Why managers should understand personality types

We have discussed before the importance of knowing and understanding one’s personality type. It is also important for managers to understand personality types of their team members. Today, let us discuss why it is important for managers to understand the personality types of their team members.

First, let us define personality. Generally, personality is understood as the enduring characteristics that differentiate one person from  another and that lead people to act in a predictable manner in different situations over extended period of time.  Since personality distinguishes a person from others, it means that every person will feel, behave and act in a way that is specific to him or her even if the situation is the same or very similar.

This fundamental truth is important for managers because it means that managers cannot manage all their team members in the same way. Managers need to take into account the personality of their team members when deciding how to manage the team member. Below are the five specific reasons why it is important for managers to understand personality types of their team members.

1. Helps managers to know what motivates an individual. Personality often gives clues to things a person loves to do and will do for free. As a manager, if you understand the personality of your team member, you will have a good clue to what will be the best motivator for him or her, and this might be different for each team member. As you decide to motivate staff, look at their particular needs as well as personality in terms of what excites, impresses or motivates the staff member in question.
2. Indicates what things an individual will be naturally inclined to do or not do. As a manager, you will always have different tasks that you need to assign to your team members. If you know and understand their personality types, you can then optimally assign the activities, matching the activities with the interests and passions of each of the team members. This way, you will maximize not just the morale of the team but also their productivity.
3. Is the clue to predicting how people will behave in certain situations such as when under stress, when coping with change and when making important decisions. Since personality will help you in predicting the behaviour of the team members, you can then be proactive about possible team issues. This also means that you can make the right decisions in terms of what work you give to which team members, which team members you delegate to certain sensitive meetings and so on.
4. Tells a manager how individuals will fulfil a role, for example the role they play in teams, their unique way of leading others and their style of learning. By knowing how a team member will fulfil a role, you will avoid giving certain roles to particular members of your team. This also means that you will be able to develop appropriate training plans for the team as you build their competences and close the skills gaps. This way, you can build a high performance team that maximizes productivity and quality of service delivery.
5. Is the key to the mystery of why some people hit it off with others at work and why others have personality clashes? Have you observed that some people cannot simply work together from day one while others become friends instantly? Often times, this is simply due to the alignment or misalignment of their personalities. As a manager, your mastery of personality types will help you isolate team issues that arise from personality clashes. This then prepares you best in managing such incidents.

Good luck as you work to learn and master the personality types of your team members so that you can assign them the most appropriate duties and so that you can help develop their skills as they work to close their gaps in competences. This way, you will end up with a high performance team that maximizes its productivity and output. Good luck! na