How would you describe your lifestyle? Is it fast-paced? Career-orientated? Are you a wanderer, fitness-junkie, or laid-back?
What about your workstyle? Much like your lifestyle is the set of habits about your life, your workstyle is your set of habits and preferences for how you work. It’s a term coined by Elisa Steele, EVP, Marketing & Products at Jive Software, and author of Workplace Flexibility: What’s Your Workstyle?.
There is no right or wrong answer to what your workstyle is. Your may prefer working in solitude—being trusted to get things done on your own, with no distractions or disruptions. Or maybe your workstyle is more team-focused, where you prefer collaborating when working on a project. Your workstyle is unique, fits your lifestyle, and fits your personality so you can perform at your best.
It helps ease the burden if everyone can spend a bit more time at home with the family, even if there’s a laptop by their side.
How you prefer to work as compared to your colleagues isn’t important, as everyone’s workstyle is different. Take a look at the workstyles of the following four people and see whom you relate to the most:
Rachel Duran’s workstyle is best described as the “center of attention”. As one of two community managers at Radio Shack, she keeps her eyes on everything—but is well aware that she can’t do it all herself. Rachel relies on teammates to help her succeed and stay focused, knowing that every battle can’t be won on her own.
“You’re not always the best person to implement your vision,” Rachel explained to Elisa.
“I recognize and deploy pieces of my big picture to those who know how to make them happen best.”
Will Rose’s workstyle is much like his lifestyle—family first. In his role as the enterprise community manager for T-Mobile, he schedules his workday around spending as much time with his two-year old son as possible—which means coming late, and leaving early. He often makes up for the sporadic hours by pulling out his laptop while in bed at night and finishing tasks, or getting a head start on the next day’s work.
Being “family first” also ties in with the second element of his workstyle—helping himself and helping others. Only a handful of T-Mobile employees use Macs (including Will), resulting in low IT support. Will took the initiative to start a Mac Users group in his community, where users and other employees could connect and share workarounds—documenting everything along the way, and providing for the greater good of T-Mobile.
Doug MacKay’s workstyle is all about location. For Doug, working at Critical Mass, a global marketing agency in Calgary, doesn’t necessarily mean working in the office—he often works from home, and even works outdoors. Thanks to devices like iPhones and iPads, Doug can work from anywhere—removing the stresses of trying to get everything done within traditional working hours and within traditional locations.
With internet use comes endless open browser tabs, and with so many devices comes tangled wires and clutter. It might not work for everyone, but this is his workstyle—it’s what he finds to be most productive, and what fits his personality best.
Doug makes sure the IT team can work remotely, as well. It helps ease the burden if everyone can spend a bit more time at home with the family, even if there’s a laptop by their side.
Ryan Rutan, a Jive developer evangelist, has a technology-centric workstyle. He looks at a minimum of three different screens a day.
With internet use comes endless open browser tabs, and with so many devices comes tangled wires and clutter. It might not work for everyone, but this is his workstyle—it’s what he finds to be most productive, and what fits his personality best.
“My workspace goes from immaculate to cluttered, to stacked to unbalanced, to messy to just enough room, to time to push it all off into a box, to digging through the box, to putting things from the box in their right place and back to immaculate.” Ryan noted to Elisa.
“It’s a vicious cycle!”