Developing people in accordance with their personality

In my last article, I discussed the importance of supporting subordinates in their experiential learning cycle and how to be a partner in guiding their learning.

In the previous articles, we have focused on the essence of people development, which can be applied to everyone. On the other hand, in reality, each individual has a different “personality,” so the actual communication and supervision needs to be different for each person.

In this article, I will discuss how to develop your subordinates according to their personalities.

What is personality?

The term “personality” is often used in everyday life, but for a deeper understanding, I divide it into “character” and “persona” to organize it.

Character refers to the true self that one is born with. A persona, on the other hand, refers to a role personality that is appropriate to one’s environment and role. Role personality” is an unfamiliar term, but using a metaphor, it is a “mask that can hide one’s true face.”

As shown in the figure, there is a character in the center, which is the true self, and several personas around the character, which are used in different situations. The word “mask” may have a negative image because it strongly implies the nuance of hiding one’s true self, but personas are indispensable for people to live a social life.

In a general sense, we tend to associate personality only with character. But the point here is to think of personality as the combination of character and persona.

People use several personas depending on the situation or community, but it is their personality that includes the way they form and express their personas.

Balance between character and persona

Many of us have probably struggled with how to blend in with our surroundings while still maintaining our true character.

This struggle to balance character and persona is, in a sense, natural. As I mentioned earlier, without a persona, it is difficult to live a social life. On the other hand, the absence of character also makes us feel like we are pushing ourselves away.

Both character and persona are necessary, and it is important to find and maintain a balance that is desirable for you. Sometimes the balance that feels just right will change as the mind develops. In such cases, it is important to change to a more desirable balance.

The desirable balance will vary from person to person, but in general, a situation in which the character can be expressed without strain, while not being too anxious to expose the character, is desirable.

When dealing with subordinates, it is a good idea to understand that there are two types of personalities, one corresponding to the character and the other to the persona, and to pay attention to whether or not the character is being expressed naturally without being overwhelmed.

If the character is naturally expressed, the individual’s personality will naturally appear in the use of words, facial expressions, and gestures. On the other hand, if the character is stifled, the use of words and facial expressions will be stiff, giving the impression that the person is trying to play it safe, rather than giving the impression of individuality.

Do not try to force a person to express his or her character just because the character is not naturally expressed. It is counterproductive. The more you try to force the character out, the more he/she will try to cope with the situation by thickening the persona.

Even if you have a subordinate whose character is not naturally expressed, it is a good idea to start by understanding his/her personality (character and persona) as it is. The key is to accept them as they are, not as good or bad. If the subordinate can feel such acceptance, the hurdle to expressing character will be gradually lowered.

Personality analysis using the Egogram

Now that I have told you that there are two types of personalities, character and persona, I would like to talk about how to communicate and guide your subordinates according to their personalities.

There are many different personality tests available, but here I would like to introduce the Egogram.

The Egogram is a personality diagnostic method developed by Eric Berne and John M. Dusay that measures a person’s mind by classifying it into five characteristics The five categories are as follows.

As the words “Child” and “Parent” are used in the classification, it is easy to understand the image using the metaphor of “parent” and “child”.

This is my own interpretation, but the five characteristics of the Egogram can also be interpreted in conjunction with the character and persona diagram described earlier.

“Child” two types (FC and AC) represent how one carries one’s own character and persona: FC (Free Child) tends to give out one’s own character, while AC (Adapted Child) tends to create a persona and conform.

The two types of “Parent” (CP and NP) represent the type of character and persona that one encourages the other to have: CP (Critical Parent) is the tendency to create a persona and adapt to the surroundings, while NP (Nurturing Parent) is the tendency to value the character of an individual.

Other well-known personality tests include MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and StrengthsFinder, but these images focus on “one’s own personality traits compared to others.

In contrast, the Egogram is unique in that it captures personality within the framework of “ self and others. I introduce it here because it is a good match for considering one-to-one relationships, such as people development.

Use Egogram to identify challenges that are likely to arise in relationships with subordinates

From the perspective of people development, it is useful to typify and capture possible communication challenges based on the Egogram characteristics of you and your subordinates.

By combining the “Child” type of the subordinate and the “Parent” type of the supervisor, we can roughly organize communication challenges as follows.

For example, if the supervisor’s mental characteristic is CP-oriented and the subordinate’s mental characteristic is AC-oriented, there is little chance of conflict in communication, but because both parties focus on adapting to the surrounding environment, the subordinate’s character is not expressed and his/her personality is not refined or his/her energy is depleted.

In such cases, it may be effective to accept the subordinate as he/she is and relate to him/her in such a way that his/her character is naturally brought out.

This is true not only for the relationship between a supervisor and subordinate, but also for the relationship between a parent and child.

I hope that you will start by understanding your subordinate’s character, based on the basic premise that his/her character is different from yours, and then devise a way to communicate with him/her so that the desired balance between character and persona can be achieved.

Here are the quests of the day. (If you’d like, please share your thoughts in the comments.)

・Do your subordinates appear to be more dominant FC or AC? As a supervisor, do you see yourself as more dominant in CP or NP? (If you want to know correctly, I recommend that you take a formal test)

・What communication challenges might arise with the above combination?

Bunshiro Ochiai