A Harmony of Quiet and Sparkly: Create a Balanced Team Symphony

Welcome to this edition of "Laughing Crone: Silver Linings," where we delve into the transformative power of happiness for individuals and examine its impact on the companies they work for. We support the growth of leadership through personal development AND by providing the research and support for growing harmonious teams. This edition focuses on personality differences and how to bring forward the talents and contributions within a team.

?? Key Notes from this edition:

• How laughter can bridge the gap between different personalities.
• The importance of understanding each team member's unique strengths.
• Cultivating emotional intelligence to enhance team collaboration.
• Using humor to stimulate creativity and reduce tension.

Start the Day Singing!

A day at work can be wonderful or challenging with much of it depending on the people in your team and their level of collaboration. With the variety of distributed, remote teams vs office teams and everything in between, the challenge can be even greater.?Generational differences and communication styles, plus the diversity of personalities add to it, too.

It can quickly become crazy-making leaving you wishing you'd stayed in the shower!

But laugh!???

A smile invites the shyest team member to open a bit and the most out-going to feel a part of the team, plus the tension that laughter releases serves everyone.?But we'll get to that a bit later.

(Quick fun fact: Did you know that the most extroverted people can actually be harboring fear of rejection while the most quiet are simply waiting to be invited to share their genius?!)

Talent + Knowledge ≠ Team Harmony

The reality is that talent and knowledge are not limited to certain personality types. Some of the shyest can be the best strategists and the boldest the most creative or vice versa. The job of the manager is to find each person's talents and support a path that harmonizes the team to assure the best outcomes out for all.?

Whew! ?? Is that possible?! ??

The reality is that managers tend to hire personalities that shadow their own comfort zone. Only occasionally will one consciously and bravely hire someone who is talented yet completely outside of any comfort-level for the manager. ?True or not??? Be honest….

It takes a strong manager to be able to productively handle a range of personality types. ?But what if that wasn’t the case?!

Remember past Laughing Crone newsletter editions:?

• Happy people make more money (as opposed to money makes people happy), and
• Companies with happy people make more money, plus ?
• The simple act of laughing supports brain and physical health (the additional benefit being fewer sick days and happier people overall).

It’s a beautiful cycle.

How can we infuse that good humor to harmonize talented teams containing different personalities?!

This edition quickly outlines the basic steps to get set-up for happy, harmonious ?teams. Clearly, the work is more demanding than simply reading this newsletter, yet my hope is to nourish you with food for thought and better, with enough inspiration to take action.?

Start with Understanding Strengths?

The truth is that a manager who is able to see a person’s strengths is a less important part of the equation. It's the individual team member truly knowing their natural, unique “strength DNA” that takes precedent.?

There are many tests designed to help HR and team managers understand team dynamics and individual talents. However, there is only one that provides the individual with their unique "strength DNA."

It changes the game when an individual recognizes their personal combination of strengths and learns how to best express these talents. It gives them a sense of self-recognition, even power, to understand what makes them tick.?

A level of pride, of curiosity, of motivation to learn how to best utilize those strengths takes over, especially when management supports that exploration and “gene expression.” When a person truly knows and feels good about their talents, recognizing they are special and unique, it supports their innate quest for “self-actualization.” That can be very good for the company when managed positively and with knowledge.?

I heartily recommend Clifton Strengths assessment as a starting point for all teams, and the person I recommend for guiding that journey is Rosie Noel. Her information is contained in the references below.?

Cultivate Emotional Intelligence

The sad truth is that along with the massive benefits that technology ushered in for our world, it also fostered generations of individuals who have not had the practice of personal, bodily interaction (real-time voice, touch, facial expression, genuine emotion and energy). Instead, it’s been accelerated into bytes of information transmitted electronically. ??

As a result, emotional intelligence has taken a severe hit. The past few generations have experienced far lower EI than prior generations as exhibited by collected data.?

The silver lining is that EI is learned. It becomes the job of the manager to grow the crucial talent of human-to-human connection for optimal team functioning. In fact, developing high EQ in leadership and in executive teams is the place to start with the ultimate goal being to trickle down to everyone via enlightened management.?

In my experience, the best man for the job is Dr. Relly Nadler whose information is also in the references below.?

Bring In a Good Dose of Humor

The role of laughter?is extensive, as touched upon in our prior editions of this newsletter. Laughter?helps balance a room.

When appropriately managed, it can?“break the ice”?making it easier for introverts to open up and for extroverts to share the stage. However, the clue is “appropriately managed.”

Sometimes an extrovert can take over with laughter being interpreted as encouragement. This challenge demands that the leader understand the dance of emotional intelligence, knowing when to step in, when to step out and when to simply enjoy the myrrh of the creative process.

Humor stimulates?creativity, releases tension?and reduces?pressure. It makes?the co-creation process within teams more enjoyable and more productive for everyone.??

Again, a team leader with high EQ is best at managing the creative process and subtly guiding the extrovert to ask for the introvert’s perspective. An introvert with an invite… well, watch for the surprised smile. ??

Introverts can be great at deep, reflective research while extroverts can be creative at catalyzing new thought, new perspectives and more. It’s best not to create boxes, but refer back to those Clifton strands of DNA for the individuals to fully understand the talents you, as a manager, are balancing.

Overall, shared humor encourages?a dynamic exchange of information, releases stress and makes?it easier to share and integrate diverse perspectives.??Could this be why happy people help the companies for which they work make more money?!

In closing, I hope you’ll walk away with ideas and actionable steps to harmonize your team. ?Of course, I encourage you to check out my team which, of course, includes Rosie Czech, ACC (Rosie Noel) and Relly Nadler, Psy.D., MCC together with others.

I also request your advice. I would love to hear what topics are of most interest to you or perhaps the most challenging for you right now. Would you enjoy greater detail on any of the topics we introduced in this edition? Please leave your suggestions for future editions in the comments.

BTW, watch for my newest, free offer in the next edition of The Laughing Crone: Silver Linings.

References:

1.?Rosie Czech (Noel) - https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/rosieczech/

2.?Dr. Relly Nadler - https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/rnadler/

3.?Understanding Different Personality Types: Communicating Effectively in the Workplace?(Penn State World Campus Blog)

4.?Communication Success with Different Personality Types?(Psychology Today)