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Lindsay, you're a Border Collie
As a Border
Collie, your tenacious nature shines through at work. While
others let go of issues, you tend to hold on until you reach the
resolution you want. That's because you're trying to pave your way
to the top, and you'll do everything necessary to get there.
But you're not one of those power mongers who will be happy
at the head of the company if you're there by yourself. You rely on
having friends as an alternative support system in the workplace.
And that's a good thing. Without friends to use as a release valve,
you could just burn yourself out. Your energy is as boundless as
your will is strong. When conflicts arise, you don't hesitate to let
everyone within earshot know. You are not one for keeping emotions
bottled up inside.
One of your biggest challenges in the
workplace, is to find productive ways to use up your energy and new
ideas. Since you are an extremely hard worker, you sometimes need to
be told to quit for the night, take off and spend some time in your
personal life. With your single-mindedness and perfectionist
tendencies, you can be counted on to finish any job your boss puts
to you. Your quick mind and affectionate nature keeps all your
colleagues and work associates on their toes, and asking to be
involved in your projects.
Of these characteristics, what
sets you and other Border Collies apart from different breeds is a
combination of three factors:
Your level of
dominance: Your Alpha/Beta factor.
Your need for
affiliation: Your desire to associate with
colleagues.
Your temperament: How much you wear your heart
on your sleeve.
By looking at your scores on these three
dimensions, we determined your dog type. |
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It's a
dog-eat-dog world out there but you're up to the challenge. You and
your fellow Border Collies are Alpha dogs at work — true
go-getters. You seek competition and enjoy seeing yourself sitting
atop the ladder to success. You are protective of your turf and keep
your eyes out for anyone getting too close to your projects, your
promotions or your salary. When Alphas see the chance to lead, they
take it. You like being in charge and hate wasting time. In fact,
you're often doing two things at once so that you can get the most
out of every minute. You have a high need to achieve excellence and
it's important for you to be an asset to your company. When
challenged by colleagues, you may sometimes leap before you look or
act brazenly. But most of the time you are intelligent enough to
size up the competition, and think things through before jumping in
with your opinion. Although your bark is worse than your bite, your
tendency to get frustrated quickly lands you in your fair share of
strongly worded "discussions."
Your ambitious and competitive spirit earns your colleague's
admiration. You try hard and are willing to sacrifice a lot for
winning or achieving a goal. Your determination and assertive style
not only helps you get what you want, but it also impresses the
right people. The downside to your Alpha nature is that it can be
alienating at times. It can be hard for you to truly celebrate the
success of others, especially when you have not done as well. Learn
how to be a gracious loser and concede defeat with a compliment
instead of a pout. How you cope when the chips are down is a
testament to your character. Learning how to be a gracious winner is
just as important. People get tired of those who constantly gloat
about their successes. Remember, not everything needs to be a
competition. Lighten up a bit and learn to laugh when you misspell
the CEO's name in a company-wide memo.
If you want to please your inner dog at work, you
need to identify an office environment that suits your social needs.
When it comes to your job, there are a number of components that
make it a good fit for you. Are you doing the work you want to be
doing? Are you working for the kind of company you want to work for?
Is your personality a good match for your career? (For more on this
take Tickle's Right Job,
Wrong Job test).
In addition to those aspects of work,
there is another factor that directly influences how happy
you are at work: How important is it for you to make meaningful
relationships with your fellow workers? Some people think this is
crucial for their job satisfaction. Others find interacting with
co-workers (beyond necessary needs) time-consuming, irrelevant, and
disruptive to their productivity. In short, some people want to
develop relationships with co-workers beyond the collaborations
critical for the company, while others prefer to reduce the social
intensity at work without alienating their colleagues.
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Border Collies like you are especially loyal
and social. You do not like being alone and you seek companionship
for most activities. Whether you're grabbing a coffee or lunch,
you're likely to ask others to accompany you before you leave. You
don't feel the need to be surrounded by people all the time, but you
do like to have your social calendar booked, and you probably take
comfort knowing your Palm Pilot is full of contacts.
Having
those contacts by your side is more important for you than others.
You want to feel like you belong — regardless of the environment.
Your co-workers are more than just people you see at work, they're
often the people you spend time talking with about work and other
matters. You value that since meaningful human contact helps fulfill
you and drive you through your days. Beyond the work requirements,
you see your co-workers as a source of friendship and emotional
support, and you take pride in being one of the people who holds the
group together.
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Since maintaining good
relationships with co-workers is a priority for you, any sense
of isolation can lead to poor work performance or
dissatisfaction with your job. Fortunately, there are things
you can do to try to prevent this from happening.
- If you are in charge of your group or feel comfortable
talking to your managers, you can recommend structuring work
responsibilities around the core of cooperation, not
competition. Just make sure you don't overstep your bounds.
- If you feel you aren't getting the kind of interaction
that makes your job great, try organizing some face-to-face
time outside of work projects and meetings. Invite
colleagues to share a 15-minute coffee break with you or go
for a walk on your lunch hour.
- Sure everyone's busy, but even these small breaks can
make a big difference in your job satisfaction and
perception. Some people may need a gentle push, so remind
them that it's only 15 minutes, that they probably spend at
least that much time answering personal emails. Taking
non-work-related breaks throughout the day can rejuvenate
just about anyone and make them more productive.
- Chances are, there is a good time in the afternoon for
everyone to take a brief break. Once you do get people out
of the office with you, try to talk about things
other than work. Bring up hot topics of the day and
get people engaged in juicy and interesting conversations.
You may end up discovering that some of your co-workers
share your same interests or hobbies.
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Whether it's too
many deadlines or unreasonable bosses, everyone experiences
job-related stress. How you handle stress and anxiety varies from
dog to dog. Tickle analyzed your temperament. And now, we can take a
look at how you cope with stress and how it impacts others around
you.
As a breed, Border Collies are in tune with their
thoughts and feelings. That means you don't see the point of
covering up your thoughts or anxieties. Because you tend to voice
what you're feeling inside, your moods can also fluctuate more than
others in the workplace. In fact, the way you act in the office is
in part determined by your moods and stress levels. When your
emotions are intense, you react strongly to situations and to people
around you. You can be in a great mood that shows around work on
Monday, yet Tuesday could feel like the longest workday of your
life. On the rare occasions when this happens, it is easy for you to
get overwhelmed and feel slightly out of control. For the most part,
however, you understand what works for you and are quick to seek
support from others.
You're fairly honest with your thoughts and
feelings, and that helps people at work understand where you're
coming from. Colleagues see you as a straight shooter, which let's
them know how to react to you. With you, there aren't too many
hidden agendas to guess about. At times, however, your emotional
intensity can be tiring for people at work. They can tell when
you're stressed just as they can tell when you're on cloud 9 — and
those vibes are contagious. That's why they might cut you a clear
path when you seem uptight. They don't want to be the ones you snap
at and they don't want to be on the receiving end of a snippy
comment that you'll probably apologize for later.
For these
reasons, co-workers might not run to you for emotional support, and
conversely, might not be too quick to run to your side when you
could use someone to talk to. Remember, your colleagues have their
own stresses and worries. Your tendency to share yours can sometimes
be too much for them. Also, when others have good news to report and
things aren't going well for you, they might be cautious about
sharing the news because they're concerned you won't be able to
enjoy their successes. Ultimately, however, people like your
approach to work and enjoy having you around — if not always for
your ideas, then at least for the big personality you bring to the
workplace.
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Next time you feel the urge to vent to your
colleagues, bite your tongue before you blurt. Part of the
reason you might throw your uncensored ideas out there is to
read others' reactions to what you say, to validate your point
of view. But sometimes it's not so important to have others
validate your feelings as it is for you to articulate them.
Try writing your thoughts down before they leap out of
your mouth. Go back to your thoughts after you've had a time
to reflect upon the situation. Jotting your feelings down on
paper can relieve your need to express your immediate
thoughts. You might find that when you come back to them, you
want to edit some of the original comments. No, you shouldn't
do this every time, but try it out for a change. People
will likely appreciate your thoughts when they're accompanied
by a bit more time and distance. |
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