At some point or another, every leader has faced the challenge of dealing with different personalities. As people, we often pride ourselves in being one of a kind, and for good reason! Let's face it - people are different. In my private leadership coaching and teambuilding work, I get to see how each individual's unique personality affects the team and company overall. It's overwhelming for many leaders to know how to manage all the personalities, but there are actually so many benefits to having a "psychologically diverse" team. I use the MBTI Personality Test to help the leaders I work with understand different personality types, but there are many great tools out there! Regardless of the framework you use, here are three tips on how to manage people with different personalities.
Leadership Development Tip #1: Learn your personality type to develop self-awareness as a leader.
It starts with you! If you want to manage other personalities, you must first understand yourself. Learning your own personality type will also help you identify your personal strengths and weaknesses so that you can know what you bring to the table and what you need from your team. Additionally, develop emotional intelligence by connecting with your emotions and triggers. Developing emotional intelligence will help you to see clearly understand how to structure the rest of your team. This step is crucial. As the leader, it is your responsibility to set an example of growth. Your team will reflect your energy back at you.
Leadership Development Tip #2: Understand and embrace your team members' personality types.
After developing a foundation of your own self-awareness, you are ready to learn more about personality types that are different from yours. This will help you to understand their behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses. It is important to have a growth mindset and to remember that every personality trait can be useful, depending on the context. If you think a personality trait is unhelpful, think about a situation when it would be useful. You can then use this knowledge to structure your team so that every person's position plays to their unique strengths. Using each person's strengths will help your team to be more effective and confident in their abilities.
Leadership Development Tip #3: Maintain open and clear communication with your team.
Communication can be hard, especially when your colleagues think and operate differently from you. We often assume that other people will understand what we are doing and why - but that is often not true! That's where it is important to have good communication. Many factors help improve communication, but the most important thing is that it is clear. You should be certain that you understand the other person and that they understand you. As you learn more about each team member's personality type, will help you to adapt your communication to each situation.
I hope these steps have been helpful to you! The most important thing is that you are always growing and improving. If you are looking for a way to improve your leadership development, I invite you to join me for a free leadership coaching session! We will review your current leadership style and start the shift to make your approach more in line with your goals.
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