In my recently wrote about my ESCI Feedback review, today I wanted to spend a bit of time on some feedback I received around having a stoic character.
I’ve heard of being a stoic before but never had anyone call me a stoic, nor have I actually understood what being a stoic means so today I thought I would invest a bit of time in understanding this deeper.
Some stoic traits are…
Positive Traits
- Accepting the way the world works
- Calm, can handle most things
- Makes the best of life
- Peaceful, stable, surrendering
Negative Traits
- Emotionally withdrawn
- Exhausted
- Non-confrontational
- Poker-faced
- Unexpressive
- Unusually quiet
Am I a stoic?
Funny enough after reading about the traits it’s a pretty good description of some of the traits I display. I’ve been told frequently that I’m a low reactor to situations (birthday parties, presents, anything). This would fall in line with being calm.
Also, an area that I have struggled with and actively been trying to grow is the “non-confrontrational” aspect. Conversations where I know it will be an energized discussion often make me nervous.
I know I am also a fairly quiet person. While not a deep introvert, I know I’m an introvert and need time to myself to re-charge.
Where do I need some work
Showing emotion is definitely something I need to work on. Happiness, excitement, anger - these are all powerful emotions that if used properly can be extremely efective. I tend to want to remove them from a conversation and just focus on the facts… a very stoic thing to do. While that may lead to factually based conversations sometimes I can leave people frustrated as they may not feel you have their backs or empathize with them.