Life doesn’t have to be going terribly wrong for you to feel low in confidence and self worth. Sometimes the continual slog of getting the kids fed and out the door, getting to work on time and engage yourself, returning home through the traffic to tea time and the soul-destroying hell that is bedtime, it can make you feel like the only achievement is everyone making it though alive at the end of the day. With so much to do and think about you feel like you are doing a mediocre job at home and a mediocre job at work, and you struggle to identify anything that you are actually doing well.

If you are a ‘knowledge worker‘, spending the majority of your day thinking, attending endless meetings, and battling your way through bureaucracy you might often wonder what you are actually achieving, and would anyone notice if you didn’t turn up for work.

Maybe you have a job where you make more immediate impact, like teacher, nurse, retail worker, yet face ungrateful customers, helping people who don’t want to be helped, or the squeeze of budgets meaning you can’t do everything you know needs to be done. Without positive feedback it’s easy to forget what you are good at and why you went into the job in the first place.

I talked recently about the Johari Window as a tool for helping you understand yourself a bit more. The tool I am going to tell you about now plays a similar function, but is more descriptive and fun to do.

Packtypes were invented by Will Murray, based on his experience working with businesses and knowledge of existing personality tests. The essence of Packtypes is a pack of 64 cards each with a adjective. You pick the 12 that you feel are most like you, and each card is part of a Packtype. There are XX Packtypes, and essentially they are broad personality descriptors. You may find your profile contains several different Packtypes, or just a few types. Maybe you are an analytical Pointer Dog, or perhaps you are the people focused Coach Dog. If you are an outcome focused Guard Dog and struggling with a an imaginative but unfocused colleague, perhaps they are a Hound.

Understanding yourself is the first step to understanding other people. Being able to identify aspects of personality in yourself and others helps in the attribution of behaviour. Rather than assuming someone is trying to annoy you, or feeling like your colleagues are lazy or slapdash, understanding their motivation and strengths can help you to get along better. At the same time, Packtypes help you to identify your own strengths and appreciate what you bring along to the party. As with the Johari Window, Packtypes are not something you do in isolation. By getting other people to Packtype you, you can decrease your Blind Spot and gain a better understanding of the You you present to others.

This is just a taster, and I will be blogging more about Packtypes and how I am using them in my work and home life.