The Awesome Foursome: Looking for a Team With Personality?

To run your own business means you need to be leader.

What is a truism, however, is that to be a leader you need someone to follow you. In your case that’s the team you’ve created and built.

What is also common wisdom is that you are only as good as your team.  I would go further and say that you and your team are only ever going to be as successful in so far as you understand who they are, what makes them tick, and the mix of personalities within the team you have created.

Different personality types work and communicate in a variety of ways. So the skill of any business leader is to identify and understand the various personality types you are dealing with. So look for the common characteristics found in each of the most common personality types. Understand this and you have gone a long way to being an effective leader.

In my experience, there are rarely two people who communicate in exactly the same way. Even in our closest relationships there is room for misunderstandings. So we should not be surprised that in the office there are disagreements, even arguments, and certainly tensions from time to time. This is normal, healthy even. An unhealthy environment is one with no communication, or poor communication, or the rule of the dictator where only one voice is heard.

So start to understand that not everyone in the world communicates and reacts to their environment in the same way. For example, some members of your team will love the limelight; other will shy away from such public displays. But that is not to say that both are not playing their part and that both are not equally essential to the overall success of your project. These reactions are neither a good nor bad one – they just are. What it calls for is a need on your part to recognize difference, both personality type and character. And it really boils down to the thing that so many people today talk about, namely, diversity.

Experts agree on four main personality types. What I am about to say is general – I would contend generally true – but attested to by many nonetheless.

So let me unveil the awesome foursome: the thinker, the driver, the smiler, and the funster.

Each of these personality types exhibit certain characteristics. All have both strengths and weaknesses. They all need to be managed and communicated with in different ways. But, remember, they all have a part to play. The best teams are often a good mix of these four types. To have one type, heaven forbid modeled on the leader, is a recipe not so much for disaster as for blandness. In business you succeed by forging ahead and standing out, not fading into the communal background. Take some time to understanding these unique characteristics.

So let’s start with the thinkers. They are deep and thoughtful types. They are not called “the thinker” for nothing. They can be serious and definitely have a sense of purpose. They have high standards in life. So, as you would expect, in business they have equally high standards when it comes to professional performance. They are often orderly and organized. This may make them sound a little like hard work. Far from it, they also tend to have a sharp sense of humor and more often than not a dry wit.

The thinker’s strengths are obvious: they want to do things as best as they can and often they want to get it right first time. You may notice they are neat, tidy even in appearance and manner, as well as self-disciplined.

Sounds good? Well, they have their weaknesses too. They can be moody, critical, and negative. They can be indecisive even when over-analyzing everything. They can chase after the perfect rather than the good and in the interim waste a lot of time.

Next up the drivers.

These are dynamic personality types. They are rare. Some estimate as little as 3% of the population, they are often exceptional. This lot exude confidence while they gravitate toward leadership positions. They move quickly to action, if more “big picture” than in detail. These visionaries see clearly the path ahead and how we’re all going to get to there. Again, it’s the big picture – check! – as to the small steps up to that – not a chance!

Can you see how the thinkers and the drivers might have a few disagreements? The fact is if their collective energy can be harnessed both deficits are actually complementary. When NASA headed to the moon it was the drivers that saw that it could be done; it was the thinkers who made sure it was achieved and that everyone got back safely.

Drivers are determined, decisive individuals. As independent as they are productive, they get things done, preferring to make a bad decision than no decision. They just need that decision to be made.

On the negative side drivers can be perceived as insensitive, unsympathetic, harsh, proud, and sarcastic. They also tend to know two speeds in life – zero or full throttle. Sometimes they are prone to rush a decision without thoroughly thinking through the possible outcomes of such a decision. Which can be a problem because they hate to admit they’re wrong!

Meet the smilers!

The smilers are patient, well-balanced individuals. They’re fun, but in a quiet way. Sympathetic, kind, inoffensive, these smilers really don’t want to offend anyone – ever!

Easy going, everybody likes the smilers. But that’s because they avoid conflict so of course they’re going be easy to get along with, especially when they are so diplomatic and calm. And that is precisely their weakness, along with being sometimes stubborn and selfish, the smilers just avoid all conflict, all the time. And I guess they just keep smiling – as long as we don’t have to talk about it!

Last, but not least, here come the Funsters!

They love to have fun. Every disaster has its humor. Big-hearted and generous, these really are people people. They want to be included in everything: projects, team discussions, parties – you name it, they’re there!

Outgoing, ambitious, charismatic, and persuasive, what is there not to like about them? Well, they can be disorganized, undisciplined, loud, and boy, they never shut up. Sorry, I mean, they can talk.

So that’s your awesome foursome.

Take a look around your team. Who did you end up with?

Of course, these are generalizations. I know that, nevertheless, many of the people you work with exhibit differing degrees of any number of these personality traits. To some extent everyone will have a strong component of one of them in their personality. Even if they don’t recognize it – you need to, if only to help motivate and communicate with them.

This in turn will help you manage these personality types into a successful team that increases everyone’s job satisfaction, performance, and reach organizational goals.

Managing personality types is not easy. It can be difficult. However, identifying and understanding each personality type and what motivates them and how they communicate are crucial steps in being able to effectively manage your team to success.