Happy Monday 🌞
In last week’s newsletter, I talked about how important it is to create systems that match who you are — including your personality, life season, and your goals. This week, I want to share some of my favorite tools for getting to know yourself professionally, because self-discovery isn’t just valuable for building better systems — it’s incredibly powerful at work.
It’s become pretty normal for me to start speaking in a meeting by mentioning, “I’m a verbal processor, so I’m going to speak while I think for a minute.” (Here’s more on processing styles.) That simple piece of self-awareness helped me communicate more effectively and set expectations with my team. I’ve also used language from my Enneagram type to better explain my approach to projects and decision-making.
When you understand your own work style, you can communicate it to others and that’s the next level here.
A few months ago, I ran Buffer’s Marketing team through a fun exercise where we all shared personality tests results and similar results together on a call. Not only was it fun, but it was genuinely useful, too. Many of these tools reveal helpful context about how we each collaborate.
Here’s what we all shared:
As you can see, several of these are just for fun. But the information they provided became inside jokes, so I’m glad we did them.
The more serious assessments gave us insights into each other’s deeper motivations and preferred ways of working. It’s a shortcut to faster communication, shared understanding, and smoother collaboration. When I know that someone is an “Upholder” in the Four Tendencies framework, I understand they’ll thrive with clear expectations and deadlines. When I know someone’s an Enneagram 1, I can anticipate they’ll want to perfect details before sharing work.
In addition to sharing this information in a call, we have also all created work blueprints. It’s something all Buffer teammates do when they join.
Work blueprints are simple one-page documents about yourself that covers both personal details and work style preferences — things like how you prefer to receive feedback, what energizes you at work, and what collaboration looks like when you’re at your best.
Creating my work blueprint helped me articulate things I hadn’t put into words before. For example, I realized I do my best thinking work in the mornings and I prefer to start collaborating in text documents before moving to calls. Sharing this with my team means they can work with me more effectively.
Even if this isn’t a practice within your company, it’s still valuable to have on hand and share with your manager and immediate team.
Here’s how you can turn this information into something you use at work:
1️⃣ Pick 2-3 assessments that resonate with you. I’d recommend starting with the Enneagram and Four Tendencies — they’re both free and practical for work situations.
2️⃣ Translate how those results impact your collaboration style. This will simmer over time as well, but start to connect your own results to how you show up at work and your own preferences.
3️⃣ Create your own work blueprint. Start to gather your own work blueprint. You can follow the format I have outlined in this blog post but make it your own as well. Update it as you connect more dots about how you prefer to work.
The goal isn’t to box yourself in or use personality types as excuses. It’s to develop the self-awareness that helps you communicate more effectively and work better with others.
When everyone on a team understands their own work style and shares it openly, collaboration becomes so much smoother. You spend less time misunderstanding each other and more time doing great work together.
Have you used any personality assessments or self-discovery tools that have been helpful at work? I’d love to hear what’s worked for you.
I hope you have a lovely week ahead. As always, feel free to reply if this sparks any thoughts or questions. ✨
See you next Monday,
Hailley
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