WHAT TYPE OF ORGANIZATIONAL ANIMAL ARE YOU?

If you had ever compared your office to a plantation, then you might want to know which creatures share your space with you; or rather which office animal you are.

Organizational Snake
Olamide wants to get to the top, and he believes the people already there are best placed to help him. He has shown himself adept at networking. However, he reserves his attention for the lower orders. His colleagues regard his breathtakingly transparent politicking with some apprehension and admiration. There is nothing wrong with Olamide’s approach, but only for as long as his organization is really badly managed and jealously and back-stabbing are accepted norms that yield results. If you are like Olamide, you need to realize that good managers use objective measures to assess their people and are not swayed by sycophancy or bitching. If you don’t do enough research as to who is on the way up, which secretaries hold the power, or equation plays out; you will inevitably make a mistake. Also have in mind that the day your organization starts to deploy sound management practices, you will be unmasked as the reptile you really are.

Organizational Worker Bee
Aisha is not really that interested in politics, not even with a small “p”. She sees the vagaries of power politics as a distraction from her work and even her vision. She doesn’t seem to understand why her colleagues are plotting and scheming. Her innate instinct, which is to ignore the backstabbing going on all around her, is a dangerous one. It is evident that those who are motivated by negative politics will only be too happy to benefit from her self-effacing nature and will no doubt use her hard work to aid their own ascent. Human dictates too, that those who are more negatively political may begin to despise and dislike her particularly as she becomes a constant reminder of their own deficiencies. To avoid being turned into the ultimate sacrifice, it would be wise for worker bees to find a job or role that is rewarding in itself and even to be successful inevitably involves destructive politics.

Organizational Monkey
Alice is ambitious, but not overbearing, and she is so keen to learn through others. Innately friendly, with well-developed people skills, she is happiest and most productive in a team setting, even when she isn’t running the team. She is committed to vigorous network, but unlike he snake, she is motivated by the need/desire for information about where the organization if heading and what the team is thinking, rather than for her personal advancement, Transparency rather than secrecy is the name of her game. She is protective towards her team members and sees motivation as top of her priority list. Carrot, rather than stick-oriented, her colleagues and subordinates will tend to view her meritocratic approach with warmth. But those to whom she ultimately reports; whether the senior manager or the CEO, may at times wish she was as willing to lead the team as she is willing to be part of it.

Organizational Chameleon
Some would describe Chigozie as having a good sense of perspective and a work/life balance. To others, particularly his colleagues, he is nothing more than a lazy waste of space of space. He is not actually bad at politics, although he tends to use his political skills to avoid making any effort, or to cover up his dire lack of ambition. Enjoying the social aspect of work, and not without talent, he has little empathy with the aims of the organization. For Chigozie to get any real job satisfaction, he will have to rethink his career plans. Though many chameleons do well in business, particularly those who happen to be related to the owner or founder, they are often deeply restless souls whose own apathy may be destructive to others as well as to the organization as whole. If you employ a chameleon, it is vital to keep them occupied with a project they are interested in, or one whose fortunes will not directly affect the share price. If you are a chameleon, get out of your current worth, and get a life.

Organizational Lemming
Temitope was once told that since she was so bad at being since she was so bad at being political it would amount to a waste of time for her to dabble into politics of any kind. Successful politicians often have an over optimistic view of life that tends to banish all self-doubt, but which may also lead them repeatedly into the same trap. In contrast to this, lemmings have a more pessimistic or perhaps more realistic, take on things. Note that if you can’t act confidently in a situation which doesn’t merit confidence, argue a point which has no ground to be argued or turn a dismal failure into a major triumph, then you are too wedding to the self-destructive button to be successful. Lemmings like Tope just aren’t eager to make a go at something new. They are so satisfied with the status quo, even when they are not going anywhere anytime soon. Getting yourself a good idea and starting your own business is a good way to cure this habit; at least that way, you will be on top of the heap once the politics start. However a note of caution; don’t continue to act like a lemming when you are the one running the show!

Culled from Networth