In a recent blog post, I shared the reasons it’s important to understand how different personality types might collide in the workplace and ways to mitigate this from happening. Using that idea as a stepping stone, I wanted to dive into how you can supplement those techniques and actually begin encouraging different personality types to successfully collaborate.

As with almost every blog post we publish or discussion we generate, understanding personality is key. If you’re starting without a deep knowledge of what makes your team click, then you’ve already lost the game. Get everyone to take an assessment and make the time to understand the data that is generated.

 

We’re All In This Together

One of the key ingredients to surviving as a company is realizing we all have the same goal. It’s a simple idea that frequently gets lost in the shuffle. While we might be surrounded by differing opinions and people, we’re all working to succeed as a business. Today Magazine points out, “It’s ok for people to be passionate and have opinions about work; it means they care.”

You’re an idiot, but I respect that.

Knowing your co-worker has your best interest in mind builds trust and more importantly, respect. This generates value for the assortment of personalities you’re surrounded by, enabling well-rounded teams to be built without fear of constant implosion from within.

While this doesn’t mean management can eventually be hands off with their team, it does help to relieve stress, which is incredibly important. The workplace is the largest producer of stress in American adults and nearly one-third of that comes from interpersonal relationships.

 

Right Here, Right Now

While any organization would be remiss to not always be on the lookout for fresh, new talent or the next big project, it’s equally, if not more, crucial, to be constantly utilizing the human capital on hand. Using the personality data that you have studied about your team you can develop creative ways for them to fortuitously collaborate.

For example, building upon the strengths and weaknesses of your team members might produce exceptional and unexpected results. I previously discussed the need for introverts within a team. While seemingly quiet, they often generate well-thought out solutions to a task at hand. However, the downfall to being an introvert is that when paired with like-minded extroverts, these ideas and the employee himself can often be lost in a hurricane of more powerful voices. An answer to this would be to pair this introvert (and their excellent ideas) with an extrovert who has a knack for mentoring. They can provide the gentle push needed to release the ideas within the introvert without forcing themselves to fail by spending time generating half-baked ideas.

Everyone is working well together, so I’ll just take a nap…

As Mary Ylisela from Demand Media wisely puts it, “ A mix of personalities helps compensate for individual strengths and weaknesses for greater overall strength.”

 

Bet On It

Placing faith in your team and giving them a positive loop of feedback is quite possibly the most important aspect of enabling different personalities to work hand-in-hand. Constant positive support allows certain personality types to excel. Knowing they’re working towards a goal, rather than just to keep their job, they will absorb this affirmation and thrive.

Feedback is also essential, but must be handled correctly. No one likes receiving negative feedback, especially when it is delivered empty of anything constructive. Nothing can poison the well and generate conflict faster than unbridled criticism.

Instead cater suggestions to the correct individuals. Compliment the successes they did have and direct specific issues with the exact personalities involved. You’ll find employees that better understand where exactly they went wrong and avoid the frustration of an entire group being blamed for the faults of an individual will be more successful.

I’m honestly ashamed I used a stock photo of people doing this.

While it might seem easier to just ignore all of this and build a team of matching personalities, you’d be doing yourself and your organization a disservice. It can require more legwork from management, but diverse teams have been found to, “…build better team engagement, increase productivity, and result in more satisfied employees.”

In any type of business, what more could you ask for?

Looking to build a diverse team? Assess your employees ASAP. Sign up for a personalized demo of Traitify today to get started.