“An employer has no business with a man’s personality… The task is not to change personality, but to enable a person to achieve and to perform.“ – Peter Drucker
The 21st-century business environment has experienced many changes that have significantly impacted how organisations conduct business: technology, tools, process reengineering, management, and leadership concepts. This change has also impacted how people – the most critical asset of any organisation – interact with one another and manage optimal workplace performance.
The people factor of business is responsible for combining all the other facets of business production to deliver service or products to the customers. It, therefore, has become critical that employees are understood, motivated, developed and rewarded to ensure they can be their best at work. Business leaders and team supervisors have also found that the more they could understand their teams, the easier it was for them to connect with them and ultimately get them to commit to their work and be productive.
The workplace is more diverse today than ever, and this has both its challenges and benefits. When teams lack cohesion, they may experience some or all the following:
For organisations to have high-performing teams, the employees must have developed self-awareness and a good understanding of others. Self-awareness would ensure they can manage their own emotions, interactions, work deliveries whilst also contributing or supporting their team members to deliver on team goals and, ultimately, organisational goals. Various tools can help organisations and team leads understand and motivate their team members effectively, and the Thomas DISC tools (Personal Profile Analysis) has proven effective in this regard. It is so scientific and accurate that it can pick up changes in individuals when they join a new team or change their roles. The insight derived from the report can then help to motivate, communicate, and manage such an employee. According to Campion et al., researchers have suggested that personality types and individual characteristics or workers significantly impact team performance and, by extension, organisational performance.
Even though diversity and inclusion are high on the priority list of HR leaders, people still find it difficult to get along with others in the workplace for the same reasons that make them unique as individuals: backgrounds, values, experience, communication style, etc. Therefore, employees must understand themselves and other team members to work better and reduce the destructive conflict experienced in teams.
Personality assessments aid individuals to
- be more self-aware,
- contribute meaningfully to team cohesion,
- be highly motivated team members,
- align to their roles,
- understand the unique strengths (and weaknesses) of other team members
- improve the competence of predicting the behaviours of other team members.
pcl. has worked with the leadership team of various client organisations to help them successfully develop high-performing teams. Several CEOs have concluded that the leadership, and all staff members, need to be profiled using an objective workplace behavioural assessment tool.
Fortunately, pcl. has such a tool (the Personal Profile Assessment tool built from the over 40 years of experience of our partner, Thomas International). This tool enables teams to get real-time insight and recommendations on communicating best with each other and motivating and managing other team members. Every staff is unique in personality and should be understood to build a cohesive team
If you are looking for ways to develop a high performing team, kindly reach out to us via email: people@phillipsconsulting.net. We can work with you to develop the kind of team that aligns you with achieving your strategy and objectives.
Written by:
Esther Amoye
Senior Consultant
