There’s no one size fits all scenario for growing up and facing the world. We all navigate with risk or guidance from parents and elders who are invested in molding a positive path forward in our well-being–there’s no rule book or online wiki to follow. However, we can’t always believe what we hear or read and need to fall back on our internal compass or gut instinct. And sometimes common sense will prevail if it is too good to be true!
Failing forward sometimes helps us find our way and learn the life lessons that prevent us from recreating a mistake or taking a wrong turn in our destiny. But leaders are not always at liberty to test the waters when it comes to empowering and motivating their colleagues. Taking the time to learn the various personality types that drives them to exceed expectations is critical to maintain morale, achieve goals and foster innovation. The book Fish Can’t See Water, outlines a model for leaders to understand the invisible impact culture has on the success of the business. Thus hiring people with diverse backgrounds cultivates the beliefs and behaviors that defines a company. Taking this into consideration, no matter the difference in opinions extraverts or introverts have, the workforce comes together when there’s a call for the collective power to brainstorm ideas, transform processes, develop products or reshape the strategy.
However, the environment that surrounds the workforce is pivotal in allowing the unique behavior types to be able to flourish. As we all know extraverts need to be around people to fuel their energy while introverts find it draining. This article published by Fast Company, identifies why working remotely takes the pressure off of introverts because the open office structure is designed for extroverts to thrive.
While shifting to remote work, conversations and articles pointed out that zoom fatigue was worse than an exhausting commute to the office, it opened the door to think differently in how to form a hybrid model that can level out challenges that gripped the world. And leaders have come to realize that some jobs can be performed remotely with the same or better results than in the office–virtual assistant roles increased.
“Anything that can be done on a phone or computer can be done by a virtual assistant,” says Robert Nickell, CEO of Rocket Station, a company that provides virtual services to companies. Source: Forbes “Why Every Virtual Office Needs A Virtual Assistant”
The Forbes article points out the significant rise in virtual assistant demand, it missed highlighting that organizations can leverage their executive assistant at full capacity [if not more] virtually.
But setting personalities aside and different job types, no matter the environment, the struggle that has always triggered fatigue and exhaustion, is the way in which we work. It’s time to upend the office stereotype, and rethink where and how work is done.
“Even before the pandemic, even before remote work, people complained about having too many meetings, but the problem is dramatically exacerbated when those meetings go online,” Source: PC Mag “It’s Time to Digital Detox: How to Put 6 Feet Between You and Your Tech”
While technology definitely feeds into productivity, the complexity of an individual’s life factors into creating a healthy balance. For the extroverts who are looking forward to working in the office, there’s a fraction of society who find themselves losing time in lengthy commutes. And the introverts who thrive in a safe space at home, their anxiety will tip back-up if the choice to work remotely is not an option.
The world was thrown into the unknown but the fundamental way in doing business didn’t pivot like it did in the retail business. Shopper’s went from buying in-store to buying online but office automation didn’t experience a dramatic shift–scheduling meetings remain the same.
“The companies that have navigated this the best are the ones that have figured out what’s urgent and how can we plan to make sure that fewer things are urgent,” Slack’s Rayl said. Source: Vox “From AI to Zoom”
Bottom line, if we can solve for the way we organize our work, plan ahead and optimize technology for the task at hand, then we will start to create a space for everyone to thrive together to survive the pressure.
