Types of personalities that might affect performance of the team and how to handle them effectively
In most of our teams, like in every other aspect of our life, we have to deal with some basic types of people characters, which are not necessarily the best possible fit to our team or the goal that team is trying to achieve. Taking into consideration my personal experience, as a team leader or team player in various corporations, I detected repeating types of personalities that, if not approached in the right way, might affect team spirit and as a final result team dynamics and performance.
Most of the time behavior of some of our team members will not even make sense to us, but that doesn’t give us right to name someone either “jerk” or “stupid”. The real way forward is to try to understand the reasons why this person approaches the situation in certain way, and by doing that we can create better relationships within our team and make it better functioning, more productive and most important a nicer place to be.
Therefore, lets discuss five types of potential personalities that might affect teams the most: the narcissist, the sticky sweet personality, the obsessive personality, the detached personality and the charlatans.
The Narcissist (me myself and I)
The Narcissist are in love with themselves. Narcissism isn’t always a bad personality feature, especially if it is kept under control, it allows people to have faith in their ability to succeed. On the other hand, if narcissism gets out of control and ego takes over, putting oneself in the center of universe, and wish to prevail in every single discussion, impacts heavily on productivity and effectiveness of the team. Productivity and effectiveness impact is a result of a fact that constructive discussions can appear only if every participant is considerate and takes other people’s opinion into a count. Without respecting each other point of view, synergies and collaboration cannot be achieved.
How to recognize Narcissist in your team
Narcissist can be spotted by the fact that most of the time they will talk about themselves. They will try to turn every discussion into their own story. They will usually tend to take team successes and present them as their own successes, without any bad intentions, just by considering their personal contribution more valuable the other people’s contribution to the joint success. They will rarely ask about other people, and even if it happens, they will probably ask just for a basic facts, without going into deeper discussion or emotional bonds.
You probably noticed that there are people that talk just to hear themselves talking, they simply enjoy their tone of voice. When other people talk, those people will probably be occupied by their mobile phone or will show other types of superiority, trying to make other people feel less important. They will do it subconsciously without intention to hurt each other, but the result will be devastating, taking into count destroyed team spirit and trust between team members. Narcissists are usually owners of great CVs without to much real content or real life experience. Love for themselves make them fantastic CV composers.
The best way to work with narcissist
Even if this doesn’t sound very reasonable, when approaching narcissist try to approach their basic character feature in an affirmative way. Show them empathy! This might actually heal them, since most of them actually crave for recognition and narcissistic behavior might be result of insecure personality sometimes in the past. If recognition is not what they look for, empathy will create trust relationship and make your team’s life easier. Since narcissist likes to be surrounded with people that “admire” them, they will simply adapt to team spirit easier.
Showing empathy and approval to narcissist team member, can also defocus them from attempting to steal recognition that other team players deserved for their good work. Other team players must tread carefully and make sure that narcissist ego is under constant surveillance.
If your boss or team leader is narcissist, give him compliments, step aside and respond quickly to his requests. Even though he might be the one running your team, as a team member its always in your best interest for the team to succeed. Don’t fall into the trap of giving up on team performance, because your narcissistic boss should be thought a lesson. Always remember that by hurting your team you are actually hurting yourself.
The sticky sweet one
Overly sensitive people that display intense emotions and have very hard time to recover from criticism. Sticky sweet people have this all-consuming anxiety that revolves around the question who they are in relation to people around themselves. They draw colleagues with sticky sweetness that masks aura of danger or desperation.
How to recognize sticky sweet person in your team
Sticky sweet people can be chronic drain on team’s emotional resources and therefore productivity. Constant drama and attention-seeking gestures may at first be interesting and compelling, but they quickly become distracting and time-consuming.
Sticky sweet people have this specific underlying concern and fear of being alone. Intense interpersonal relationships may simmer under surface until they are triggered by a stressor. As a result, team members may find working with sticky sweet people difficult. They can complain of “walking on eggshells’ around sticky sweet people in order not to tip some form of emotional reaction. This is taking toll on team energy, trut and productivity.
The best way to work with sticky sweet person
The best way to work with sticky sweet people is implementing structure and consistency. Even though their behavior is not good for the team, sticky sweet people actually want to learn acceptable behavior and limits that they should adhere to. Therefore, it is very important to clearly define limits and continuously enforce them.
Sticky sweet people have hard time to regulate and control their emotions and relationships, therefore it is important to position them in the teams that will help them with their efforts to be a good team member. When emotional outbursts actually happen, this energy should be redirected to alternative activities and not being left uncontrolled, since it can easily fall into negative emotional spiral. As a colleague or manager of sticky sweet person, you have to acknowledge their effort and gradual improvement. Do not get pulled into the drama by any means, stay above the situation.
The obsessive one
Even though healthy amount of obsessiveness is good, too much of it pushes individuals into an endless pursuit of perfectionism. That can make them miserable and anxious since perfectionism is really hard to achieve. Obsessed people just cannot let go. This is a major productivity killer, making them sometimes inefficient and defocused from the important things. Putting extremely high and unachievable expectations to other team members, makes also other team members frustrated and less productive.
How to recognize obsessive person in your team
Obsessive people are usually workaholics. They have hard time giving away tasks to others and its almost impossible for them to delegate tasks to other team members. When they delegate, they set up standards so high that will not allow other person to be successful and will create massive feeling of failure within the team. They have difficulties with tasks involving creativity, flexibility and spontaneity. When given tasks they are usually late with delivery, even though they work late hours they simply cannot fulfill the high standards that they set up for themselves.
The best way to work with obsessive person
Obsessive people have need to be in the control and the best way to handle them is to give them a feeling that they actually have control. This is the only way they will delegate and allow other team members to engage effectively and deliver their part of the work. When mistakes happen, one should take responsibility in front of the obsessive person. They have to see that you one is not neglecting mistakes but is actively working on fixing them or improving personally. Even though the mistake might seem negligible, they might be huge issue for the obsessive people, therefore never neglect those mistakes when the obsessive people are part of the team. The most important thing to follow if you are a team member of obsessive person, is to never get into power struggle over details. You have no chance of winning it and you will only lose obsessive person trust and silos within the team will reappear and grow.
If obsessive person is your boss, show your understanding for the level of perfection that he requires, but in the same time be very careful to commit only to what you are able to deliver. This type of person needs to have full confidence in you before delegating any task. On the other side rule-based nature of obsessive person, makes them very likely to listen to directions for change. Setting up structured directions for change that involve detail-oriented duties is the best approach for this type of person but be very much aware that directions and deadlines must be clearly set.
The detached one
Did you ever have team members that seemed “weird”? Did you manage to sort out why do you consider them “weird”? Those team members seem eccentric. They might have odd styles and habits, unusual beliefs or ideas. They might dress in an unusual or inappropriate way. They seem detached from people around them, isolated and aloof with trouble to relate to anyone. We like to call them: “People without social intelligence”.
How to recognize detached person in your team
Initially detached or eccentric people might seem creative or innovative, which makes them desirable members of the team, but only if those characteristics are not bundled with more impulsive behavior. Those detached personality types with impulsive behavior might have hard time controlling it and they might react strangely to the most usual situations, alarming or even offensive. Other characteristics that might work against the team spirit, might include unhygienic or messy appearance, that might be a problem when interacting with other team members. Unpleasant office habits might also be characteristics of detached person character.
The best way to work with detached person
The best approach to handle eccentric person is to let him be himself within acceptable limits. Small “reality checks” can help increase his awareness of his effect on the outside world. Be affirmative, e.g. if he has to present in front of the client, try to use this opportunity to point out the importance of showing respect to client by dressing right. If possible, he those type of people should be assigned tasks that cater their special interests and avoid tasks shared with team members that are negatively influenced by their appearance. Clear explanation to this person must be done, that his personal believes should be kept personal and not being imposed to other team members.
The charlatan
The charlatans have superficial appeal, but are insincere in their words and actions. They might even be involved in nefarious activities, even bad ones, but people are affected by their charm and tend to tolerate this. Sometimes they are arrogant and entitled. They have no regards for rules or for other people. Their personal characteristics will make them fall short on following through with tasks and obligations.
How to recognize charlatan in your team
Initially the charlatans could be seen as likeable and trustworthy, allowing them to attain important positions. Usually it only becomes obvious after some time has passed that they cannot function well in the team. They usually cannot share anything with other team members. They can become unpredictable or aggressive and even go as far as to lie for their benefit. They try to have power over the entire team and eliminate potential competitors. When acting as leaders, charlatans are known to mistreat their employees, suddenly terminating contracts, maintaining unhealthy work environments, deceiving customers and even breaking processes and laws when working for their personal advantage. Charlatans are not team players where results can be seen relatively quickly and transparent, and they prefer workplaces where their incompetency can go undetected.
The best way to work with charlatan
Charlatans are hard to manage altogether and should be avoided as team members if possible. Usually they seem too good to be true, so when you meet potential team member with that characteristics, be careful. Talk to their references, do background check and look for warning signs during interviews. If they are already your team members, develop team code of conducts with clearly defined sanctions for not adhering to it. That will make clear that unaccepted behavior will not be tolerated. If your boss or team leader is charlatan, the best way is to look for another job.