Challenging Relationships in the Workplace

A common misperception by leaders of any team is that they should achieve harmony between team members where the team works happily together in pursuit of shared goals.

In reality, a team environment is a very competitive one. Individuals compete with themselves. Accelerators compete with brakes. Employees compete with management. The “choleric eagle ” (or D behavioural style) wants to get things done now whilst exercising control over others. The “sanguine peacock’s” (or I behavioural style) primary goal is to have fun on the journey, and make it fun for others. The “phlegmatic dove” (or S behavioural style) resists moving forward until the whole team moves and the “melancholic owl” (or C behavioural style) is holding everything back by being consumed with building a watertight plan before taking one step forwards. Some want to move towards new goals and achievements and some want things to remain the same. Why fix something if it ain’t broke? Some are compliant and some are non-conformists.

We are taught that the best team is a blend of all kinds of people with various maximums and minimums. But as we can see, this is a recipe for competition and possible conflict.

Competition is one of the great reasons for progress, so a competitive workplace should be embraced but must be managed well.

A wonderful key to harmony in a competitive environment is “who we understand we tend to accept; who we don’t understand, we tend to reject.” When individual team members accept each other by becoming aware of each other’s personality styles, a competitive workplace can become a very productive one.

Note: For an overview of the DiSC behavioural styles please see
https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc/overview/