Is it possible to advance in the corporate world with a Type-B personality?

[mikeyking]

Originally Posted by jellicoe13

I'm definitely more of a Type B personality and work in management. I have climbed the ladder so to speak, but am not very good at the politics and don't do well in the corporate environments where you have to put on the "Type A" mask. I traveled to the corporate office generally between 10%-25% of my time in the jobs I've had with different companies, and doing the Type A act for that time was okay for me...wouldn't want to have to do it longer than that.

I've done my career in the manufacturing facilities; if I weren't in manufacturing, I would probably be in branch offices or something other than the corporate headquarters. I do work hard at what I do, and I am very skilled at what I do. I would enjoy a promotion to a VP-level job, but am not sure if I could deal with the corporate environment or not...

The Type B personality caused me a problem at one job. I worked for an EXTREME Type A boss, who thought that everything he brought to me (I work in HR) was an emergency and needed to be done immediately. One time I was walking through the plant with OSHA in response to a complaint they had received and of course couldn't exactly put them off or walk away from it. This boss ran up to me (with the OSHA inspectors right there) and told me that he had an emergency that needed to be handled. The OSHA inspectors were really nice, and told me that they would interview the employees in the work area of concern first and I could go deal with the emergency and meet them back in the area after I was done.

The boss gestured me to follow him, and I did. I was surprised when he walked me outside and pointed to the large dumpster. I looked at him and asked him what the issue was, since I didn't see anything except for many starlings in the dumpster and around it. Maybe employees were doing something with it? Heck if I knew... Then the boss comes out with "Well, you need to do something with all these birds! They are everywhere, and the employees are complaining about them crapping all over the picnic benches and their vehicles!" (Someone please tell me how this is an HR problem instead of a maintenance issue?!)

I guess climbing the corporate ladder would depend on how comfortable a particular Type B is in the typical Type-A dominated environment you find in many companies. I've worked for several different companies and have yet to find the exception to the rule...I'd love to work for a company dominated by Type B's but it hasn't happened yet! It is possible to climb the ladder as a Type B; just depends on your comfort level with some of the aspects of corporate culture that are common to most organizations. Every company is different; your experiences hopefully will be better than mine.

I think its possible to be Type B and get to the top but harder. Too many Type As and work places become dysfunctional and chaotic, blame culture, bullying etc Too many Type Bs and its too soft, easy and creative, not enough ruthlessness and efficency.

I am definately by nature a type B - However I can be aggressive and competitive - therefore you need to look at the type As and take their best traits and adapt them to your personality.

[scapegoatpa]

I think it depends on the job. Meetings where I work always turn into chaos and are hard to hold/control because of "personalities" of the staff. One day a vendor came in and was part of our meeting and afterward I heard him ask the district manager "are they always like that when you have a meeting" and he told the guy the problem was that our company only hired type A personalities to deal with the pressure and abuse our customers dish out, and it was impossible to control us all together in the same room. I think a company would prefer an intelligent type B over a type A personality.