Daily Excerpt: Understanding the Seeker (Quinelle) - The Seeker at Work

 


Excerpt from Understanding the Seeker (Quinelle) - 

The Seeker at Work

Many people end up in jobs and even careers that are not well matched with their personality profile. Around the turn of this century, some businesses typed themselves—what kinds of characteristics they needed in their employees and their leaders—and set about hiring employees in accordance with those characteristics. This practice is waning as we enter the second decade of the 21st century. It could be that businesses have found that matching company needs and personality traits is a much more complex endeavor than originally thought, one that includes the needs of the business in terms of kinds of products, the job and career choices for the future employee, and the needs and personality types of co-workers and clients.*

Job and Career Choices

If a high school or college guidance counselor were to suggest appropriate jobs for young Seekers, chances are the suggestions would likely be in the fields of natural sciences, especially where new discoveries can have a major impact on quality of life. Interdisciplinary fields are also good choices for Seekers since they will be able to cross-section distant fields of knowledge to create new sets of knowledge.

While commercial endeavors generally do not attract Seekers, Seekers can do well in some kinds of commerce, particularly those that require intuition and creativity. One example might be in the area of programming and design. Another might be in the field of publishing.

If a Seeker actually has a job, especially something a bit mainstream, that might well warm the cockles of his or her parents’ hearts. The mainstream job is not the one of choice for the Seeker, however, and he or she, if trapped into the mainstream, usually experiences difficulty finding happiness or self-esteem at work; they will look elsewhere for those things.

The “Don Quixote” temperament is not one to settle down in an accounting job or even, for that matter, something more creative, such as advertising. The “Don Quixotes” of the world much prefer to be off, tilting at their windmills—and whether or not they succeed at it, the attempt and the possibility of making something move keeps them involved and on the go. Indeed, their passions are aroused by the world of the possible, of the future, of the “impossible dream.” A 9-to-5 job generally just does not excite them in any way.

The kinds of things that Seekers who are matched to their jobs or careers do take on for work can really raise eyebrows, often because their friends do not know anyone else that works in exactly that way. Seekers often find their friends quite puzzled by the choices they make throughout their careers. They generally move from job to job, fixing things and creating new things, and then moving on because the job has become routine, the people trained, and the processes put in good working order. Time, then, to move on to where they can find the next example of grand chaos.

At one point in the career of one Seeker, she accepted a job as an international education consultant. Her friends were flabbergasted when she left a high-paying, secure job for the insecurity of not knowing where she would be working the next day, let alone the next month or year, or even, sometimes, how to get there. Her friends just didn’t “get it.” For a Seeker, though, it was an ideal job. She roamed a couple dozen countries, learning about their educational issues (and often social and political issues as well) and attempting to come up with creative solutions for her clients, using knowledge, skills, and ideas that grew in quantity and quality as she moved around on the world stage. There were many times when she would wake up in the morning and briefly ask herself, “What country am I in? What language will I be speaking today?” If a Seeker must work, then this is the kind of job that would attract him or her.

A Seeker’s Co-Workers

A Seeker who does not work independently must learn to work compatibly with co-workers, and they with the Seeker. This is not always easy, given the nature of a Seeker.

Seekers definitely work best with other Seekers. They bat ideas around as if they are standing on the field at a ballpark, practicing for the next game. One non-Seeker, after a two-hour brainstorm session that left the Seekers quite satisfied with the number of new ideas and intersecting concepts they were able to generate, stated that she felt like she had spent the last two hours inside a pinball machine.

Coworkers fail to understand Seekers on many levels. They do not understand what drives Seekers, how they think, or how they relate to others.

Definitely, they do not understand the disconnect between the need for a job and the need to follow a dream. For many non-Seekers, the job and the dream are the same. For Seekers, the job is just something you do so that you can finance your dream. Seekers always have dreams, and they never seem to stop chasing them, regardless of their circumstances in life. They are driven to windmills, fantasy, creation, and radical new theories.

If a Seeker finds kindred souls among his or her coworkers, whether they be Seekers or those who are attracted to the zeal and inspiration of Seekers, then the job takes on another dimension. Suddenly, the sky is the limit, and many amazing new products have come from the interaction of Seekers, who dream, and more grounded types, who implement.

Due to their uniqueness and perceived radical thinking, which is rarely understood by others, they often work alone. Can you imagine, for example, being a co-worker with some of the following individuals considered to be Seekers: Benjamin Franklin, Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci, David Hume, Catherine the Great, and Niccolo Machiavelli? Just think, however, how exciting it might have been to work with them!

Something to Think About

Section A. For Seekers

Think about how comfortable you are at work, and, if you are not comfortable, try to pinpoint the source of discomfort. Perhaps it is your job itself (are you in the right one?), your colleagues, or your supervisor(s). Look at each of these possibilities separately.

Your Job. As a Seeker, you know that you need freedom to explore new ideas, to be creative, to invent new things, and to work in a “logical” environment where you do not have to always worry about other people’s emotions. Do you have such a job? If yes, then look elsewhere for your source of discomfort. If yes-and-no, talk to your supervisor about how you might contribute in a more creative way. If no, then it may be time to look for something else. There is nothing more difficult than holding a job that is contradictory to your personality type. Generally, you will not have the natural skills for such a job, although you can learn them. More importantly, the pleasure in the job will have to come from something other than the job itself—and that can get old fast. (Note: If you are, indeed, thinking about a new job and want to take personality traits into account, there are some books that can help you, e.g., How to Stay Alive When Your Job Is Killing You by Kingman and Wise, People Types and Tiger Stripes by Gordon, and Type Talk at Work by Kroeger & Thuesen.)

Your Colleagues. As a Seeker, you have four traits—three explicit and one implicit—that can conflict with the traits of your co-workers. Sometimes, those conflicts can turn into complementary strengths; other times, they reinforce the weaknesses of each person in conflict. Take a look, then, at each trait and measure it against the traits of your colleagues to the extent that you can determine them. More often than not, you will know your colleagues’ traits because these are things that they cannot hide.

So, looking at Intuition, how many of your colleagues are Intuiters, like you? Most? You should be happy associating with them, and you probably are always zinging ideas at and off each other, which should add to your happiness factor. Some? Ally with them if that is possible and avoid getting into conflicts with those who depend more upon fact and stat; those traits can irritate you significantly. Are all your colleagues married to seeing the world as a collection of facts or a mound of data? Time for new colleagues! Talk to your boss about being assigned to a different team, another office mate or even a different division. (Do your research first, though, and find out the personality types of those with whom you might be working if you make such a change. You would not want to jump from the frying pan into the fire.)

How about Thinking? Are you prone to being oblivious to the emotional needs of your colleagues? This is a big mistake when it comes to working in a team. It is in the meeting of each other’s emotional needs that teams are built, not only in the completion of specific tasks.

Then there is your Extroversion. Your Intuitive Thinking nature is not quietly moving you along your own path. No, as an extrovert, you want everyone else to come along with you, but not everyone is an Intuitive Thinker. How are you going to bring all those others along with you? Or, do you need to? Are there options for you, at times, to go along with them and learn from them? Are there other opportunities for brainstorming, sharing, and negotiating? If all else fails, is it worth it for you to go it alone or to find other colleagues in other divisions or even other jobs to work with outside your office on those projects—typically, those dreams—that have taken over your waking and sleeping moments?

How about the Irrational side of you? That implicit trait does not mean that you are crazy. It does mean that you do not put reason, deadline, and regulations in first place. You put options, possibilities, and the breaking of rules (for legitimate and dream-oriented reasons) in first place. See the conflict? How much of this is present in your current work place? In a previous work place that you hated? In a previous workplace that you loved? Does your current work place need some “massaging” in order to be comfortable for you? Can you do it? Should you do it? Would it be better to move on to a more compatible work place?

Your Supervisor(s). If you have a supervisor who is a different personality type, you will need to work harder to meet his or her expectations. With some personality types, this is easier than with others. Determine which aspects of your supervisor’s personality type conflicts the strongest with yours, and work, for starters, on achieving compatibility. It is possible to work happily for someone of a different personality type if you are wise to the situation and wise about how you approach your tasks. For example, supervisors who are Sensers often think that the Seeker is “flaky” (their description of a dreamer). In fact, there are many people with non-Seeker personality types who consider being a “dreamer” a negative, not a positive, trait. If you have a supervisor like this, what can you do to improve your reputation while not losing your dreams? Can you provide more statistical analysis? At least just a little? Can you ask for a format for reports that he or she likes and then follow it carefully, no matter how boring? Is making these adjustments something that you are willing to do, or should you look for other work, i.e. another supervisor whose socion is more compatible with yours? What are your realistic choices, given your life situation—and is “realistic” at all important to you at this time in your life? (Many Seekers never cave in to the demands of realism at any time in their lives, often to their own detriment when it comes to a comfortable living style—but that, too, is often not important to them.)

Section B. The Seeker at Your Work Place

As Your Colleague. Do you have a colleague who is a Seeker? Does he or she seem flaky to you? Before you make that judgment, think about the importance of idealism and altruism in making a society healthy and moving a society forward. Consider that perhaps what you don’t understand (and label “flakiness”) is a way of thinking that is so deeply embedded in idealism that others find difficulty in relating it to the reality of the lives they are living and the work they are doing. Look deeply, and see if you can find some value, if only future value, in what your Seeker colleague is advocating. Can you support him or her in areas related to improving the work place and lead him or her to a more practical application of their dreams?

As Your Supervisor. Do you feel lost because you do not understand what your Seeker boss wants from you? That is not surprising. Seekers take large leaps in logic and assume that others are following their futuristic, counterintuitive thinking. They assume, as well, that others are willing to take risks, especially for altruistic purposes, and will fill in the details for them, because details are one thing that Seekers do not do well, mainly because they are more of an annoyance than a reality to them. So, how can you fulfill your supervisor’s expectations without giving up your own needs? Can you help him or her start to implement his or her grand ideas on a smaller, more manageable scale that is more comfortable for you and other colleagues?

As Your Supervisee. Do you have a Seeker as an employee? Does he or she take flights of fancy (your perception) from the job at times? Does he or she seem bored with the job? How can you reach such an employee? It is certainly not going to be through discipline and regulation. Seekers are generally their own worst critics, and your criticism is likely not all that meaningful to them. They also often reject any discipline as meaningless if they do not believe it was warranted. They may calmly accept the discipline, but it is not for the reason you think. It is because it has no value and no meaning to them; therefore, it is unimportant. If you want to reach a Seeker supervisee, then you will need to inspire the Seeker. How can you do that? Find out where the Seeker’s interests lie, and learn some supervisory motivational techniques. The latter will help you with all your employees.

*Socionics considers psychological types ceteris paribus (i.e. as though all other conditions were equal or negligible), which we know, in reality, is not the case. Therefore, the descriptions, explanations, and discussions above and throughout this book may, in individual readers’ cases, not ring true because there are other complicating factors for a given situation that lie outside the realm of psychological type or even psychology, be that financial, environmental, biological, chemical, social, legal, or some other external factor.


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