The individual within and without
I don’t think it is giving too much away to admit to you that I am not keen on making telephone calls. I have always been this way. I don’t know why because nothing bad happens when I do get around to making them. To say I dislike making calls is a bit too strong, it is just that I would rather do something else – and if someone else will make the call then I am happy for them to do so. Otherwise, I will put them off until I can no longer delay in making the call. Other people do not have the same aversion. One past colleague was just the opposite. Sometimes it would seem that he would rather pick up the phone and make a call than talk to me! Can you believe that? In the course of a conversation, if there was a point at which it seemed that we might need the input of someone else, the call was made before the need for it was considered.
This is just a simple illustration of how we are all different. Even when we work in the same professional discipline, no matter how much we would wish people to conform to the ideal worker, we all bring a different set of personality traits and attributes. From the individual’s point of view this need not be a problem. As long as we have the self-knowledge to understand that some part of our personality may not suit a particular activity we need to undertake as part of our job, then we can take steps to mitigate any negative impact. When I made my abortive escape from NDT, I worked in two jobs that required me to do cold calling on the telephone. If the jobs had been totally about cold calling I would have hated them and probably wouldn’t have applied for them in the first place. However, the telephone was just an initial tool that led to the bits I did enjoy. So, I set myself targets of the number of calls to do in a session, gritted my teeth, made the calls and then rewarded myself by doing something a lot more interesting, to me at least. Even if I say so myself, I was reasonably successful at doing what didn’t come naturally to me.
There are lots of self-help books and websites out there to help you discover the real you. In industry, personality tests and aptitude tests tend to be applied in the recruitment process or in team-building exercises and then they are immediately forgotten. Aptitude and personality tests were used in the last PANI project and some characteristics were correlated with good performance on the inspection task. However, subsequent work found that these results were not being acted on in industry. I suspect it is because we don’t want the hassle of the extra effort required to treat each person as an individual. It is easier to treat them as a group. “There is no I in team” is oft quoted. But, if you look carefully, there is a me!
The other aspect of dealing with individuals is that we all have inherent preferences, which impact on how we relate to others. This was highlighted to me again during the PANI project when looking at the different personality traits: I placed a higher value on some more than others. For one trait this was due to the culture of the environment I spent time in; for another it was because it made it easier for me to interact with those people. Do you watch The Voice on Saturday nights? No, I don’t either. I sit in a chair with my back to the TV and listen to the sound J. The whole premise of the programme is based on research that showed that if people couldn’t see the singer/musician then they based their decision on how good the person was musically and on the quality of the music. If they could see the singer/musician then their decision was influenced by non-musical factors, such as appearance, etc. This also happens at interviews, where the appearance of the interviewee can impact on the interviewers’ assessment of intelligence.
If we suffer from such innate discrimination without being aware of it, what other aspects of our work and working environment are influencing the pool of people we attract into, or more importantly put off from entering, NDT without us knowing it? Maybe we ourselves tolerate aspects of our work and working environment because they have always been like that.
Last year at the World Conference, Gail Long gave a talk on ‘My life as a woman in NDT’. I was not there to hear the talk but the abstract is available on the web. It is interesting to note that Gail’s talk was not just about being a woman in what was predominantly a man’s world but about getting the message across. It is not about getting more women into NDT, although that would be beneficial. It is about attracting more young people and more diverse people. Not just for the sake of it or to be politically correct, but because by doing so our industry can be more competitive and NDT companies can improve their bottom line.
All it takes is individual self-knowledge at the individual, team, company and industry levels.
Please note that the views expressed in this column are the author’s own personal ramblings for the purpose of encouraging discussion within the NDT Newspaper. They do not represent the views of the IVC, AMEC or the HSE who funded the PANI projects.
Letters can be mailed to The Editor, NDT News, Newton Building, St George’s Avenue, Northampton NN2 6JB. Fax: 01604 89 3861; Email: ndtnews@bindt.org or email Bernard McGrath direct at bernard.mcgrath@amec.com
This is just a simple illustration of how we are all different. Even when we work in the same professional discipline, no matter how much we would wish people to conform to the ideal worker, we all bring a different set of personality traits and attributes. From the individual’s point of view this need not be a problem. As long as we have the self-knowledge to understand that some part of our personality may not suit a particular activity we need to undertake as part of our job, then we can take steps to mitigate any negative impact. When I made my abortive escape from NDT, I worked in two jobs that required me to do cold calling on the telephone. If the jobs had been totally about cold calling I would have hated them and probably wouldn’t have applied for them in the first place. However, the telephone was just an initial tool that led to the bits I did enjoy. So, I set myself targets of the number of calls to do in a session, gritted my teeth, made the calls and then rewarded myself by doing something a lot more interesting, to me at least. Even if I say so myself, I was reasonably successful at doing what didn’t come naturally to me.
There are lots of self-help books and websites out there to help you discover the real you. In industry, personality tests and aptitude tests tend to be applied in the recruitment process or in team-building exercises and then they are immediately forgotten. Aptitude and personality tests were used in the last PANI project and some characteristics were correlated with good performance on the inspection task. However, subsequent work found that these results were not being acted on in industry. I suspect it is because we don’t want the hassle of the extra effort required to treat each person as an individual. It is easier to treat them as a group. “There is no I in team” is oft quoted. But, if you look carefully, there is a me!
The other aspect of dealing with individuals is that we all have inherent preferences, which impact on how we relate to others. This was highlighted to me again during the PANI project when looking at the different personality traits: I placed a higher value on some more than others. For one trait this was due to the culture of the environment I spent time in; for another it was because it made it easier for me to interact with those people. Do you watch The Voice on Saturday nights? No, I don’t either. I sit in a chair with my back to the TV and listen to the sound J. The whole premise of the programme is based on research that showed that if people couldn’t see the singer/musician then they based their decision on how good the person was musically and on the quality of the music. If they could see the singer/musician then their decision was influenced by non-musical factors, such as appearance, etc. This also happens at interviews, where the appearance of the interviewee can impact on the interviewers’ assessment of intelligence.
If we suffer from such innate discrimination without being aware of it, what other aspects of our work and working environment are influencing the pool of people we attract into, or more importantly put off from entering, NDT without us knowing it? Maybe we ourselves tolerate aspects of our work and working environment because they have always been like that.
Last year at the World Conference, Gail Long gave a talk on ‘My life as a woman in NDT’. I was not there to hear the talk but the abstract is available on the web. It is interesting to note that Gail’s talk was not just about being a woman in what was predominantly a man’s world but about getting the message across. It is not about getting more women into NDT, although that would be beneficial. It is about attracting more young people and more diverse people. Not just for the sake of it or to be politically correct, but because by doing so our industry can be more competitive and NDT companies can improve their bottom line.
All it takes is individual self-knowledge at the individual, team, company and industry levels.
Please note that the views expressed in this column are the author’s own personal ramblings for the purpose of encouraging discussion within the NDT Newspaper. They do not represent the views of the IVC, AMEC or the HSE who funded the PANI projects.
Letters can be mailed to The Editor, NDT News, Newton Building, St George’s Avenue, Northampton NN2 6JB. Fax: 01604 89 3861; Email: ndtnews@bindt.org or email Bernard McGrath direct at bernard.mcgrath@amec.com
