Key Business Personalities
If you’ve ever held a job then you know that you are surrounded by fellow employees who comprise a wide variety of personalities. Part of the fun (and sometimes the struggle) is trying to figure out how to work with these folks who may seem so unlike you. Managers must constantly be aware and knowledgeable about the various personality types and how to handle each one.
While in business everyone is held to a common professional standard regarding all communications and transactions, it is still good for managers to know what types of personalities they are dealing with. Most of the time, a little understanding can help managers realize where other personalities are coming from, why they are taking a certain angle to a project, or why they are part of the latest office drama.
And we’ve all been a part of some office drama at some point or another. We all know how distracting it can be when everyone is arguing about the location of the next team lunch rather than quickly compromising on that and then moving on to more important things such as business productivity.
Or perhaps there are two personality styles in the office that are like oil and water. Under the pressure of a new project, Team Member A is more aggressive about the project and so seems more intrusive to the rest of the team. Team Member B, because they don’t understand Member A’s motivation, spends most of their time working against Member A out of spite and consequently working against the project itself!
Talk about counter-productive!
It is up to a manger to provide a stable working environment and to enable their employees to do the best job they can with as few personality conflicts as possible. While it is good to have different personalities, extreme positions (outside of the business model) should not be encouraged and cause tremendous harm to the team’s productivity.
Not only should understand these personalities themselves, but they should encourage understanding of these personalities within the team.
There are many types of would be personalities, and many ways to interpret them. At the basic level we have the following:
• The Rebel is someone who questions everything. Works well as an individual and is usually impatient. One of the hardest personality types to work with, this person sometimes needs more attention than others. It is a good idea to make sure they get the credit they deserve and to clearly define roles and responsibilities with them for each and every assignment.
• The Wild Card has the skill and dedication as long as you can figure out how to trigger that. Goes with the flow and doesn’t volunteer as often as they should. The best way to get them pumped up is to get them to believe in the team, that things will continually be better and then pair them up with a workhorse!
• The Leader is someone who can motivate people and get the team moving in the right direction. They are best appointed in positions dealing directly with high level project initiatives and the team’s direction.
• The Workhorse is someone who resists change but get’s huge amounts of work done by sheer force of will alone. Don’t put a workhorse in charge of a new project because they won’t know how to get it started. The best way to motivate
• The Glue keeps it all together. They are the person with their finger on the pulse of the team and they generally have a high capacity for different initiatives. Glue types are best used as project leaders keeping the organization steady and communication channels open. They should be the “go to person” when someone needs something done but doesn’t know where to turn.
• The Expert comes in handy in times of technical crises. Like an encyclopedia, they have all the information you’ll ever need and can recall everything about a project of initiative. They are best used by keeping them on point and making sure they have a position where their technical expertise is readily called upon.
The best ways to motivate and encourage is to first understand the various personality types and then apply them to members of your team. While it seems simple, it could be that certain members of the team have several personality traits…or even several personalities!
In seriousness, it is important for the manager to understand how the different personality types apply to each team member. Once that is determined, then you can use the various motivational techniques to get the most out of your team.
About the Author
John Tanner is a marketing consultant and founder of VAR
Strategy.
After a career in military intelligence John helped grow businesses in various
industries through sales and marketing, eventually finding a passion for
challenges and opportunities for business development in the IT channels.
VAR Strategy is a product of this passion and was created to provide
helpful information and resources to assist VAR's in growing their businesses.
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