Who Are the Always Late Personality Types?

Who are the always late personality types? Control freaks are not one of the main ones. Who then?

Lateness to meetings costs money. This adds to the waste for which most meetings are known. Lateness has many reasons. They include personality. Who are the always late personality types though?

Knowing these types helps us assess personalities. Knowing personalities helps us be more effective. It helps us build and run better teams.

Researching Late Personality Types

When looking at the always been late personality types, we need to keep it in context. That context includes all the other reasons. That nets down to just under 20% of people being late a lot.

For example, the younger a child is at home, the more likely an employee will be late to work. Other reasons include health, physical and mental. Substance abuse could be a factor too. Low job satisfaction and lack of commitment could be there too.

Always Late Personality Types

When it comes to the always late personality types, experts have many ways to describe them. Diana DeLonzor, who was a management consultant, coined seven late personality types. Comparing her list with other research, here is a summary of key personalities who tend to be late:

• Thrill seekers. The most common type, they like the last minute rush. They work best under pressure, no pressure no work. At heart they are procrastinators.
• Optimists and multi-taskers. They overestimate what they can do. They will try to fit in that last task. That task causes lateness.
• B-type personalities. They have poor sense of time. Guessing when a minute has passed is a simple test. Within five seconds suggests one is likely to be on time. Closer to fifteen seconds suggests likely to be late.
• Excusers. They often blame other factors in their work. Lateness is not their fault. A top excuse is having to wait for others. It is a waste of time to be prompt.

Using Personality Types

The main mistake people make is applying generalizations such as these as hard rules. Just because a person is always late does not right away make him one of these types.

We combine this observation with others of a different type. These give a trend by which to assess personalities well. In turn, we will be more effective with our teams.