Can we effectively lead our teams without understanding them? One of the hardest aspects of being a leader is that we are dealing with people, and each of them is different and has different needs. So if we want our teams to perform at their best, we first need to understand the people in that team. 

This is where Spotlight and other personality profiles can help. Personality profiles help to raise our own and others’ awareness about our preferences, our strengths, our view of the world, styles of communication and more. This awareness will, in turn, enhance our team performance.

Understanding Spotlight Diagnostics and Personality Profiles

Spotlight will give us a much better understanding about our mindsets and behavioural styles. It will bring awareness about our drivers, strengths, stressors, coping mechanisms, how we deal with challenges, and much more.

There are 4 main styles, and we all have a combination of all of them. The difference is that for each person, the intensity of each style will change. 

While identifying our preferences can be incredibly helpful, it can also lead us to limit individuals to simplistic categories, which is the complete opposite of what personality profiles should be about. 

So, it’s important to remember that every person is different and that while we may share some personality aspects, there are many individual nuances to each one of us. There is no right or wrong, no one aspect is “better” than another…it’s all about how we utilise different elements across different situations. In simple terms, when we need to dial up or down our natural preferences for the good of the team. 

How can we enhance Team Performance using Personality profiles?

Now that we have clarity on what personality profiles are and that they are not about putting people in boxes, let’s focus on how they can help enhance our team performance. 

Sometimes, it’s easier to fall into the trap of believing that everyone ‘thinks, feels and does’ the same way we do. This in turn can lead us to see people’s behaviours and comments as an attack on ourselves when, in reality, it just means that they are different. 

The way personality profiles help is by raising awareness about ourselves and the rest of our team. This, in turn, can help us:

Improve our communication

Knowing how each person prefers to communicate can help us adapt our communication style to the person that we’re talking to. This can help us with feedback, challenging conversations, and overall communication with others.

For example, if you know someone has a direct style of communication, you can lead the conversation with facts and clear points, rather than use a ‘story-telling’ approach. 

You can also read more about styles of communication here. 

Enhancing collaboration

Understanding how people like to collaborate and what their preferred behaviours are can help us align roles and responsibilities, assign projects, and create ways to collaborate that best suit the people in the team. 

For example, if you have people who are highly creative and need time to explore different ideas, maybe you can organise creative meetings, and let people know in advance what the meeting is about, so those who need time to plan and reflect as opposed to ideate ‘in the moment’ can fully engage in the conversation too.

Avoid conflict

As we mentioned above, it can be easy to misinterpret other people’s behaviours and comments. However, understanding people’s preferences can help us see their behaviours as just different from ours, rather than a criticism. 

For example, on a team, you may have some people who prefer details and others who are more of a big picture. By understanding these dynamics, the team can address potential friction points proactively and find common ground. 

Increase empathy within the team

When team members learn about each other’s personality profiles, they gain insights into their colleagues’ behaviours and reactions. This deeper understanding can cultivate empathy, patience, and a more supportive team culture where people are more likely to accommodate each other’s working styles. 

Enhance job satisfaction

When people feel understood, they are utilising their strengths at work and they feel more connected to the team, they will have higher job satisfaction. This will, in turn, impact their individual performance and, ultimately, enhance our team performance too. 

The Optimist View…

A great leader is one who is self-aware, who knows themselves and the people in their team too. 

In the fast-paced environment we work in, dedicating time to understanding ourselves and others better can be seen as something not critical for our overall success. 

However, a team is a group of people working together, which means that if we want to enhance team performance, we need to get the best out of each person in the team, and the only way to do this long-term is by focusing on the person behind the job rather than on the job itself. 

This is why at Optimist Performance, we focus on people and people’s behaviours to increase their performance. 

If you want to know more about how we can help you and your team, get in touch with us today for a free consultation. 

Check out what our Eternal Optimists say about Spotlight here.