“The workplace is sometimes a mini-replica of home, with many of the same elements squeezed into a few revealing items,” says Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, author of Reading People: How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior – Anytime, Anyplace.
Work settings and office props may express people at work more accurately than their home environment. At home, their surroundings are influenced by their roommates, spouses, kids, and even relatives. At work, people are free to decorate as they wish.
Here’s what office props and work settings reveal about personality and style. These props can also improve workplace communication.
Reading People at Work
“Office furnishings, then, usually won’t reflect an individual’s personal taste or priorities as well as photos, calendars, and other items,” says Dr Dimitrius in Reading People.
Calendars. Look at the calendars as office props that reveal personality, not just as a measure of time. Does the calendar sport red racecars, Norman Rockwell, or motivational sayings? The calendar is an office prop that can help you read people at work because it tells you about personality, habits, and style. It’s also a great conversation starter.
Desktop items. “Someone’s desk can be a small collage of his personality,” says Dr Dimitrius. “A messy, disorganized desk usually points to a messy, disorganized person, and never mind the standard assurances to the contrary…And someone who tries to impress office visitors with expensive pens and crystal paperweights will likely find the need to do so in all aspects of his life.”
To read people at work and learn their personalities, check to see if the desktop items are made by their kids – or are all the items functional and practical? Are the pens designer or company-issued?
Photos and frames. Are the photos of family, pets, landscapes, or the solar system? Are they professional or amateur? Are the frames expensive or inexpensive, gold or wood? These workplace props can reveal hobbies, priorities, and tastes. In addition to helping you read people at work without relying on nonverbal communication, photos offer a great opening for small talk.
Plants and flowers. “The person who goes to the trouble of keeping fresh flowers or growing plants at work often cares a lot about beauty and nature in his environment,” says Dr Dimitrius in Reading People. People with plants in their office may also be artistic and health conscious, and may have hospital and caring natures.
The layout of the office. Is the office space arranged so people can sit and talk comfortably? Does the desk face a wall, window, door, or is it in the center of the room? All of these are signs that can help you read people at work. These office props can teach you a great deal about your colleagues and increase workplace communication, if you’re paying attention.
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Source: Reading People: How to Understand People and Predict Their Behavior – Anytime, Anyplace by Jo-Ellan Dimitrius and Mark Mazzarella.
