Great performing teams can come about by luck but the best come about by the understanding and efforts of the team members and their leader. David Whitaker, the coach who was largely responsible for team development of the Great Britain field-hockey team which won the gold medal at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, said of his team “They became a harmonious, dynamic unit without negating the special individual talents that each player contributed.’

To get the absolute best from your team and get the best out of its performance, we need to figure out how to improve the team dynamics by getting the best out of its members, including their leader….you!!

By allowing each team member to work to their best within their individual job role and best fit within their environment, you are sure to build that harmonious team. Personality profiling can help you determine what that best role and environment is.

“A small number of people with complementary skills committed to a common purpose, performance goals and ways of working together for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”      (Katzenbach & Smith, The Wisdom of Teams)

What is Personality Profiling? 

Personality profiling is sometimes referred to as psychometric testing which measures an individual’s personality in a given situation. It doesn’t assess how clever they are or their ability to do a job but rather their behaviour or attitude towards a particular situation.

When someone reacts in their most common and comfortable behaviour to a stimulus, that is considered their social and intellectual profile to that particular type of challenge that has just been put before them.

To determine someone’s personality profile, a questionnaire is usually taken to which there are no right or wrong answers; the assessor is simply using the answers as a means to assess the person’s behavioural patterns and natural or ingrained habits.
 

Personality Types

Overall, there are sixteen recognised and distinct personality types. They all have their own characteristics which can each be identified as individual personalities which are shown in the table below:

Can We Force a Change Our Personality Type?

Without a doubt, people’s behaviour can and does change frequently. We can be influenced by our environment or other people and this is why we often refer to someone’s sudden change in behaviour by saying that that ‘there must have been a reason for it’.

If we know what the causes are that make us change our behaviour, we can use it to our advantage.

 Sometimes we are forced to change our behaviour; it might not always be appropriate to act in a way that is more to our nature in given situations. There may be a time for instance, where you have to take the lead in a situation when you would normally shy away and let someone else shine.

While we might not be exactly comfortable having to take charge and act as the extravert rather than the introvert, we as humans are adaptable and if the situation calls for it then it can be done, albeit we may be a little bit less convincing if we haven’t practiced but with that practice, we could soon ‘act like a pro’!

This can help in a team situation if we have to adapt our natural reactions and behaviours in order to carry out our job or work within a team situation. In fact, practicing differing behaviours works to our advantage as it helps to give us insight into why other people act and react the way that they do. This in turn can influence the way that we act towards them by realising that they are not necessarily trying to get out of making a decision or taking over a project in order to annoy you!

So What Are The Benefits of Team Profiling?

The last thing that you want to do as a business owner or team leader is to constantly be changing the team members even though you know they have the competence to carry out the duties you have asked of them.

Personality profiling can be a means of determining how you can get the best out of them without pulling out your hair. You can’t absolutely determine an individual’s behaviour but you can certainly have a good idea of what their natural response would normally be.

Another benefit is that it can be used when interviewing your team in the first place and this is where it is often used though not used as the deciding factor. The way an interviewee conducts themselves at interview along with their qualifications, history and past experience should be a much greater factor in determining who is most qualified and suitable to the role in which they are applying.

Once employed, personality profiling can address an employee’s greatest needs by really helping an individual thrive in their new role.

Their natural behaviours are understood and can be used to great advantage within the company. Two employees can have an equal capability and qualification as their peer but you, as an employer can determine who to put forward in a situation that needs a quick answer and who to put to use on a project that needs a deeper level of investigation before a decision is made.

That kind of insight is invaluable in the workplace. When we know what the individuals in our teams fear, what motivates them, what they prefer to do and how they tend to react, we can almost predict what will happen when we pick Joe rather than Janet to do the job.

That’s great, but isn’t it just about getting to know and build a relationship with your team?

Of course we all should make an effort to get to know your team and build a great working relationship with them but until you even know what your own personality profile is, it can be difficult to understand why people don’t see the world the way that you do. It’s not that you are right and they are wrong, you just see and act differently in different situations.

How often, for instance, have you heard how five people can see the same accident yet have five different versions about what happened and what or who was to blame?

It’s our perception of what has happened that has made the difference to our understanding of what happened and it may be totally different to what actually took place!!
 

Taking a Personality Profile Assessment May Be For You AND Your Team If:

• You wonder why you can’t get someone to see your point of view

• You struggle to understand why certain employees threaten to leave every time you initiate a change of working practice

• You have an employee who constantly demands your attention and takes up most of your time on what is often petty matters

• Every time you ask for an opinion, people are reluctant to give it

• You struggle to fill certain roles within your team

• You are brilliant at getting the job done but quickly forget where you put the paperwork

• You struggle to get your team working together even on simple tasks, yet individually they work well