So, what is my personality?
Featured in the Essential Interpersonal Skills for Outstanding Managers training manual
By Eddie Davies
Category: Communication Skills
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
This training activity is devoted to theories of personality. Having an appreciation of ‘what makes us tick’ has long been a preoccupation of authors and social scientists. If we can understand what underlies our attitudes and behaviour, we can gain an insight into how we interact with others, appreciate that all humans are different, and start to make allowances and changes that will enable us to establish better interpersonal relationships with others.
You begin this training activity with a discussion about what makes up personality. The participants are encouraged to view themselves against an approach developed by Hippocrates who lived around 400 BC. They explore the difficulties and relevance of these old approaches to the modern world. The participants next explore personality types, and you introduce them to some research findings which cluster most modern approaches around five categories of behaviours. Participants are then invited to take part in a short quiz that aims to identify their place in each of these categories. The results of the quiz are explored and the strengths and possible drawbacks of each position are discussed. The participants then create and explore their own personal profile. In a final exercise the participants identify, with a partner, a series of actions they could take which would enable them to work effectively with a person who shows a preference for operating from the opposite end of each behaviour category from themselves. The training activity closes with a plenary review of the action plans produced from the exercises and learning points of the training activity.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to introduce participants to some of the basic principles of personality theory that underpin interpersonal skills.
- Themes:
- Assertiveness,
- Coaching,
- Communication,
- Counselling skills,
- Customer care,
- Influencing skills,
- Interpersonal skills,
- Interviewing skills,
- Introduction to effective management,
- Life and career planning,
- Managing meetings,
- Negotiating skills,
- Performance management,
- Project management,
- Sales training,
- Self-assessment,
- Self-development,
- Stress management,
- Supervisory skills,
- Team-building skills,
- Team development,
- Time management,
- Trainer development,
- Women into management,
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:50:00 |
| No of Pages: | 25 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Additional resources: Masking tape, Selection of pictures of personalities.
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers as either a stand-alone activity or to fit into a wider programme that aims to develop the insight and interpersonal skills of participants. It explores aspects of personality that can form an integral part of a whole variety of training events, such as assertiveness, coaching, counselling, personal development, time management, and so on.
Download the training activity, So, what is my personality? as featured in the Fenman training manual; Essential Interpersonal Skills for Outstanding Managers