How can you use personality types to better understand your team?

In my view, they help in understanding and categorise the indivisual based on common traits and tendencies. for a team leader they lay the grounds of not just enhancing the appreciation between team members for each other but also enforces a positive attitude and environment during meetings and work. This greatly enhances both inter and intra personal skills of all indivisuals in the team. it can also be said that there is no absolute metrics to quantify each traits but is more like a structured way of making decisions with respect to indivisuals withoud getting baised because as an indivisual ourselves we have a tendency to prefer one over the other.

In my experience, living in a workspace with multiple personality types can improve productivity, collaboration, and everyone’s ability to think outside their own box. It also creates a more dynamic connection between individuals. I think the advantages of multiple personality types in the workplace, far outweighs the disadvantages. We all arrive in different vehicles; however, learning to appreciate the differences, and accept them, can improve the way we learn from each other. This, in turn, creates a more agile workplace. Especially in my line of work as a project manager. Over the years I’ve found great success in grabbing little nuggets of perspective from everyone I work with. Improving myself along the way.

It’s so important to understand how our personalities give us unique perspectives and shape the way we work. This helps us to become more self-aware (crucial to becoming a good leader) and also to be more aware of how others are, and our differences. Labels help us to understand our preferences, but shouldn’t be seen as set in stone. It’s also worth bearing in mind that most operate on a continuum. For example, I’m an introvert, but sociable. Someone “more introverted” may perceive me as extroverted.

Personality assessments like Myers-Briggs, DISC, and Predictive Index, can help you understand how to best communicate with your team members. Depending on their personality type, they may want you to be direct with criticism while others may find that approach intimidating. Understanding personality types and sharing the knowledge with your team can also help prevent miscommunication between employees.

Diverse personalties create diverse opinions and from this the flow of innovation can run through your team. Understanding those personalities can help you optimise those differences to mot only get the most out of your personnel but also begin understanding how to adapt your leadership style to different situations.

In my experience, understaing personality types greatly enhances the ability to lead the team in an effective way but also being aware of it gives confidence while being a team members itself and sense of aknowlegment boost when you as being a member are understood.

It’s important to have diverse personality types within teams - too much of one type of personality hinders diverse thinking, conversely, diverse personality types should lead to greater innovation. In addition to understanding personality types, it’s important to understand and recognise individual strengths, which may not be apparent from a personality assessment alone. Understanding communication preferences (such as DISC) can help teams to understand differences in how they perceive and behave in the workplace and gain and understanding of others’ unique styles and preferences.

You should aslo consider that acessing personality types and tacking them as is shouldnt be an absolute way of thinking because we as a social being have the tendency to adapt ourselves in different environment. Athought knowing a personality is an advantage but not absolute. what I mean is that using these frameworks like MBTI or BIg five provide insights but these should be acommpained by session of communication and building concensus under different senerios.

Understanding our personality types is both fun and useful. However, MBTI has been shown to fail the “test retest” reliability as a marker of an effective measurement tool. I prefer using the Big Five personality indicator, bearing in mind that answers are provided on a continuum. DISC can be used to assess communication preferences but is not a personality assessment. The most important factor to consider is how to use them in the workplace - great to start a conversation, share perspectives, preferences and strengths. But avoid using it as a way to label people as if they will never change.

Converting personalities into strengths can help to create an efficient team environment. Natural tendencies, when supported, can create a sense of confidence in each member and by matching personality traits with appropriate tasks you can create a very successful team dynamic. Each win will contribute to confidence of each member and create a positive cycle of accomplishment.

The key goals of these type of activities to address different personalities within a team, should be: 1. Open a dialogue with each member of the team. See if the self-perception and knowledge are aligned with the test results. From that, it is possible to create a dialogue that might help the professional development with a stronger commitment 2. Identify the way in which the different personalities are influencing results and environment. With that information, acting with a more focused approach when dealing with any situation Stablishing a reference to measure the impact of the actions within both individual and team performance, the engagement level and the results will show clear benefits that can be shared along the organization

Balancing personality types in a team can help to improve team dynamics, productivity, and creativity. There are many different personality tests available that can help you to understand your team members' natural preferences for interacting with others, making decisions, and solving problems. When you're assembling your team, think about the different roles that need to be filled and try to create a balance of personality types. One thing I have found that it is important to include both introverts and extroverts, judging and perceiving types, and thinking and feeling types; in this way, errors can be minimised in analysis.

Personality profiling can be used to raise self-awareness within teams and also gain a better understanding of others’ perspectives and preferences. It can have implications on how we work, how we interact with others, and the type of work we enjoy. As with most things, trial, error and an agile mindset comes in useful - try things out, see if it works, and if not, listen and be open to change!

Consider asking your colleagues if they have done a personality assessment. Find out what they discovered so that you can gain insights from their experience. This may be uncomfortable, but this can help you feel what it's like to "walk a mile in their shoes." There is value in learning about how people around you view the world and their work. Understanding their personality acts as a lens for you to be able to relate to them and connect.

Having a balance of personality types in a team can lead to greater innovation due to the diverse perspectives different people bring. Different personalities play different roles in a team and it’s important for people to understand the equal importance of the various roles. The same applies for communication preferences - for example, you can’t have a team full of D’s (from the DISC tool), but rather a balance across all types. With the above, there needs to be an understanding that it’s ok to be different, be able to speak up, challenge the status quo. Ensure everyone has a voice, and that the introverts don’t get left behind!

Personality assessments are an important tool to understanding the way individual team members process the world around them and and help to create better communication between members. I also like to add the 6 Types of Working Genius assessment to help teams better understand the type of work that each member thrives on, and equally important the type of work they can't stand. Understanding both their personality and productivity types allows teams to fully appreciate and rely on each other's strengths.

In conclusion, by encouraging ongoing personal development, nurturing psychological safety, recognizing individual needs and preferences, and monitoring and adapting team dynamics, teams can leverage the strengths of different personality types and create a harmonious and productive work environment. Encourage team members to embrace their own growth, appreciate the diversity of personality types, and actively contribute to the team's success. By implementing these strategies, teams can foster a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and success.