly?  Also you just don’t listen with your ears, but with your eyes as well. So it is good to maintain appropriate eye contact. This will show personal interest. So as you can see, your good manners can help with your professional growth.

2. Respect the personal space of others. We’ve probably all had those situations where we were confronted with a close talker. No doubt, you will agree that such a situation makes you extremely uncomfortable. With that in mind it is good not to invade the personal space of others. If needed take a couple of steps away when communicating with others. Also connected with this point, people generally don’t respond well when someone is looking over their shoulder. This can make them feel stressed and tense. So this is a good point to keep in mind if you happen to be in a supervisory position. We can also connect the respecting of personal space back to displaying good manners.

3. Give thought to the tone of written communication. If your work requires you to communicate by email or to compose memos, then you need to be concerned with your written communication. Even though direct thoughts can be effective, you want to make sure that the tone of your writing doesn’t come across as abrupt or rude. You may find it helpful to read all written correspondence out loud before you send it to others. Giving due consideration to your written communication with further your professional growth.

4. Give thought to Non Verbal Communication. We already discussed appropriate eye contact in connection with being a good listener. But, there are other forms of non verbal communication that are important for you to pay attention to as well. For example a smile can go along way with making people comfortable around you. Also gestures such as crossing your arms can make you come across as stern and present a negative image. The non verbal at times speaks just as loud as the verbal.

How are your professional communication skills? Do you see room for improvement?

• Food for thought. While it’s totally fine to eat your morning or afternoon snack at your desk, the same can’t always be said for your lunch. As with anything that involves being heated up, something that you may think smells delicious, might not smell so great to others in close proximity to you. OR it might smell so delicious to those around you that their mouths are left watering and it causes a distraction.
• Don’t pump up the volume. Be considerate of others around you when listening to music while you work. Listen to your music very softly, or even better, use headphones.
• Use your inside voice. Whether you’re talking to a colleague or making a personal phone call, remember to use your inside voice. There are other people working close by who may also be on the phone, or need to remain super-focused, so talking loudly could be a distraction for them.
  
• Check the ringtones. You may want to rethink your ringtone when you’re in an office setting. If you have a reminder alert that goes off all day long, or a loud song that plays every time your phone rings, that could definitely be distracting to those around you. You don’t need to change your ringtones or your alerts all together, but while you’re at the office consider putting your phone on vibrate. 
  
• “Knock” before entering. If you sit in a cubicle, you know that nothing scares you more than someone who sneaks up on you when you’re not expecting a visitor or when you’re in the “zone”. While cubicle dwellers don’t have a door to knock on, you should make it a habit to make your presence known when you’re approaching someone’s cubicle. You could just simply knock on the wall like you’d knock on an office door.

Do you have any other etiquette tips for working in a cubicle? Comment below!

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Commuting
Let’s start at the very beginning of your work day – the daily commute. This trip in peak-hour traffic may cause your stress and distraction levels to rise before you even get into the office. Take some time to revise your morning schedule to avoid anything unpredictable, ensuring that you are regularly punctual – carpooling may work for some, but frustrate others if everyone is not doing their bit. Getting to work on time in the right frame of mind will help you ease into your pre-work routine and get off to a more productive start.

Colleagues
To increase your professional growth you should aim to strike a balance between your social and productive sides – remember that you are at work, to work. When walking into the office in the morning, you should greet colleagues while moving purposefully towards your desk. If someone particularly chatty starts talking to you, try to get them to walk and talk with you as you move towards your desk. Casual conversations with co-workers can be a great source of distraction if you’re unable to manage your relationships and set healthy boundaries. There’s nothing wrong with politely asking somebody not to interrupt you between certain times due to a deadline you’re working towards, or something like that. Express your approach to work in a consistent and courteous manner.

Noise
You should make an effort to manage the noise levels around you in order to assist your concentration. Sitting too close to a noisy coffee machine, over-hearing a one sided telephone call, or even hearing low-level open plan offices sounds, can be extremely distracting. If you’re blessed with a door, close it. If you work in an open plan office environment it would be a good idea for you to start wearing ear phones or maybe even purchase a white noise machine.

Tech Intrusion
Productive people do the near impossible task of checking their emails only twice a day! There must surely be some kind of method to this madness as emails, social media, and other online activities drastically contribute to office distractions. Studies show that it can take up to 15 minutes to recover from one email interruption! When you have important full-focus work to get done, try unplugging yourself for a couple of hours. Additionally, you should reduce the clutter in your inbox by making use of a folder system that makes most sense to you – a compact inbox will give you more peace of mind.

If you’re the kind of worker seeking professional growth, you need to take active steps to avoid distractions during your work day. You’re entitled to ask for an ergonomic chair and comfortable office temperature, but at the end of the day it is not your boss’s duty to mediate your work environment.

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• Find a mentor: Find a person in the company that can coach and mentor you and build a positive work relationship with that person. Look for a manager or other higher-up that is willing to help you learn about the organization and how it works.
• Be a team player: Be a valued member of the team. Become part of the organization; treat it as though you own it, reveling in its success!
• Further your education: Learn everything there is to know about your current position and then learn everything there is to know about the next step up the ladder. Always pursue new skills. Earn as many certificates as you can that relate to your job. Knowledge is power!
• Network: Attend company functions. Volunteer to help out at company functions. Help organize and set up company functions.
• Make your goals known: Ensure that your goals are known. Let people in high places know that you are willing to do what it takes to move up in the company.
• Work hard and smart: Work hard, be there on time. Be careful with missing work for silly reasons. When you are at work, be there 100%. Work smart, make the most of your time at work and make it count. Don’t put off work today thinking it can be done tomorrow. Bring your assignments in ahead of time and then ask for more!
• Promote yourself: Promote yourself in a non-threatening manner. Ensure that people in high places know who you are and what you are about.
• Ask for new assignments: When your work is finished, ask for more! Volunteer to help out others when your assignments are completed.
• Have a successor in mind: Not only should you find a mentor who can work with you; you should also become a mentor to a potential successor. If you have a replacement in mind for your boss that can do as well as you did, he will be more in favor of promoting you.
• Lead at every opportunity; follow only when you must! Be a leader in your department when an assignment calls for a leader and follow only when it is beneficial for you to do so. We can’t always be a leader and when we can’t we can be a good follower and receive just as much attention for our efforts.
• Build relationships with the people you work with. Developing positive job relationships with the people you work with will ensure you are a focal point of people in positions of authority at work.

Just remember, when you arrive at work it’s “show time” so make every moment count. Don’t let fear get in your way of letting your supervisors know you have goals and are not afraid to work for them! Be sure you are acting in an assertive manner and not an aggressive manner where your promotion goals are concerned and that promotion may be right around the corner!

1. Best value items. Create a list of frequently purchased items. Review purchase history for items and substitute items with best value alternatives where possible. Share the list with all users to help point them to best value items.
2. Printer Supplies. Create lists for ordering paper, toner, and other supplies for office printers. You can assign easy to remember names such as “Marketing Printer”.
3. New employees. Include items for new hires to make sure they have everything they need to hit the road running on day 1 – pens, stapler, notepad, desk chair, computer monitor, etc.
4. Restrooms. Some facilities have towel, tissue, soap, and air freshener dispensers requiring specific refills.
5. Breakroom. Include coffee and beverages, cups, plates, and cutlery. Avoid forgetting to order the decaf or somebody’s favorite flavor.

These are just a few ideas to help save time and expense. If you want to begin using favorites lists, be sure to check out our step-by-step guide “Building Shared Favorites Lists”.

NEOS can also help to review purchases and build larger lists if you need them. If you’d like to get help, you can request to speak with a NEOS Expert.

1. Pilot B2P pen – Made from recycled water bottles.
2. Post-it Greener Notes – The “green” version of the classic Post-it Note that we all love.
3. NEOS Toilet Tissue – Both of the NEOS standard toilet tissue is manufactured by Cascades, one of the greenest manufacturers of paper products in North America.
4. Tombow correction tape – Now the greenest of all correction tapes.
5. Cardinal Eco Smart Binders – High recycled content, right down to the rings.
6. Domtar Earth Choice Paper – An awesome story on managing the carbon footprint.
7. Eco Products – Any of their products would qualify but we especially like the Plant starch cutlery… great quality too!
8. Havells spiral white energy saver light bulbs 
9. Elite Image remanufactured cartridges – It goes without saying the tons of really bad stuff that goes into landfills with laser cartridges.  By using and then returning for remanufacturing Elite is, well just that!
10. Blue Recycling Bin – Everyone should have one.

Check out the Green page on our website for tons more eco-friendly products!

1) Make a priority list. A priority list will help you determine what items are urgent and important. For example certain items are urgent because they have a set deadline and they need to be done by a certain date. Other items are important, because even if there is not a strict deadline, the accomplishing of the task may be connected to the completion of other tasks (some of which may have deadlines). Determining an order of priority will help you focus on the items that need to be accomplished first. This contributes to effective time management.

2)  Apply the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule was developed by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. Also known as the Pareto principle, the rule originated with Pareto’s observation that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. The gist of the rule is that 20% of the causes produce 80% of the results. So how does this apply to your work? You need to determine which tasks will produce the most results. The tasks which will produce the most results are the tasks that you will spend the biggest bulk of your time on. You spend more time on the 20%, while the 80% can be accomplished more quickly. This could be the most important principle in connection with time management.

3) Avoid being a perfectionist. There will be certain key work assignments that may need to be accomplished perfectly and there may be little margin for error. But there are less important tasks that you could really frustrate yourself if you were to insist on perfection. This also relates back to the 80/20 rule. We do not want to waste endless amounts of time on tasks that are really not that important. Certain task you can get done quickly and move on.

4) Delegate. This is especially important if you have a supervisory role. You do not always have to take on every responsibility yourself. Certain tasks you could assign to others. This not only lightens your load, but it also provides much needed training to others. This will definitely improve workplace efficiency.

5) Take the time to recharge your battery. Some people may work through lunch or through their break because they feel they can accomplish more by doing so. The trouble is by doing so they can become overwhelmed and stressed out. Taking the necessary time to recharge your battery can actually help you accomplish more. If your job allows you the flexibility to do so, you might find it helpful to take a 20 minute power nap, or going for a quick walk at times when you feel sluggish.

6) Make good use of transition time. There may be waiting periods that you can take advantage of by multi-tasking. For example you are on the phone and you are put on hold. While on hold you might be able to respond to important emails, or read important work related documents. Along as you are not distracted, multi-tasking can help you effectively manage your time.

Hopefully these 6 time management and multi-tasking tips will help you be able to juggle multiple responsibilities at work.