Beware the "Highly Organized" Individual - Karen Conlin, M.Ed

So often in profiles for a desired candidate companies will emphasize "highly organized" in the job description. This may need some further thought. Discipline and tenacity may be better choices.

Having observed many "highly organized" individuals in various industries and positions, there seems to be a common thread in addition to their orderly skills. They all seem to be highly motivated to keep everything in place and are uncomfortable if something is not where they want it. They seem to complain more about various issues and never seem to be truly happy. More time is spent on organizing and less on creating, interacting or team play. While this is a generalization and certainly not an attempt to psychoanalyze behaviors, it does bear consideration in a candidate.

Schools put so much emphasis on grading and rewarding students for memorizing facts but very little on collaboration and creativity skills. Studies have shown that more cheating in school is done by "A" students because they cannot accept failure. Parents who "demand" A's from their children are missing the point of education. It's all about educating the whole child and not just regurgitating what they have been told. Watch the students who have been labeled with ADHD or not good at testing and see who they become as adults.

Richard Branson, Hoda Kotb, and Oprah Winfrey are examples of people who experienced rejections and never had the label of highly organized. What they have in common is discipline, tenacity and creativity. Who wouldn't want these individuals in their organizations?

My View:

Some interesting perspective for sure, but much like extroverts trying to push introverts into being more outgoing I think its important to recognize that success in business is a result of a variety of skill sets all contributing their unique strengths and abilities in the efforts of a company working toward achieving a common set of goals.
The tendency to put creativity above organization is a flaw, you need a balance along the spectrum. Some people land more on one side or the other of the spectrum, but don't forget that the organized folks are usually the one the form a foundational 'glue' that helps keep the creative chaos organized and helps move ideas through to completion. Maybe that is one of the reasons why all big names mentioned in the above article have some great teams of organized people who have seen that the Ideas meet their due end. Hence this theory cannot be applied on all.