Is there a link between teams and personalities?
And what connection is there to leadership? What about the practicalities and the theories?
Have you ever done a personality profile? There are so many tools out there aren’t there! Perhaps it was Myer-Briggs, Hogan, LSI? Perhaps none of those is familiar. Or perhaps you have spent time at one of our events experiencing the power of The Big Five?
I see people’s fascination when I mention personality profile and I often wish I had a week to sit down and discuss the fascination of what makes us tick and our fundamentals.
This week I'm providing a quick “heads up” regarding teams and the connection with personalities.
The Big Five
The Big Five model of personality is widely considered to be the most robust way to describe personality differences and is the basis of most modern personality research.
When I first started reading about The Big Five some of the research indicated that the five traits were closely connected and tested against the society’s expected demonstrated behaviours of leaders. This drew me to The Big Five Inventory (leadership and Jill – who would have known).
And it has proved a vital tool. When we work with the diverse teams in our leadership events and programs the combining of teams and personalities is unavoidable.
What makes up The Big Five?
When analysing personalities the question is
What is the best way to summarise you?
Researchers have done this with many samples all over the world and five stand out:
- extraversion
- neuroticism
- agreeableness
- conscientiousness
- openness to experience.
The Big Five has been constructed to assess these five traits. We, and others, have relabelled neuroticism as confidence – nobody wants to score any numbers in the neurotic column, right!
Is understanding personality important?
Yep, you bet.
It does not put you in a box, as people have often suggested. Rather, it provides insight and understanding.
Understanding personality and teams, like most concepts that enhance your leadership knowledge and insight, are connected.
What are the connections? Well, let's look at teams first.
The highly respected, and constantly used, Tuckman’s Stages of Teams are:
- forming
- storming
- norming
- performing
- adjourning.
Have a look at last weeks blog for some further detail about Tuckman.
Now, let's see where personality adds to team stages.
Layering The Big Five and Teams.
Forming
A time when members are getting to know one another, building an understanding of who is in the team.
The usefulness of all of the Big Five is valuable during Forming. However, one would stand out as highly prized during the very initial stage.
Extraversion – the ability to be energised by being in a group.
Can you see the value of adopting extraversion during this period?
The other Big Five trait that would be very useful during this stage is Openness – the willingness to take on new ideas and being open to newness.
Storming
A time when members can be testing the boundaries of the allotted task and are potentially vying for positions within the team.
When you consider The Big Five Confidence (low neuroticism) as a trait, the opportunity to remain calm and not get caught up in some of the game-playing that can occur during this stage would be a highly prized trait.
Norming
A period of time when team rules and accepted behaviours are sorted.
The ability to ensure that details are sorted and new ideas are heard and discussed. Here, the display of The Big Five Openness, Extraversion and Conscientiousness would be useful for the team.
Performing
And then there is Performing from Tuckman’s Teams. My observations, when I witness or experience teams performing, is that all The Big Five traits are being used effectively and efficiently.
- extraversion
- confidence
- agreeableness
- conscientiousness
- openness.
This is also the case for the Adjourning stage when the team is celebrating success, disbanding and look for new opportunities.
Questions to consider
From a leadership perspective these are the questions to consider:
- Have you stopped and watched your team?
- Have you looked and thought through this is what is happening here at the moment with this group of people?
- What development stage is the team at?
- Which of the Big Five traits are being displayed?
- And which could be helpful and assist?
We run a Teams Intensive Workshop to help you build and turn your team into a performing team.