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25 Oct 2022
5 Min Read
Dr. Gan Jen Ling (Academic Contributor), Ailyn Low (Editor)
We discuss the importance of knowing your ideal work style for better productivity.
Did you know? While we have our preferred way of working to increase productivity, many of us may not be actively aware of our ideal work style.
Because of the pressure to perform, we may have a tendency to feel the need to change our working style especially if we think or are told that we’re not performing as well as our peers.
What’s worse is when individuals try to collaborate as a group, whether in university or at work, divergent work styles that aren’t unique to each individual, could block progress. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all, correct, working style.
Before talking about a work style that fits you, it’s essential to understand what it means.
A work style is simply the way a person thinks, structures their thoughts, organises their workflow, and completes their work. This process could be linear, analytical, and planned or something more intuitive and flexible. With the many different styles, it’s easy to think that we need to change and follow others who are seemingly doing better.
But maybe you don’t have to change the way that you work to follow a ‘correct’ working style to perform better. Perhaps it’s about knowing what suits you best than blindly following.
Changing your work style to something you think is correct can be hard especially when it’s a part of your identity. Instead, consider developing hybrid work processes that allow for a variety of work styles. Of course, you’d need to set up your team with the right tools that connect different work styles, too.
While this may be good for those looking for flexibility when performing at work, it can be difficult for others as it may result in spending more time looking for your right fit. Regardless, it’s definitely worth your while to better understand your own unique working style. Here are different types of working styles that you may identify with or try out:
1. Leader Work Style
Someone who easily influences people and are able to excite and motivate the team. Oftentimes, people with this work style would have a vision of the best way to do things. While every team would need a leader, not everyone in the team should act as a leader to avoid having too many directions and getting nothing done.
2. Doer Work Style
It’s all about getting things done for someone with this work style. Much like checking off tasks on a to-do list, you’re motivated and focused to drive you and the team to accomplish something. This work style would guarantee the work gets done but it’s often important to ensure that it’s not done mechanically.
3. Logical Work Style
Similar to the doer, someone with a logical work style also takes pride in ensuring work gets done. Only this time, before tackling a problem, they’re a lot more analytical and thoughtful in ensuring data answers the problem. Often, they’re linear thinkers making them focused and accomplished.
4. Detail-Oriented Work Style
Strategy is the name of the game. They’re thoughtful, sequential thinkers, who approach work strategically. However, like the logical work style, those with this work style often works slowly and methodically to avoid any risk. This work style, combined with the other work styles in the group, balances the team and creates a well-rounded group.
5. Supportive Work Style
Someone who builds relationships, fosters collaboration, and creates harmony among their team members. A person with this work style act as a glue that actively drives others to work together in a supportive, understanding manner that’s necessary for groups that hold many different work styles.
6. Idea-Oriented Work Style
The batter of the team, the person with an idea-oriented work style is often made up of big-picture thinkers who can create a vision and inspire others, similar to the leader type. Because they’re mostly seeing the bigger picture, it’s possible to miss the finer prints.
It’s evident that we’re all unique individuals with unique personalities and in that sense, each of us has our own different work styles that fit within the work culture. The uniqueness of our personalities is one of the keys that can help in determining our own working style, instead of mimicking others.
For that reason, personality tests, like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), have received much attention as personalities are able to affect our working style and effectiveness.
For example, people with ENFP personalities often prefer a fast-paced working environment and appreciate teamwork. However, if an ISTJ staff adopts an ENFP’s working style, the effectiveness of work might not be at an optimal level.
Does that mean an ENFP's working style is incorrect? Absolutely not!
ESTJs tend to complete work in a structured manner, instead of a fast-paced one. Hence, ESTJs would prefer an organized way to complete tasks. Again, this working style might not work well with other personalities.
Karen Grace Prince, a Taylor’s Bachelor of Mass Communication (Honours) alumnus shares, “It’s aligned with the scholarly thought where personalities could differentiate our working style, where different needs might be determined across different personalities.”
Ali Moossajee, an alumnus of Taylor’s Bachelor of Quantity Surveying (Honours) elaborated on the belief that working style is varied across different contexts.
“We must be adaptive to the different working environments by determining the working style that suits the context we’re met with.”
Whether it’s from a scholar's or student’s perspective, there’s a common theme — there isn’t a one-size-fits-all working style implying that there is no correct working style and we’d need to set our own healthy working style. To do that, it’s crucial first to understand our personalities and plan your work based on your personalities.
Manpreet Kaur, an alumnus of Taylor’s Bachelor of Psychology (Honours), agreed that “knowing ourselves can help us to determine a healthy working style. Several personality tests are available to assess and to understand ourselves, such as the MBTI and Big Five Personalities.”
Along the journey of exploring your work style, there’s a vital element called emotional intelligence (EI). One of the dimensions of EI is awareness of own emotions. To not fall into peer pressure and adopt your peer’s working style, EI helps to acknowledge and regulate your own emotions.
A person with high EI would be able to understand and acknowledge the uniqueness across different people allowing you to understand that one working style doesn’t fit all. Alumnus Karen believes that exploring what motivates us is crucial to reduce the pressure and creating a healthy working culture.
Understanding your peers would also help to reduce the peer pressure of adopting a particular working style as different people would have different motivators. If your peers are extrinsically motivated, they’d work well with monetary rewards. However, if you’re intrinsically motivated, it is less encouraged to adopt the mentioned peers’ working style because it would definitely be a struggle.
Hence, understanding your peers allows you to embrace the differences and to have your own working style that suits you, ultimately giving you a healthy working style. At the end of it all, we must remind ourselves that there is no correct working style, but there is a healthy working style unique and meant for our own selves.
Dr. Gan Jen Ling is the Programme Director for the Master of Business Administration & Master of Management at Taylor’s Business School (Formerly known as the Taylor's School of Management and Marketing). She also champions research that focuses on emotional intelligence which affects organisational justice and organisational citizenship behaviour.
