4 Types of People You Need to Manage to Get Work Done

From the solo player to the alpha worker and the devil’s advocate, a workplace has a motley group of people with diverse personalities, ways of working, and forms of responding to rules, tasks, and expectations. If you are responsible for seeing a client project through to its end or leading a team, you will need to manage these people the best way you can.

Since people often come preloaded with baggage in terms of different work ethics, communication styles, temperaments, preferences, and so much more, analysing and categorising people is crucial to deciding how you should motivate or push them to get the work done.

As a leader, understanding each of your team members will help you to unearth what makes them tick, thus motivating and influencing them better. This way, you can help them to contribute constructively to your project.

You should also conduct self-introspection to identify which type of person you are, as it will let you honour your commitments at work – to yourself and others. It will also help you meet deadlines, make better decisions, keep promises you have made to yourself, experience less stress, and engage more deeply with others.

According to Gretchen Rubin, author of the blockbuster The Happiness Project, you can classify people into four broad categories when it comes to motivating them to get work done. These categories are

Questioners
Obligers
Rebels, and
Upholders

Gretchen says that her experience indicates the majority of people are questioners and obligers.

The parameters Gretchen uses are the way people tend to respond to a rule. She says a rule can be external or internal. For instance, a request from your manager or a deadline would be an external rule, while your new year’s resolution or a personal goal you plan to accomplish is an internal rule. While external rules are set by others and you are pushed to achieve them, internal rules arise from your own desire as no one has asked you to set them.

Let’s take a closer look at Gretchen’s four categories of people and how you can manage them at the workplace to complete tasks and projects on time.

1.     Questioners

These people need justifications and question everything. They only meet inner expectations and do something when they believe it makes sense. They oppose rules for rules’ sake and hate anything arbitrary.

You can’t motivate questioners by random requests or policies. Instead, you need rock-solid arguments and reasons because these people tend to ask why they need to do something and what the purpose of such a task or action is.

When working with a questioner in your team, you must be prepared to share as much information as possible with that person. Make questioners understand why the work you ask them to do is important. If they stay silent, encourage them to speak up, share their concerns, and ask questions, so you can address them and even explain the consequences of not getting the work done.

Having questioners on board can be quite beneficial for your company as they have a no-nonsense approach and become extremely engaged in work they believe needs to be completed. The only downside is their continuous need to question things, which can be draining to everyone around.

2.     Obligers

They need accountability. Obligers respond well to external demands and expectations, and rules set by others. However, they struggle to keep the rules they set for themselves and meet their inner or private goals.

To put it differently, obligers are motivated by structures, external accountability, and deadlines enforced by others. They are inspired by doing what’s expected of them and hate disappointing other people.

Having obligers in a team can help as they are extremely reliable and like to please. However, you will need to check on them periodically because they aren’t good self-starters. These people can also suffer from tremendous stress and be prone to burnout as they find it difficult to say “no.”

3.     Rebels

These people desire the utmost freedom to do things their own way and resist all forms of control, even self-control. They resist both outer and inner expectations and will do as they please based on what their present desire motivates them to do.

If you direct a rebel to do something, the person is likely to resist and may want to do just the opposite. This can be frustrating for you. But on the other hand, these people can do what others won’t because rebels don’t worry about how others perceive them and aren’t restricted by social etiquette.

To get rebels to work, you need to be a bit playful with them and challenge them with a task that gives them the freedom to rise to the challenge and prove they can do what many others can’t.

4.     Upholders

These people respect outer and inner rules and expectations and want to know what needs to be done. They are inspired by fulfilment and that lovely feeling of completing or accomplishing something.

It’s good to have upholders in your team as they are reliable, self-starters, and need minimal supervision or accountability to get the work done. These people are often super-achievers and slay their to-do lists. However, they need clear rules to function efficiently and not disappoint others.

Since upholders dislike deviating from rules, they tend to become frustrated and even stuck when rules are vague or deficient. Others may perceive upholders to be rigid or cold and even feel pangs of jealousy due to their high productivity levels.

Wrapping Up

Now that you know what drives these four different categories of people and what upsets them, pushing the right buttons to get the job done on time and even ensuring they work cohesively and efficiently as a team would no longer be an uphill task.

Do you have an idea for a future blog or would like to share your thoughts on any particular topic?

It would be great to hear from you.

Take care, all the best.

Gary

Gary Pike, Founder & MD Right International

Tel: +441932 800222 Email: garypike@rightinternational.com

Right International is a market leading recruitment firm who specialise in sourcing the top talent across the claims and wider insurance market.