A lot of business management tools are used to discover the right person for the right task. While partnering the personality with the job is an ideal approach, it’s not always possible in a small operation or setting. Sometimes you have to wear different hats and bring out different social strengths depending on the situation.

At Wright, we use what’s called the C.A.R.E. Personality Profile. This tool helps leaders, management, and employees to discover where their social intelligence strengths reside. These personality strengths are then used to navigate relationship situations, conflict, and resolution.

The Four Personality Types of the C.A.R.E. Personality Profile

The C.A.R.E. profile explains how employees and management relate to each other in a variety of work and life situations. Typically, these personality traits carry over into aspects of our lives outside of the office—our personal relationships, friendships, and social interactions. So, the profile is highly useful for identifying and adapting in a variety of contexts.

At the office, the personality assessment can help people understand how they relate to each other in teams. It can help management identify the best set up and strategy for projects. The C.A.R.E. profile is a very valuable tool for strategic planning and team building, as well as sales and customer service.

When you understand where each team member is coming from, it can help your business become more effective in training as well. Different personality types relate to others in distinct ways. They use differing approaches to problem-solving, risk-taking, and innovation.

Just like there are no emotions that are “bad” or “wrong,” there are no personality types that are negative or totally incompatible. Instead, the C.A.R.E. profile increases social-emotional intelligence by deepening our understanding of each person’s approach to conflict, relationships, and work.

The four personality types the C.A.R.E. Personality Profile identifies are: Cooperator, Analyzer, Regulator, and Energizer.

Each personality type has a different approach and language they use in a given situation. It’s important to remember most people fall across the spectrum and the profile is a guide to understanding personality types, not a definition of the personalities themselves.

Cooperators are all about harmony and getting along. This is a low-risk personality type, meaning they would prefer stability and consistency. Cooperators prefer to be the peacemakers. Cooperators are all about how people feel versus what people do. This personality type tends to conflict with regulators.

Analyzers are another low-risk personality type. The analyzer is all about precision and safety. This is your number-cruncher. The analyzer relies on facts over feelings. They’re very accurate, measured, and careful. Often analyzers are more soft-spoken. They may clash with outgoing energizers.

Regulators are typically the leaders of the group. These are your productive powerhouses, who like to take charge and get the job done. Regulators are often good at managing the team. They’re all about business and directing those around them. Regulators are goal-setters. They meet deadlines and are focused on accomplishments and outcomes. When faced with cooperators they can run into a conflict because they tend to overlook feelings.

Energizers are the cheerleaders. Energizers talk fast and they’re dynamic and enthusiastic. Energizers are often great visionaries. The energizer is comfortable with risk. They want to be sure they’re always moving forward. An analyzer may seem too slow and methodical, frustrating an energizer.

Many people display a primary and a secondary personality type that relates to their primary. For example, a Regulator with a strong Analyzer secondary type will be strong on the “thinking” side (but may need to focus on enhancing their feelings). On the other hand, a Regulator with a strong Energizer secondary personality type, are often outgoing, high-risk, and assertive. They may need to watch that they don’t dominate others and are listening to the group.

People with strong opposing primary and secondary personality types like Energizer/Analyzer may face a struggle to synch up the two sides of their emotions. These opposing types can lead to internal conflict and confusion. The best resolution, in this case, is to simply learn to verbalize and communicate these internal conflicts. As they describe them to others, it can allow the whole team to show up more strongly. Again—it’s not about overcoming certain traits but learning to balance them harmoniously, focusing on your strengths, and firming up the areas that pose the greatest challenge.

Before You Understand Others, Understand Yourself

How comfortable are you at work? If you aren’t really comfortable, then you may need to ask yourself how much of YOU is really at work in the first place. If you don’t know who you are, and you don’t understand who your coworkers are, you may not be fully present.

Presence means more than showing up. It means being fully engaged. Being present at the office means you connect with your coworkers on their level. You make an effort to understand them—to relate and find common ground. Being fully engaged is an important point of success.

People have different personalities—but we can’t distill and bottle them down into a singular personality trope. When we think of personality clashes, it’s important to realize it’s not that we don’t “get along” with a certain type of person. It’s simply a matter of a language misunderstanding. By strengthening our communication and language skills, we can bring out the best in our entire team.

The fact is, when we’re in a team, we’re dealing with each person’s values. We all hold different values which translate to different personality languages.

Do you value thinking or feeling? Do you value relationship-building or task accomplishment? There’s nothing wrong with any of these values, but like a foreign language, it’s a complex concept to learn at first.

When we learn to speak the language of our coworkers, it certainly doesn’t mean we comply or acquiesce to their wishes. It doesn’t mean we become a pushover or we avoid conflict. In fact, we may see more conflict arise as we explore our own personality types and learn to express ourselves clearly.

Connecting with our coworkers means we’re learning to be present, connected, and speak their personality language. We’re learning to increase our emotional intelligence by understanding their values, relating to them, and learning their preferences. It’s about creating an environment of mutual respect and recognition.

As human beings, we are each inherently valuable. It is in that value we can relate to each other. Every person we encounter has valuable contributions they bring to the interaction. We can learn about them and learn about ourselves as well. When we learn to understand and respect our differences, we bring a stronger presence to the situation.

By recognizing the value in each person we encounter and respecting our differences we learn to live a life of MORE. In a team, or in a work setting, this means there is MORE of everyone there: everyone is more engaged, more AT WORK.

If you’d like to learn more ways you can succeed at work, please visit the Wright Foundation. We’re excited to announce the availability of many of our courses for download. These courses are at a special introductory price, so don’t miss out!

The Wright Foundation for the Realization of Human Potential is a leadership institute located in Chicago, Illinois. Wright Living performative learning programs are integrated into the curriculum at Wright Graduate University.