I am a real estate agent with a psychology degree. Scary isn't it? I often wonder if I should display my degree in my office or not. I don't want potential clients to think that I am secretly manipulating them to make purchases they really didn't want to make.
I have always been interested in Personality Profiling and how it can help me relate to people in real estate. Early on in my career I was in a class where the teacher suggested reading a book called Posotive Personality Profiles: Discover Personality Insights to Understand Yourself and Others by Robert A. Rohm. I initially purchased the book so I could learn how to relate better to my clients but what I discovered about myself has been invaluable.
I know many people like to use the color system of personality profiling but Dr. Rohm uses a different system that made much more sense to me. He states that peoples personalities are divided up into four main groups. 1. Task Oriented and Outgoing 2. Task Oriented and Reserved 3. People Oriented and Outgoing and 4. People Oriented and Reserved. Most people aren't going to fit exactly into one of these categories but you can usually pick out which one fits you the best. I am Task Oriented and Reserved. Discovering this has helped me so much and I'll tell you why.
When I am working on something and someone comes in to talk to me I have a really hard time stopping what I am doing and focusing on the person. I am a mother of four children and this quality doesn't always make me a recipient for Mother of the Year! My kids will be trying to talk to me and tell me about their day but I'm dead set on getting my kitchen cleaned or the laundry folded. My youngest daughter knows this about me and forces me to look at her or she won't talk, it's kind of funny, and good for me! I used to think something was wrong with me... until I read the book.
Now that I know this about myself I don't feel like such a jerk! I really truly love people. I love my husband and children and I have wonderful friends. Being task oriented is just that, it doesn't mean that I don't like people it just means that my mind steers towards tasks first. It doesn't even mean that I'm not good with people because I am. When I tell people that I'm not a people person they don't believe me. But it's something that I've had to learn.
What does this mean for my job? Well, I know that I need to focus on the areas that I am weak at. I am not the greatest at keeping in touch with clients after a transaction has closed. I do not like to socialize or stand around and talk with people more than I have to. I've discovered that in real estate, I'm just going to have to get better at that. On the other hand I'm great at getting things done and my clients love that. I've been called a "doer" by several clients. When I say I'm going to do something it gets done and they know it. And this is a quality that gets me referral business.
It's a huge blessing to know your weakness and your strengths if you are willing to work on the things that you are not so good at. I highly recommend reading the book if you haven't already.
