From the course: Gretchen Rubin on Creating Great Workplace Habits

The four tendencies

From the course: Gretchen Rubin on Creating Great Workplace Habits

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The four tendencies

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- Now, another way that differences come to play in the workplace is very, very pervasive and important kind of distinction when you're understanding how to manage your own habits and the habits of the people around you has to do with the four tendencies. And these have to do with how you deal with an expectation. And we all face outer expectations, a work deadline or inner expectations, our own desire to keep a new year's resolution. And there are upholders, questioners, obligers and rebels. Upholders readily meet outer and inner expectations. They meet a work deadline, they keep a new year's resolution without much fuss. Questioners question all expectations. They'll do something if they think it makes sense. You have to convince them that it's not arbitrary, it's not inefficient, it's a good use of their time. Once they decide they will absolutely meet that expectation. Obligers readily meet outer expectations, but they struggle to meet inner expectations. So, they have no trouble meeting the work deadline, but they're going to have trouble keeping that new year's resolution. And then finally, rebels, rebels resist all expectations, outer and inner expectations alike. They want to do what they want to do in their own way. If you ask or tell them to do something they're very likely to resist, and they don't even like to tell themselves what to do. And the tendency that you fall into will make a very big difference on how you best form habits and also how you manage other people's habits.

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