Personality testing, also known as personality profiling, is widely used by employers and you may already have taken such a test as part of a recruitment or promotion procedure or on a training course. In business the most widely used personality profiles ask a series of questions about your behaviour preferences and use your answers to identify where you are on four indices. Three of these were created in the 1920s by Carl Jung, the German psychologist, in his study of people’s psychological preferences and the way that these affect their way of dealing with life. The fourth was added later.
You can now find out more about your preferences (extrovert/introvert, sensing/ intuition, thinking/feeling and judging/perceiving) by ticking which of the following statements you agree with. Although your answers may not fit neatly into one category or the other, you will gain an understanding of how each affects your performance as a homeworker. I provide suggestions as to how each type might improve their happiness and performance while working from home. If you tick the same number of questions for each type, it suggests you are able to balance this part of your personality and you should cope well with the aspects of homeworking related to it.
Jung coined the terms ‘extroversion’ and ‘introversion’, from the Latin words ‘extra’, meaning outside, ‘intro’, meaning inward and ‘vertere’ which means to turn. So an extrovert turns to the outside for inspiration, often to other people, and an introvert turns inside to their own resources. To find whether you tend towards introversion or extroversion, ask yourself these questions. Do you
If you answered yes to questions 1 to 3, you have extrovert tendencies. You get energy from other people and seek out company. If you answered yes to 4 to 6, you have introvert tendencies.
If you are the extrovert type, you like plenty of action and do not need much time for reflection. Your love of company may mean you find working alone boring and demoralising, so if working from home is to be successful and enjoyable, you will need to maintain a strong support network. The positive side is that at home you tend to have more freedom to do this than in a conventional office environment.
If you are the introvert type you get energy by looking within yourself and so you can find other people draining. You are interested in thoughts and ideas, and tend to be solitary and self-sufficient. Being happy with your own company will make working from home appealing, but you will still need contact with others. You may get the most out of networking by restricting the number and length of meetings you organise to allow yourself plenty of thinking time afterwards.
Bearing in mind that isolation is generally regarded as the number one challenge in working from home, it’s easy to see how your degree of extroversion or introversion will have a big impact on how comfortable you feel working from home. Being an extrovert does not rule out the possibility of working from home, however. It is mainly a question of understanding your own needs and adapting your habits accordingly.
And of course nobody is entirely extrovert or entirely introvert; we are all at different points on a sliding scale, and we can move up and down the scale depending on circumstances. An introvert may be the life and soul of the party with family or old friends they are comfortable with; an extrovert may dread the prospect of a function where they know no-one.
We can also train ourselves to cope with situations outside our comfort zone if there is sufficient motivation, for example, if your job description demands that you entertain clients. Sometimes people are so good at putting on a show that others are amazed when they confess it is really an effort and not a natural part of their personality at all.
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