Personality type divergence is one of the challenges a manager must overcome to achieve effective team management. Indeed, the work habits, styles, and preferences of each individual can significantly influence the overall dynamics of the organization’s members.
That said, there are certain solutions that can help reconcile the different personalities of your collaborators and establish a satisfying work environment.
Discover in this article some leadership strategies to reconcile different personality types and optimize your team management
Getting to know the team
Understanding the personality types within your company is essential for improving your team management. And to do this, you must start by getting to know your collaborators.
This familiarization will allow you:
- To know the preferred working mode of each collaborator;
- To discover and analyze their modes of operation;
- To find the right way to delegate tasks;
- To identify the needs for soft skills development;
- To determine the collaborator whose personality is suited to a specific task.
All this information will allow for the relevant and objective association of collaborator profiles. Indeed, it is common for team managers to place several collaborators on the same project due to many similarities between their personalities.
However, in most cases, this type of association produces the opposite effect since their personalities are too similar to work in a complementary manner.
Promoting effective communication
Communication is an important aspect if you wish to reconcile different personality types within your company and establish effective team management.
To communicate effectively, you should favor open and honest discussions with your team.
Whether you opt for individual interviews or meetings, it is important that the sessions are structured so that all collaborators can have equal speaking time for each topic discussed. Thus, you can listen to their concerns, goals, ideas, and suggestions.
The various concerns raised by your collaborators should not, however, be subjected to undesirable criticism. If you have contributions to make, ensure they are formulated in a constructive and encouraging manner.
The goal of the communication you establish is not only to stimulate a collaborative environment despite the differences between the personality types of your collaborators but also to facilitate the management of your team.
Leveraging the strengths of each personality type
Within a team, certain personality types are more suited to certain tasks than others. For example, a collaborator very competent in data analysis is not necessarily competent to manage a project that requires creativity.
The ideal is to establish an approach and a plan that aim to leverage the strengths (strong points) of each team member. By encouraging employees to make the most of their strengths, they will feel more valued and will be much more motivated to provide discretionary effort.
Determining the strengths of collaborators is also very important in the context of internal recruitment. This allows you to know which collaborator is qualified for the position to be filled.
Adapting your management style to individual needs
To lead your collaborators to work in harmony despite the divergence of their personality types, you must adapt your team management style to the needs of each of them.
If some collaborators need close supervision, others feel much more productive when given more autonomy.
Unlike delegative management which gives full autonomy to collaborators, adaptive management or adaptive management allows taking into account the expectations, needs, and all other specificities of collaborators. The idea here is to be flexible and truly include the team in decision-making.
Although the application of this management style is complex, familiarization with collaborators and the establishment of inclusive and effective communication will facilitate the task for managers.
Building a pleasant work environment
The quality of the work environment directly influences the attitude of collaborators and their performance at work. A pleasant, positive, and dynamic work environment promotes the engagement and investment of your team members.
To establish this work environment, you must rely on some aspects.
The work setting
Here, it is about establishing a pleasant and conducive work setting. This includes providing the necessary material conditions (furniture, work tools), implementing a policy that facilitates the mobility of collaborators, etc.
Moreover, workspaces must be optimally lit. Amenities like relaxation rooms encourage socialization and collaboration among employees.
All these conditions combined will bring out the positive sides of the different personality types of your collaborators and facilitate the management of your team.
The conditions and responsibilities associated with each position
To build a pleasant work environment, human resources managers must also ensure the well-being of employees. It is important that their general skills (soft skills) and their personalities match the responsibilities of their positions.
Moreover, the company must be able to offer more flexibility by promoting teleworking. Thus, employees can find a balance between their professional life and their personal life.
This will not only help limit conflicts related to the divergence of personality types but also reduce the burdens associated with team management.
The company culture
A healthy and inclusive company culture gives the same value to all collaborators. It aims to establish an environment of collaboration, inclusion, and equity. It promotes gender equality, respects and values each member.
Promoting the values of the company, shared moments between collaborators, and team building activities are some actions that can foster cohesion between different personality types and improve your team management mode.
Gathering information from teams
Making assumptions about the different personality types present in your company can harm the results of your team management.
Indeed, the apparent absence of conflicts within your team is not necessarily synonymous with good complementarity between the different members.
You should evaluate the atmosphere among your collaborators during your various gatherings instead of focusing solely on the practical details of your meeting. For this, spend the first few minutes of each meeting socializing with your employees.
Ask about each one and do not hesitate to ask them open questions about:
- Their involvement in the team;
- Their impressions regarding the team management mode;
- Their suggestions for improving collaboration within the company.
Positively framing differences
The way you approach the personality types present in the organization will determine their reactions and confirm (or not) the effectiveness of the team management mode you have adopted. The best approach is to frame the differences between collaborators in a positive manner.
For example, instead of saying ” Arnaud is not competent to manage Excel spreadsheets. He knows absolutely nothing about it “, it is rather preferable to say ” Since Arnaud is very creative, I think we should entrust him with the design of the graphics to be integrated into the document“.
This change, although minor in formulation, can have a profound impact on the behavior of the mentioned collaborator and on the perception that other members have of your leadership as a manager.
Setting an example
A team leader is above all a person who knows how to set an example.
You must keep in mind that most of the discrepancies noted within project teams are the responsibility of the manager, and the way you treat a single collaborator impacts the morale and performance of the others.
Regardless of the personality types you need to integrate into your team management, you must demonstrate commitment, sociability, and kindness. It is only by showing your leadership that other members will follow and emulate you.
As a manager or team leader, it would be useful for you to take a leadership test to know your strengths as well as the points to improve for better management of your collaborators.
Valuing the efforts of each collaborator
Recognising and valuing the efforts of your team members are important gestures to maintain their motivation on a daily basis.
Indeed, regardless of the personality types you have in your company, showing gratitude and recognition will not only improve your team management but also strengthen your relationships.
To do this, you must learn to celebrate successes, whether individual or collective. Award prizes or offer rewards to thank your collaborators for their involvement and devotion to contributing to the achievement of the company’s objectives.
Furthermore, valuing your collaborators develops your company’s employer brand. And a developed employer brand increases your chances of finding good profiles, whether you are conducting a recruitment 2.0 or traditional recruitment.
Personality type divergence: What you need to remember for your team management
For a manager, the divergence of personality types is a problem to be solved daily for good team management.
Although it is a difficult task, it is possible to have a united, efficient, and productive team thanks to some leadership strategies.
These strategies revolve around a few principles inherent to corporate life. These include the valorisation of human capital, the improvement of the work environment and conditions, and the understanding of the needs and expectations of collaborators.
In addition to these principles, a good corporate culture and exemplary behaviour from the manager are necessary to reconcile the different personality types of collaborators and to improve the team management mode.
