47: How Your Personality Deals with the World, with Bonni Stachowiak

Bonni Stachowiak: Teaching in Higher Ed

Bonni is the host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Dean of Teaching and Learning and Professor of Business and Management at Vanguard University, and my life partner. Prior to her academic career, she was a human resources consultant and executive officer for a publicly traded company. Bonni is the author of The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide*.

Everyone interacts with the world differently, but there are two broad ends of the spectrum that can help us understand how we see the world and how we can support those that we lead. In this episode, we’ll look extensive at the judging-perceiving personality type preference and how appreciating both sides can help you to understand and lead others more effectively.

Are you a Chaos Muppet or an Order Muppet? Check out this article from Slate.

Judging preference

• Organized
• Scheduled
• Planned
• Energized by planning

Tips for leaders who prefer judging:

• Not everyone will have planned things out as well as you have
• Watch out for micromanagement
• You’re going to need to be flexible with the real world

How to lead those with a judging preference:

• Get them in the room when doing long-term planning and scheduling
• Coach them if they get too caught up in their planning
• Help people recognize when they need to be flexible

Perceiving preference

• Spontaneous
• Adaptable
• Flexible
• Energized by deadlines

Tips for leaders who prefer perceiving:

• Be careful not to change directions too many times on people
• There are huge advantages to giving people more time
• Remember that you can (and likely will) drive those with a judging preference nuts

How to lead those with an perceiving preference:

• Coach them if they aren’t trending towards making decisions
• Tap into their strengths when things need to change direction quickly
• Let them be flexible in the workplace (workday, schedule, timeline)

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