"Type C" Personalities and Project Management

There's an older article at http://www.projectsatwork.com/ by Dan Bradbary and David Garrett titled To Be Type C. I was intrigued by the lead in:

A sizable segment of successful project managers thrive on resolving chaos, solving problems, accepting the high fives, and moving on to the next threat that guarantees more thrills. Their approach is future-centered; they have a clear vision of the completed project, and how to go about getting there. They’re Type Cs.

We've all heard of "Type A" personalities or perhaps you've even been called type A, at some point. These days type A personalities are associated with negative behaviors (rude, brusque, snappy, bitchy, yadda yadda) and the "A" has taken on a new meaning, "anal-retentive", for one, and you can use your imagination on the rest. The authors provide their own definition:

Type A behavior is classically defined as an emotional response brought on by stress. It’s believed to have its roots in Western cultural values that reward people who can produce with great amounts of speed, efficiency, and aggression. This type of behavior involves traits such as impatience, a sense of urgency, and the desire to achieve recognition and advancement. Type A people have an extreme awareness of time and therefore walk, eat, and perform most tasks quickly. They also tend to have traits such as facial tension, rapid speech and tongue and teeth clicking.

I don't know about "teeth clicking", but ok - I get the idea. Now what about these "type B" personalities?

Type Bs: These people — and they’re less common than Type As — are good at relaxing. Not surprisingly, they can work hard but not get anxious or agitated. They’re often lax about time (being late is no big deal to them), and they’re slow to anger. The opposite of Type As, Type Bs are unhurried and satisfied; they’re even serene.

I know I'm not type A (as defined above) and I'm too "driven" as a project manager to be type B, so perhaps I fit into the C category? The article states "Type Cs thrive on taming chaos into calm structure. They live to create order and plan, which, when you think of it, sounds like the role of a PM, no?". Yes - yes it does! I must be type C and I wanted to learn more! From the article here are some "Type C" personality traits outlined by the doctor who defined type C personalities, Dr. Buff:

• Mess finding: This one’s simple. You realize you’ve got a mess on your hands (often, it’s one you’ve inherited), and you try to see just how big the problem is.


• Data finding: You can’t begin to clean up a mess until you know what the dilemma is; hence, the data-finding trait, in which you gather all the information surrounding the state of the mess.


• Problem finding: As you sift and sort the data, you’ll begin to find the problems and rank them in order of priority.


• Idea finding: Type Cs rarely settle for a single idea. They brainstorm and come up with several — even dozens — for a given project.


• Solution finding: Ideas in hand, Type Cs review and rank them. Often two or three become viable solutions to the problem at hand.


• Acceptance finding: Once they’ve zeroed in on the best solution, Type Cs get other people involved. They market and sell their solution just like a product.

Interesting! I'm definitely Type C and didn't even know it! If you're interested in reading more about type C personalities and project management, check out the entire article To Be Type C.

Note that http://www.projectsatwork.com/ might require a quick registration to access this article and/or other content on their site. I definitely recommend it. You'll get to read new articles on interesting topics, like the one above and gain a wider perspective on various topics.

Enjoy!

Project Management, Type A Personality, Emotional Intelligence, project manager