The Personality Problem
How to Lead Different Kinds of People
In a 2017 headline, Harvard Business Review boldly declared, “Great teams are about personalities, not just skills.” That’s as true in baseball as it is in banking, but it’s something leaders often overlook in high-skill spaces. Talent, experience, and skills are essential in a new hire, but everyone’s personality is an integral part of who they are. When leaders fail to account for the fact that their employees are, you know, complex human beings rather than automatons designed to do a task, team chemistry and performance can go south in a hurry. That’s why it’s so important for leaders to understand and account for the personalities on their team.
To test or not to test?
In an era obsessed with efficient sorting and optimization, it’s no surprise that personality testing has become extremely popular in the workplace. Their use as a hiring tool, in particular, is a fraught and controversial subject. Some swear by them, while others regard them as little more than a more evolved version of the old-school career placement exams that are largely a thing of the past. While personality testing team members after they are hired is a less divisive practice, it can become dangerous when used with excessive fervor.
Ultimately, whether or not you decide to use a personality testing tool is up to you. If you do, you’ll want to compare popular options—the Meyers-Briggs, Color Code, and DiSC models are the most common—and decide which you think are most helpful. Using these tests correctly can be an expensive or complicated endeavor, so you definitely want to do your research before diving in. Alternatively, you may decide you want to do less formal personal analysis. That is fine as well, but getting you know both what your team members like and what they are like is vital for long-term cohesion.
The key when assessing personalities is providing enough rigor to get valuable insights, but not so much that results become an all-defining badge. You need to assure your team members that you have no desire to fit them into a neatly constructed box that will dictate all of their interactions. Instead, the goal is to learn more about their desires, communication styles, and other interpersonal characteristics that affect how they feel about work. In this regard, it’s incredibly helpful
A personality test, no matter how insightful it seems, is not hard science. As such, it’s important to remember that a person is far more than the sum of their test results. These analyses work best when they are used as a tool of partial understanding rather than a predictive model.
To each their own
What do you do once you know a little bit about your team’s behaviors and personalities? Well, you adapt your leadership and communication style in kind of course. Now, that does not say you’re going to be able to construct your group communication in such a way to fit perfectly for all personality types. You also shouldn’t ignore your own personality. But in smaller group or one-on-one interactions, It’s hugely helpful to have an understanding of both your own personality and that of others.
In a recent episode of my Breaking Beliefs podcast, I spoke AWFA National President Laura Mangan about how her self-awareness of her introversion helps her navigate social situations. “Most of the time, I realize that as an introvert,” Mangan said. “I can have conversations. I can talk. If we're at a three-day conference, I'm going to be exhausted by the end of it. They seem to be energized by that energy and that's draining for me. I do need to take a little step back. Sometimes they might not realize that's why you're sitting in the corner flipping through your phone so that you can have that quiet time to recharge.”
It’s not how to see you could apply this inward reflection outward when it comes to dealing with others in a leadership context. If you know a team member is an introvert, you can ask them if they are comfortable taking the lead on a presentation, rather than assigning it to them automatically. When you know somebody responds poorly to micromanage, you know to make fewer points of contact with them during a project. Reacting to these sorts of insights not only fosters a better work atmosphere but also makes employees feel acknowledged and fulfilled. Team members always prefer adaptive leaders over tyrannical ones.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to personality assessment and leadership in the workplace. You’ll have to devise a system that works for you and for your team members. One thing’s for certain, though, and that’s you better take those personalities into account if you want to build a happy, collaborative environment.