Newsletter Copy - Sprint

Coming in from the Cold:
Survival Tips for Different Personality Types

by Brent Dey
for Sprint’s Insights magazine

A small plane carrying Sprint employees went down recently in the deep woods of Northern Minnesota. Temperatures outside the plane were a bone-chilling 25 degrees below zero. The nearest city was a grueling twenty-mile hike through rapidly drifting snow. As a group, the employees had to decide which items to salvage from the airplane, which was about to sink through a broken bed of ice. Time was of the essence. The decisions they made would determine if the group could survive in a world of ice and cold. 

Thankfully, we didn’t have to go through a real life-or-death event to learn powerful lessons about how different personalities work together. The scenario described above was set up by conflict management guru David Benzel to cap off a day of training attended by employees from Sprint service centers.

Instead of scraps of twisted metal, we tore through a list of items in our workbook, prioritizing what we would salvage. Our results were compared to the recommendations of survival experts and given points. Unlike most games, the more points you scored, the worse off you were. Any team with a score of 25 points or higher would not have survived a real-life plane wreck. It’s embarrassing to admit this, but there was not a team in the room that scored less than 34 points. We were all virtual goners.    

Benzel told us make-believe wolves and coyotes were rummaging around in the cold outside, but the animals that had the greatest impact on our survival were the Rhinos, Deers, Peacocks and Owls huddled as groups around workbooks planning survival strategies. We had chosen these animals earlier in the day as a way to represent dominate personality traits (see sidebar).  

Personalities and Group Dynamics

 “What was the first thing your group discussed?” Benzel asked. For most of us, it was whether we would stay with the plane or hike into town. Nobody asked if anyone in their group had ever experienced sub-zero temperatures and very few asked if any of their teammates knew what value obscure items like steel wool and boxed shortening would have for survival—yet these questions could have saved lives. “Sometimes it’s easy for dominate personalities to overshadow the contributions of others,” Benzel said. In other words, it’s not like a Rhino to ask questions, and it’s not like a Deer to speak up. 

 Different personalities go about things differently. They have different opinions about how things should be done. No personality is betterthan the other, but smart people and smart organizations learn how to recognize differences and play to their strengths. Indeed, the tips Benzel shared with us proved to be beneficial for survival anywhere—from a crash site to the workplace. 

 Take Peacocks for example. Peacocks tend to be more emotional than the other personality types, and they’re more likely to lose their temper if they feel like they’re not being respected. A compliment and a little bit of small talk can diffuse a potentially difficult situation.  “Compliments may not mean much to you,” he said. “But they mean a lot to a Peacock. Compliment a Peacock about anything, and you’ve won him over.” And winning someone over will get you a lot farther than arguing with them.

Miracle on Ice

 “Great teams come together to make great things happen,” Benzel said. To illustrate his point, he talked about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team. “None of the players on that team stood out as superstars,” he said. “Each member recognized what he had to contribute and each worked with his teammates for the greater good of the group.” 

 As a result, they went on to do the impossible. They defeated the Russians and inspired a nation. It was a far better fate than their alternative—disagreeing, fighting and dying on the cold, cold ice.  

What’s your EQ?

Hint… it’s your best indicator of future success

 We all know what IQ is. It’s your intelligence quotient, and for the second half of the twentieth century, it was looked upon as one of the greatest indicators of a person’s potential for success. In high school, you always assumed the kids with the best grades were the ones who were going to go on to do great things with their lives, right? Not necessarily. 

 There’s a new ‘Q’ on the block and studies have shown that it is a better indicator of the success than intelligence. Your ‘Emotional Quotient’ measures your ability to use your emotions for good. People who can avoid getting hijacked by their emotions are more stable, easier to deal with and more likely to “win friends and influence people” as Dale Carnage put it so famously back in the 1930’s. 

You can get better

You can’t raise your IQ, but you can raise your EQ by applying the things you learn from your interactions with others. Have you ever typed up a vicious e-mail and decided to wait before you sent it? That’s your EQ stepping in on your behalf. Consider what would have happened had you sent that e-mail and you begin to see why people who can control their emotions tend to do better in both personal and business relationships. 

 “In every encounter you have, emotions are generated that are either positive or negative,” said David Benzel during his recent Sprint training session. “People who enjoy a greater number of positive emotions accomplish more, feel better about themselves and live longer.”

 To be sure, EQ is not about being nice all the time; it’s about being honest with your emotions. For instance, if you’re upset but won’t tell someone what’s bothering you, you’re not demonstrating emotional maturity any more than you would if you lashed out at the person in uncontrollable anger. A person who is smart with their emotions would calmly state their case and seek a positive resolution.  

 Consider how this plays out in the work place; If a customer is angry, address the emotion first. Let them know you empathize with them (‘wow… I can see that this is frustrating. Let’s see what we can do..’) and then address the problem. That’s the quickest way to reach a solution, and a great way to demonstrate your ever-increasing Emotional Intelligence.  

 Find out if you create positive emotions in others by taking the Positive Impact test at www.bucketbook.com.