Corporate team building done right can make productivity skyrocket. Maximizing team potential starts with understanding how personality influences our behaviour at work.
Recently onย The Science of Personality, co-hostsย Ryne Sherman, PhD, chief science officer, andย Blake Loepp, PR manager, spoke withย Jennifer Lowe, MA, director of professional services at Hogan, about how to build a successful team and maximize team potential.
High-performing teams play a critical role in overall organizational performance. Personality sits at the core of team success.
Letโs dive into what makes corporate teams successful, how to build trust in a team, how personality influences teams, and more.
Characteristics of Successful Teams
Successful teamsโthe high-performing ones full of camaraderieโhave these foundational qualities in common:
- a high level of trust
- transparent communication
- clear goals
- a focus on psychological safety
Members of effective teams trust each other and communicate well with each other. โWhen I get in the room with many leadership teams, I pretty immediately know how the session is going to go,โ Jennifer said. The level of team trust is apparent in team membersโ interactions. To fulfill team potential, team members need alignment on what matters and clarity about what the objectives are.
In successful teams, team members can offer constructive criticism about an idea without worrying that theyโre putting their careers at risk. This characteristic of successful teams is part candid communication and part psychological safety.
It all circles back toย trust. โWeโre a team together and a team apart,โ Jennifer said. โWe can support the vision and mission of both the team and the broader organization.โ
Challenges to Fulfilling Team Potential
Understanding team challenges is important for fulfilling team potential. According to Jennifer, teams that struggle often have a lack of clarity about the mission. Nothing derails a team faster than mismatched objectives. This could be caused by individuals having different objectives or byย team objectivesย that have increased or changed.
Another common team challenge is when the team acts with too much aspiration and sets unreachable goals. A highly innovative or ambitious team can aim for big results at the risk of overlooking the tactical details of their ideas or failing to communicate their vision to others. Overambitious teams benefit from pragmatic members who will ensure the teamโs ideas are actionable.
Teams get derailed when they fail to acknowledge the natural evolution or dissolution of a team. For instance, a team might meet on Tuesdays at 3:00 p.m. because they always have. However, they may not be the right task force to accomplish a new objectiveโand nobody wants to be the person to say so.
โItโs so interesting how powerful something like auditing the communications of the team and action planning can be,โ Jennifer added.
How Personality Influences Team Performance
The Hogan personality testsย measure reputation: how we communicate with others, how we make decisions, our sense of urgency, and much more. โWhen we leverage a personality assessment within teams, it tells us collectively how the team shows up, the way they communicate, and what theyโre known for within their organization,โ Jennifer said.
A reputational awareness exercise can help team members understand how they are seen by other business units. It also allows the team to build trust and define their operating norms, overall trends, and themes within the team.ย Team developmentย reveals individual strengths and potential performance challenges, as well as how those impact team performance.
Personality can also influence division of labour within a team. Teams maximize performance when all members capitalize on their strengths to support the whole. Personality data allows team members to unpack how each other operates and how they will engage day to day.
โUnderstanding how personality can impact team performance helps people understand each other better,โ Jennifer said.
Best Practices for Team Development
Every team development initiative requires a customized approach based on team dynamics. When an organization asks Hogan for help maximizing team potential, the Hogan team begins with discovery. Whoโs on the team, and what are the goals of team development? Are there new team members, or is there a new team leader? Is the goal to encourage team connection, or is it to refine team strategy?
Before the team session, individual team members should understand their personal strengths, challenges, and values.ย Well-validated personality testsย are useful to communicate this information objectively. This can help set the stage for team development.
โMaximizing team potential starts with individual self-awareness,โ Jennifer said. โWe want to know what a successful outcome looks likeโwhat the team is trying to achieveโbut we also want the individuals within the team to focus on self-awareness.โ
Effective team development sessions end with action planning. Understanding how individual strengths fit within theย team cultureย wonโt cause any change unless the team commits to actions that drive them toward higher performance.
Team Building Tips for Leaders
If youโre building a team from scratch, start with selecting the right members for the team. A strong selection process is one that is based on data-driven talent insights and behavioural characteristics that will best support the teamโs key goals.
Another point to consider when building a brand-new team is whether itโs needed at all. A team is not a solution to every problem, so be sure you are clear on why the team is necessary and what its objectives are. Ask whether you are building a team for the right reasons.
If you, the leader, are the new element in the team, donโt underestimate the impact of your predecessor and yourself on the teamโs culture. Culture is set by the values of leaders, so a new leader changes theย dynamic of the teamย even more than new team members do.
If you fear your team is dysfunctional, identify likely causes for derailment. Jennifer explained, โIf a team is operating in derailer mode, it may be that they have change fatigue, have reorganized too many times, or are uncertain about objectives.โ To improve performance, go back to the basics: the teamโs objective, its communication, its culture, and individual self-awareness.
โTeams that make the biggest improvements towards their full potential make these changes part of their day-to-day interactions within the team,โ Jennifer said.
Learn more about the High Performing Team Assessment (HPTA)ย Read the Whitepaper: Personality & High Performing Teams