Are you a cat or a dog? Find out with the simple test below…
A work colleague of mine recently went on a conference. While they were there, one of the presentations they sat through was a light-hearted discussion of how you can classify the employees or customers of a company into two types, depending on how they see the world.
I thought it was both funny and provocative, which makes it great material for a blog post. It also has a lesson for those of us who labour in our garage gyms but I’ll come on to that at the end…
The logic goes that there are cats, and there are dogs.
How do dogs see the world?
Dogs live with their owners. Their owners provide food, water, a place to sleep and lots of love and attention.
Dogs therefore reason that since their owners provide everything they could possibly need, their owners must be a god. The owners are providing for the dog out of the goodness of their hearts.
Dogs respond to this situation by lavishing lots of attention upon their owners. They delight every time they are able to do anything, however small, to please them. If you throw a ball for a dog twenty times, it’ll be just as ecstatic to fetch it the twentieth time as the first time.
How do cats see the world?
Cats live with their owners. Their owners provide food, water, a place to sleep and lots of love and attention.
Cats therefore reason that since their owners cater for their every whim and provide everything they could possibly need, they themselves must be a god. The owners are providing for the cat because it is right for the cat to be worshipped and adored.
Cats respond to this situation by completely ignoring their owners. They are not worthy of the cat’s consideration.
OK, so that was amusing. But what was the point?
The point is that, from a business point of view, employees and customers who are dogs (in the nicest possible way) need to be treated differently from employees and customers who are cats.
Dogs always want affirmation that your relationship is going well. They need constant reassurance that you want to be their employer or supplier and that you value them. So to keep them happy, you have to keep giving that positive feedback.
Cats couldn’t give a hairball if you love or hate them. They just want to get down to business. To keep them happy, you have to keep them interested. Imagine how dangling a piece of string focuses a cat’s attention…
So what’s the test?
A simple test is to ask what your natural inclination is upon walking into the office in the morning. Do you go right up to each of your colleagues and say hello or do you get straight down to work and only talk to them if they talk to you.
If you talk, you’re a dog. If you work, you’re a cat.
And in the gym?
As I mentioned at the beginning, I think this tail (err… tale) has some relevance for those of us who work hard in our garage gyms.
Those of us who are cats (that would be me) tend to focus on our problems and how we are going to solve them. If a lift isn’t going up, we sit down and think about it, work out why we think it isn’t going up and then experiment with a solution. In time, this is valuable, as we learn a lot by thinking and doing. However, in the short-term, it can be a bit slow and progress is erratic.
A dog, on the other hand, might first think to phone a friend. This is also valuable, as it can save a lot of wasted time (assuming that the friend knows what they’re talking about). However, in the medium-long term, dogs can end up being rather dependent on their friends and can be lost without them.
So cats tend to miss out on the advantages of what their friends might be able to bring to the table from their experience. Dogs tend to miss out on the valuable education that comes with thinking for themselves.
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