Building a Stronger Team

Whether your company has two employees or two thousand, you’ve probably observed that great results often come from highly functioning teams.

And you’ve also probably recognized that aside from the technical skills that team members each bring to the table, each person’s personality style and “work style” – their preferred ways of relating to others, taking in information, making decisions and bringing closure to projects — has a huge impact on the quality of the team’s overall work.

Groups of employees often instinctively work well together, playing off each other’s strengths, using resources well, operating efficiently and delivering high-quality results.

However, many teams struggled to get on the same page and often work at cross purposes because the personalities and workstyles of team members are not naturally meshing.

If groups within your company are inefficient or ineffective at meeting targets and goals, ask yourself (and them) the following questions:

• Are the team’s overall goals and purposes clear to every member?
• Are values shared by team members?
• Are roles, responsibilities and individual expectations clear to each member of the team?
• Do team members communicate effectively among themselves?
• Is the team capable of identifying and solving problems effectively?
• Is leadership clear?
• Are motivation and feedback effectively and appropriately provided?

The answers to those questions will immediately reveal areas that need improvement.

After identifying those areas, it is also critical to each to help each team member understand their own personality and workstyles better, and also to share that information with every other member of the team so that they can work more effectively together.

For example, using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the DiSC, you might:

1. Evaluate the individual personality types and temperaments of team members.
2. Assess as a group what the strengths and weaknesses of those individual styles are in the group.
3. Decide together how to balance those styles to maximize strengths, minimize weaknesses and function in a way that leads to the most effective communication and problem-solving.

With teams I’ve encountered, steps 1 and 2 are quite powerful because they crystallize thoughts and feelings team members may have already had but were unable to explain quite so clearly.

For step 3 to succeed, team members need to identify the changes necessary for more effective team functioning, and then assess and adjust team performance regularly to assure sustained behavioral change.

Question: How aware do you believe each of your team members is about their preferences and work styles?

If you lead or are part of a team that could benefit from more awareness and alignment around individual personalities and work styles, we can help. Click here to contact us: https://www.weimanconsulting.com/contact-us/