American Chopper - How Personalities Clash At Work
Today we take a look at the popular Discovery Channel series American Chopper, featuring the misadventures of the Teutul family (Senior, Junior and Mikey) and their company, custom bike manufacturer Orange County Choppers. The relationship between Junior and Senior illustrates two opposing Myers-Briggs type preferences extremely well.
By now, you probably know that every episode of American Chopper features a heated, no-holds-barred argument between Senior and Junior. The argument is about the same thing every week - whether it’s more important to make a good product, or stay on schedule. We witness a classic clash of personality types that might look like something you’ve experienced in the workplace yourself.
Junior manages each new project. He typically spends a lot of time upfront on the creative end of the process. Senior, on the other hand, oversees the entire process and is stimulated by one thing and one thing only - getting the bikes built on schedule. This is the basis for the friction in their relationship, as vividly illustrated in this video.
In Myers-Briggs terms, Junior appears to prefer ESTP or ENTP, while Senior appears to prefer ESTJ. The big difference in their personality types appears in their Orientation attitudes - what they show to the outer world. With his focus on the creative process, Junior exhibits a preference for Perception. He likes to discuss new ideas and approaches. He hates schedules, constantly changes his original plans, and is motivated by the approaching deadline. In contrast, Senior, with his focus on the schedule and getting things done on time, clearly prefers Judgment. He doesn’t want to talk about ideas and approaches - he wants to make sure the project is finished on time, and would prefer everyone get started early and stay ahead of schedule. When it appears the schedule is slipping, he steps in and starts an argument.
Senior thinks Junior needs to choose a direction quickly, get busy, and minimize last-minute changes. Junior thinks Senior needs to lay off, trust the team to get things done on time, and appreciate that the creative end of the process is what’s most important. Since they repeat the same argument every week, clearly they aren’t making progress.
Have you ever experienced this stressful situation at work? I have. I used to work for a person very much like Senior - except for the yelling - who got extremely stressed if you didn’t show regular progress towards meeting his deadlines. I, on the other hand, as an ESTP, approach projects very much like Junior. The creative process is most important, and the deadline is what it is. Working for this guy was a weekly struggle, because he didn’t place a value on employees who didn’t think as he did.
There can be a lot of stress even if the roles are reversed. If the boss prefers Perception and the employee prefers Judgment, the employee may chafe at a perceived lack of direction and closure, while the boss will expect more attention be given to the front end of every task.
Ideally, both parties can learn about their personality differences and do a better job of giving each other what they expect and need. Realistically, this doesn’t happen very often, and it’s the boss who gets his way (American Chopper to the contrary).
In my situation, when I learned about Myers-Briggs I quickly came to a startling realization - my boss wasn’t going to change, so in order to relieve the stress of our relationship I needed to move on. So I did. But now I approach situations like this differently. Myers-Briggs gives us an opportunity to learn about our personality preferences as a team, take advantage of our collective strengths and overcome our weaknesses.
To help your team function like a high-performance engine:
- Use Myers-Briggs and learn about Type and Teams.
- Use KAI and learn about creative styles.
- Learn how to optimize team involvement at various points in the process for creativity, problem solving, and innovation.
- Learn how to use the Platinum Rule - ‘Do Unto Others As They Would Like You To Do Unto Them.”
- Take the team for a motorcycle ride (optional)
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American Chopper - How Personalities Clash At Work…
How the weekly argument on American Chopper illustrates the real-world conflict between personality types at work - and how you can help eliminate the conflict….