Taking Advantage of Different Work Styles

Throughout 2008, we had an interesting, uh, adventure in hiring, before we found our infrastructure queen, Kate Williams. Kate is blogging the Insider View, as previously self-employed and now working with us. I expect that she’s going to embarrass the crumb out of me. The intention, however, is to be as transparent in our business as possible, so you can learn what really works (and what really doesn’t.)

So I’ve got this collaborative partner who seems constantly distracted month after month. You may have heard of him, Mark Silver, the Heart of Business guy. Love him, but, whew, just when I think we’re gettin’ down to some serious progress, he fades off for a time.

I can be at the peak of my attention in a conversation about how to organize a project, or just finished a critical piece and need him to do the next to keep the momentum going, and he just doesn’t have the energy to continue or do his next part . . . could be that days go by.

Hey, Don’t Leave Now!

It’s like turning on a lamp to read, you just get to a juicy part of the story and the light goes out. Then when the light comes back on, you’ve lost your place and the tension buildup is gone and the scene has its pizzazz.

As you might suspect, I’m the kind of person who takes a roll-up-your-sleeves, get-going, hours-go-by-before-realizing-it sort of approach to accomplishing things. I’m a dog with a bone type, in other words.

The Aha! Moment of Identifying Our Differences

Mark and I set up a phone meeting the other day to get some clarity on a new class we want to organize and promote in the next six months. Well, you know how it goes when there are things that just need to be talked about before you talk about what you’ve agreed to talk about. Ha!

We got off on strategic alliances, social media connections, individual vs corporate alliances, how many possible avenues we have to go in, where we should focus. How to reach greater numbers of people . . . there’s so much to do . . . enough tweeting already . . .

One thing led to another, and I commented on how many overwhelming personal events have happened at Heart of Business in the last year, out of our control things that have slowed down our growth progress each time I think we’re getting a toehold. Mark kept pressing me to be clearer, he didn’t know what I was meaning. (Love that, even if it’s difficult sometimes.)

Eventually we hit on it. What was buggin’ me was his general work style. We both realized that Mark’s a zoom in, do a couple of hours of intensely focused work and then buzz off sort of worker. He can only concentrate on something for that long at a time. Whereas I tend to marathon with an acute need to realize completed goals. Give me a reason to check off my to-do list and I’m a happy camper.

The tension wasn’t about Mark being constantly distracted or challenging life events, but rather him having a very different work rhythm than me. Aha!

Collaborate Successfully Using Your Different Work Styles

Of course each of our first impulses was to ask, “Well how can each of us adjust our styles to better work together.”

“Wait, no,” I said, “We don’t want to try to dilute our individual working styles. We need to take advantage of them.”

Realizing in that moment, that neither style was better than the other, that they have both brought each of us success in different ways, allowed immediate appreciation to flow into the conversation.

Suddenly, I didn’t feel critical of Mark’s “constant distraction,” and he could understand why I was feeling frustrated.

We were able to acknowledge that Mark is great at getting things to happen quickly in the short run and that I’m great at developing longer term strategies and accomplishing them. And we need both.

Getting to That Aha! Moment

You may be working solo or with employees in your business. Either way, remember to look beyond your immediate work environment for places where you are in collaborative work relationships. Even if you’re working alone right now, you are always working with your clients, customers, patients. And all of you have different working styles.

• Get conscious of your own work style. You don’t do your business in a vacuum. How you operate impacts those around you. You need to understand yourself here if you’re going to successfully work with other’ styles.

• Before judging another’s work style as problematic, learn how and why they’re working for that person. When I identified Mark’s high and low energy behaviors as a natural work cycle for him, I was able to open my mind to solutions rather than simply being frustrated. I was also then able to be more accepting of my work style, appreciating how much I love getting lost in time while doing creative projects.

• Talk about your work styles with your business partner, client, or employee. Mark and I have been dancing around this issue for months without identifying it. It was much easier to blame the inconsistencies on outside events. Take the time to acknowledge your styles, what works for each of you and what doesn’t.

• Capitalize on your differences. Don’t dilute your differences by trying to compromise too much, or by trying to be someone you’re not. Consider how you can each accommodate for your differences. Mark’s energy bursts, his constantly moving attentions make him a great social media maven. 

He can be tweeting one moment and writing a promotional email in the next. Yeah!, ‘cuz I suck at being in several places at once. I can be the one to trudge through larger projects that take more time, concentration, and consistent attention.

We all have different work styles. Let’s celebrate that and stop wasting time and energy wanting someone to be different. There is so much to gain by identifying our different work flows and methods. If we honor the ways different styles can be used, suddenly our efforts multiply in efficiency. What one person is not good at another can do well because they work differently.