People are not difficult - just different!

Do individuals with certain personality traits gravitate to one job rather than another? Does personality play any role? Is personality just an excuse for acting one way or another? Could personality type be a differentiator between healthcare workers and others?

One of the key skills for a project manager is the ability to relate to the people they are working with. One of the ways to better relate is to understand the personalities of the people involved in your projects. Since starting to teach Managing Projects, I have collected information on the personality types of my students. I used a website http://www.humanmetrics.com/ , Jung Typology Test™. As a result I have a couple of hundred personality profiles. I tallied those profiles and it seems that out of the 16 personality types there are 4 distinct types of personality of the people working in the healthcare field. Because of those personality types, these people act in certain ways, therefore are unique to the field and will manage projects differently. This is the first of my "differences" with project managing in the healthcare field.

The results of the Jung Typology Test™ uses the same personality attributes as Myers-Briggs pairing as E (extrovert) or I (introvert), S (sensing) or Intuitive (I), T (thinking) or F (feeling), and J (judgement) or P (perception). While neither Jung nor Meyers suggested that people are purely one way or another, for me and from student feedback, the results of the test do suggest a personality leaning. In no way is this a scientific study, but I use it as a learning experience to illustrate that perhaps the way people act in certain situations may be as simple as differences in personality. I do not want to debate the "science", but merely discuss potential differences between the personality types of healthcare workers and those of the general population.

That said, my unofficial, unscientific study results suggest that The majority of healthcare workers fall into the following categories, ENTJ, INTJ, ENFJ, and INFJ. These four personality types make up approximately 2/3 to 3/4 of my students in the healthcare classes. If I add two more categories, ISFJ and ESFJ, I capture almost all of my students in the healthcare classes. And, if you look a little deeper into the personality types, it makes sense. I use Working Together (WT), by Olaf Isachsen and Linda V. Berens, Institute for Management Development, as my guide to the universe of personalities.

According to WT, the "NTs" are the rationales, seekers of knowledge and trusters of logic and reason. They tend to seek positions in science and technology. The ENTJs tend to take charge.
The INTJs are single minded toward achieving goals. They are the thinkers and the strategists. In contrast, the "NFs" are the idealists. They are relationship nurturers. They are enthusiastic coaches and also can hold the global view. ENFJs are real people persons, as are INFjs who strive to support the highest and best use of human potential.

The "SJs" are the guardians, generous, while hungering for accountability and responsibility. They want to protect their people or "stand guard". The ESFJs manage in a personal way, working toward harmony within the team. The ISFJs are rule oriented and tend to be quieter managers.

At this point you may wonder what this is all about. I don't blame you. I thought it was a bunch of nonsense at first, too. But when I compared these personality types to the types I see in my on campus classes, or classes taught at technical businesses, it becomes clear that the healthcare personalty types need to be taught differently. The personality types I see most often in the non-healthcare world are ESTJ, ISTJ and ESFJ and ISFJ. The "SJs" are the artisans. They are a creative force and may tend to rely on luck or at least believe that luck plays an important part. While creativity is a good thing, I'm not sure that I want to put my health in the hands of someone who believes luck is important. I'd rather let someone who gravitates toward science and technology.

The management style of ESTJs can appear to be authoritative, impersonal, impatient, and formal, not the best "bedside" manner. However, in business they are highly skilled in logistics, theory, and abstract concepts. The ISTJs, while having the same basic management style of the ESTJs, tend to focus on their unusual loyalty to the organization. The ESFJs, are logistic focused also. They are linear processors, and would prefer to to have to "multi-task" if possible. The ISFJs are softer in their management style than any of the other SJs, but are still more logistics oriented than people oriented.

So even with that brief introduction to other personality types, one can see that the personality types prominent among healthcare workers are unique, therefore their project management focus will be different than others. It is interesting because since they get the human element of project management, the focus needs to be on the technical aspects of project management.