Mediators (INFPs) are quietly passionate people. When it comes to work and productivity, mature Mediators can show enthusiasm if they find themselves working on the right thing. Though they prefer “meaningful work,” they may put a lot of effort into more mundane tasks. But these personalities must feel that the routine is necessary for a larger cause or that the routine enterprise somehow makes others better off. However, even these endeavors can grow stale after a while, no matter the ultimate reason for them.
For example, someone with the Mediator personality type may find themselves working on a dry report designed to crunch the data regarding client reactions to their company’s customer service response time and effectiveness. This chore is likely to involve a lot of dry statistics and repetitive, superficial, and canned comments.
On the surface, it may not seem like there is much here that would excite the average Mediator. But if they look beyond the numbers and off-the-cuff feedback, they may see a pattern that represents the humanity of the work that they do. This may lead to insights on how they can serve others better. This service-centered perspective is where a Mediator personality type will find the kind of motivation that ignites productive energy, even during the most routine report writing.
Mediator personalities are likely to find two barriers to getting things done: focus and relevancy. Sometimes the two may intertwine and work together to prevent Mediators from pursuing a more productive path.
As Prospecting personality types, Mediators may always be on the hunt for something more stimulating in which to sink their teeth. The research shows that focus and staying on subject can be a challenge for people with this trait, and Mediators are no exception.
The Prospecting trait can come in handy when a task needs brainstorming or other scattershot mental approaches. This quality can lend mightily to the creative process. However, while the goal is not to deny the gifts that come with the Prospecting personality trait, it’s not hard to imagine how a strong Prospecting trait might sometimes need to be managed and balanced.
A Mediator who is feeling their oats is likely to take the above-mentioned customer service report and begin to wonder how they might make the feedback process livelier and more relevant for both the customer and the company. Is there a better approach, or are there better questions that could be asked to garner a better understanding of how the company can connect with their customers in more dynamic and vital ways? Finding this connection is likely to ignite genuine excitement in someone with the Mediator personality type.
The Diplomat Role – the Intuitive and Feeling personality trait combination possessed by Mediators – resonates with inspiration, genuineness, and meaning. Mediators may not show as much zeal for tasks that lack these three qualities, affecting their productivity.
Unfortunately, few of us get an ideal work situation free from routine or tedious tasks. Yet these are things that must be dealt with for us to be truly productive. For Mediator personalities, that might mean taking on single tasks that are sometimes uninspiring.
Find out what motivates you to be productive with our Motivation Test.
Productivity Tips: Concentration and Inspiration
Make It about Personal Growth
As a Mediator, you likely find that the idea of personal growth resonates with you more than it does with other personality types. In some ways, every experience can be an opportunity to learn and grow.
While spending time attaching labels properly to cans filled with peaches coming down a conveyor belt may not seem like a life lesson, some people have built whole philosophies around attention to simple details. In some ways, you can reframe almost anything to teach a life lesson. Consider the Japanese tea ceremony often conducted by tea masters, for example. The rite is about appreciating each detail and step to the fullest degree. Lessons of appreciation and respect abound throughout the simple but elegant making and sipping of tea. You may not have time for such a ceremony on an assembly line, but that doesn’t mean that there can be no sense of mindful appreciation infused into the simple and repetitive task.
If you need the inspiration to be productive, maybe the key is to look for the life lesson buried in any less-than-rousing part of your work. Ask yourself, “How can this help me grow?”
Consider: What life lessons do the tasks in front of you (both tedious and fascinating) teach you? Consider each step that you take an advancement toward your best self, no matter how trivial that step might be. Let’s start with the most boring. List five of the dreariest aspects of your work, and describe how these aspects serve as a teacher. And then enjoy learning.
Buddy Up
No doubt we Introverted personality types possess the pull to go it alone. That’s not a bad inclination. Look at all the independence and freedom that it implies.
Mediators also deeply relate to other people, even if it’s one or two others rather than a mass of them. This need to connect is a tremendous opportunity to share the burden of an activity, and it provides a chance to set up accountability to assure your focus and provide genuine feedback on your progress.
We must all sometimes draw on coping skills when we get busy. Explore yours with our Coping Styles Test.
People too often reduce the idea of accountability, when used as a coaching tool, to selecting someone to police whether they are meeting a goal or deadline. However, to Mediators, who tend to be creative, insightful, and highly sensitive, accountability needs to be so much more.
Accountability for Mediator personality types means teaming up with an understanding but honest confidant who allows you to talk through the reasons why you’re where you’re at on your productivity timeline. Life coaches often play this role, but a friend willing to play the amateur counselor and friendly scorekeeper might easily work. It could be a joint exercise, with each friend mutually supporting the other.
Consider: Who’s on your team, both personally and professionally? Who would be willing and able to occasionally sit down with you and chat about your tasks and goals? It could be a professional colleague or a friend. Make a list of the people in your life who you can talk with about your productivity and who will help you remain accountable. Tell at least one of them what you have in mind, and invite them to partner with you on getting things done.
Make a Plan Filled with Both Deadlines and Flexibility
Spontaneity is a gift of freedom, but relying on spontaneity may not be one’s best bet when it comes to productivity. If whims dictate the direction of your life, you may have an interesting life, but productivity will likely suffer. So, if productivity is your concern, make a plan.
You may want to plan by using an umbrella principle, a compromise to preserve some element of spontaneity within your planning. Rather than set up rigid daily rituals and tight schedules, which may be hard for you to keep, set up plans that have overarching goals with firm deadlines. What that looks like day-to-day is up to you, as long as you stay conscious of the big picture.
For example, rather than deciding on Monday to work on a project for three hours every day that week, an umbrella plan would aim to put in 15 hours by Friday. Some days, inspiration may rise, and a six-hour day may be the best use of time. On others, when inspiration feels elusive, doing an hour or two of light editing and restructuring might be best.
For many Mediators, setting an umbrella goal of completing the project by Friday with no strict daily schedule provides some structure and yet allows for more of their native spontaneity to express itself. It’s attempting to enjoy the best of both worlds. This may even encourage more creativity, because it encourages a more natural approach to the task with attention paid to mood and energy. The final goal is to deliver a project by Friday. How you get there as the week unfolds is up to you.
(If you want to drive someone with the Judging personality trait crazy, tell them that this is how you create your plans. Judging personalities love firm, detailed plans, but you may not work that way. So take any advice to micromanage yourself with a grain of salt.)
The essential part of this style of planning is setting clear deadlines that are reasonably firm. Then, create paths to those deadlines each day with monthly or quarterly assessments to determine whether the plan continues to be sound. Use a calendar to make appointments with yourself to measure progress and assess your faithfulness to your deadlines. Deadlines remain important and are likely unavoidable if you intend to be productive.
Consider: What are your overarching umbrella goals? When would you like to meet them? Write these down, and keep them available to look at daily. Then, on a calendar, schedule appointments with yourself to assess your progress with a critical eye toward meeting your deadlines.
Sensitive vs. Productive
Sometimes we set up a false dichotomy that there’s something ruthless and inflexible about being productive. Of course, productivity can take some discipline, and the word “discipline” can sound like something hard. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room to take Mediator personalities’ sensitivity and spontaneity and weave it into getting things done.
Mediator personalities are unique and rare, and they will not likely fit into a cookie-cutter version of productivity that relies on rigorous methods. Of course, any technique may be worth trying, but in the end, success comes from finding ways to achieve your task in a manner that fits who you are. Be kind to yourself while being diligent with your goals.