Hello, and welcome to another Hugoversity book review! Here, prefects dive into PR and marketing reads to help share the knowledge gained.

Recently, one of our newest prefects, Elisha read ‘The Four Tendencies: The indispensable personality profiles that reveal how to make your life better (and other people’s lives better too)’ by Gretchen Rubin; following a recommendation from Head Girl, Charlotte.

The book is about Rubin’s quest to understand human nature – and she has managed this by creating four personality categories based on how people respond to expectations. If you want to find out what personality type you are, you can take the quiz here.

The Four Tendencies

You’ve got us again with another book not directly linked to PR and marketing – but hold your horses; that doesn’t mean we can’t apply The Four Tendencies to the industry.

The self-help book tackles different personality types, and touches upon the best way to approach them in a working environment to achieve the best possible outcome.

When working in the hustle and bustle of agency life with a range of different personalities, this knowledge can enable balance and coordination when delegating tasks to team members.

The author goes into a great amount of detail on how to handle the different personality types in relationships, as children, in school or even as a doctor – but for the sake of the review, we’ll stick to how to manage the tendencies in the workplace.

The Four Tendencies is a framework of personality types labelled as: Upholder, Obliger, Rebel and Questioner. All of which are ranked by the following:

• How do you meet outer expectations? (Expectations others place on us, like meeting a work deadline)

• How do you meet inner expectations? (Expectations we place on ourselves, such as keeping a New Year’s resolution)

Upholder

Upholders respond readily to both outer expectations and inner expectations. They’re the kind of people who love schedules and routines and wake up thinking ‘what’s on my to-do list today’. People with this personality type find it east to act and follow through as well as develop habits.

As they easily meet both outer and inner expectations, they rarely suffer from burnout and don’t depend on others to motivate or supervise them. While their self-discipline may make them appear rigid to others, Upholders themselves feel free, effective and independent.

Generally, this category make fantastic colleagues and bosses – they’re self-starters, love following the rules, good with routine and are interested in performance. They don’t often need supervision and are good at recognising their limits. In fact, Gretchen’s survey found that as a person’s income rises, they’re more likely to be an upholder as opposed to a rebel.

However, Upholders aren’t fans of change, and can suffer from what Rubin describes as ‘tightening’. This is where routine becomes strict and rigid. It can become difficult for them to make an exception, take a break or even lighten up – they can become locked into a schedule and find it difficult to disregard rules or habits, even senseless ones.

Questioner

Questioners question all expectations; they meet an expectation only if they believe it is justified, so in effect they only respond to inner expectations.

This group show a deep commitment to information, logic and efficiency. They wish to gather their own facts and act with good reason; they object to anything they consider ill-reasoned, ill-informed or ineffective. Though, they will readily meet an expectation as long as they see it as justified.

For example, if the boss tells a Questioner to finish a report by Friday, they might decide “No one is going to read the report until next Wednesday, and it’s more efficient for me to write it at the beginning of the week, so I’ll finish it by Wednesday”. Though, once they accept the reasons for an expectation, they’re self-derived and don’t need supervision.

So, for a boss trying to explain a task to this tendency, it’s worth the effort to spell out the justifications: why this task, why this and why now. If convinced, the questioner will follow through.

Despite this, they make very valuable employees because they challenge the norm, which in turn can enhance productivity and efficiency – they reject lazy explanations like ‘This is the way we’ve always done it’, meaning their inquisitive nature ensures a businesses’ resources and time is used beneficially.

Questioners, being questioners may over-question – colleagues can help this by setting limits on their research – and once colleagues realise that this tendency doesn’t intend to be confrontational or uncooperative, they can find it much easier to be patient and provide the information the questioner needs to complete a task.

Obliger

Obligers respond readily to outer expectations but struggle to meet inner ones. This is actually the most common tendency.

In many cases, Obligers make excellent colleagues and bosses – they meet deadlines, keep promises and follow through for others. They excel at meeting other people’s demands because they feel an active sense of obligation to others.

One thing for employers to be conscious about is the personality type’s tendency to take too much on, because they’re deemed as people pleasers, this may in turn lead to what the book describes as ‘Obliger Rebellion’, which occurs when the tendency feels majorly exploited.

Obliger rebellion is when the personality type feels overwhelmed by external pressure, and they may simply refuse to meet an expectation – often dramatically without warning.

Some things to keep in mind are:

• Remind the Obliger that saying no allows him or her to say yes to work that’s more important
• Enforce limits to prevent burnout and obliger rebellion
• Stop others from exploiting this tendency
• Take work away from the Obliger, if they have taken on too much

Rebel

Rebels resist all expectations, outer and inner alike (you’ll be relieved to know none of Hugoversity’s prefects are rebels!). Rebels do what they want to, in their own way, and in their own time.

Despite this, Rebels can still make great workers – with their willingness to break with convention and ability to think outside the box. They often find themselves wanting to be their own boss, or become a freelance as they don’t like others telling them what to do. However, they can’t stand deadlines or repetitive work, so will often pair up with an Obliger.

An employer simply needs to understand how to approach the Rebel to ensure a task is completed. For example, if you offer the Rebel options and allow them to believe they have made the decision, they will readily complete the task given.

The book provided an example of prime conditions for Rebels to work: “Here’s a big problem, I don’t know how to solve it, you run with it. Come back to me in three months with an answer.” This hands-off approach is ideal for the Rebel tendency.

Worth it?

As a girl with a keen interest in astrology, I love understanding why people do what they do. I like to believe there is some higher reason for human nature. But in Gretchen’s book she offers a much more plausible approach – and I’m totally on board with it.

Not only is this a great way for others to become more understanding of why people act a certain way, but I believe it’s important for colleagues to understand and support another tendencies strengths and weaknesses and provide help if needed.

What did we learn?

We learned that our tendencies shape our experiences and our perspective. We all respond to different circumstances and languages in different ways, and we flourish in different environments.

If we each take the time to understand a colleague’s personality, it will in turn allow the strength of each tendency to be played upon, especially in the working environment.