Equip yourself to:

• Help teams understand their strengths and opportunities
• Improve team development and attainment of strategic objectives
• Create actionable development plans
• Leverage HPTA data to inform coaching

We offer our High Performing Team Assessment (HPTA) workshops in two formats. Please note that virtual workshop spots are limited. Review the options below and choose the one that works best for you.

1. Self-paced online certification (40-60 minutes) – Complete the certification webinar and application of learning in your own time with no scheduling required.
2. Virtual interactive workshop (2 hours) – Engage with fellow practitioners as you explore real-life case studies and share best practices in a dynamic, collaborative environment. Gain valuable skills and access to a suite of support materials.

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Because a hybrid workforce seems to be here to stay, a strategy for building team trust remotely is important. Engaged employees are committed to each other and the organisation, reach high levels of productivity, and show enjoyment and enthusiasm about their work. Disengaged employees, on the other hand, are measurably less positive, loyal, creative, and hardworking than engaged workers. Given that employee disengagement has cost $7.8 trillion, it’s vital to plan engaging team-building activities and virtual talent development.

Furthermore, virtual team building can be inclusive. Although remote work became widespread with the advent of COVID-19, it has long been used as a reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities. Virtual team-building games and activities offer opportunities to create and sustain a culture of inclusion by facilitating connection and belonging among team members. An effective virtual team is connected, engaged, inclusive, and productive.

Although all people can benefit from team-building exercises, some personalities may be more eager to participate than others. A high score on the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) Sociability scale indicates someone who is socially proactive and team oriented. Scoring high on the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) Affiliation scale indicates someone who values teamwork, relationships, networking, and belonging.

Virtual team building can be adapted for each unique team. Team leaders should provide a variety of team-building exercises to support the diverse people who work together on the team.

Read on to learn about these five virtual team-building activities:

Virtual Entertainment

Entertainment for virtual teams is a fun, relaxed way to spend time together, connect over common experiences, and build rapport.

• Host a virtual movie event or a watch party using nearly any streaming service or a third-party option like Scener.
• Book a virtual comedian for a comedy club experience. Summit Comedy offers many options, including corporate comedians and even hypnotists.
• If your team is musical (or even if not), try virtual karaoke with an emcee from Kabloom!
• Take a remote tour of India, Spain, France, or other global destinations with an organisation like Woyago.

Who would like these virtual team-building activities?

Team members who score high on the MVPI scale Hedonism value a playful, fun, light-hearted work culture. People with high scores on the Sociability subscales Likes Parties and Likes Crowds will also enjoy large-group social gatherings.

Virtual Dining

A part of office life that many remote workers miss is the chance to spend time with co-workers over a meal. These virtual dining options will help employees reconnect.

• Building in time to chat around the virtual watercooler with Donut has rekindled conversations in many a virtual workplace.
• Meeting with virtual teams for lunch is nearly as easy as setting a recurring meeting, according to this guide to hosting virtual lunch.
• For a remote happy hour, schedule a guided wine tasting or a beer and cheese tasting box through a company like Unboxed Experiences.

Who would like these virtual team-building activities?

Team members who score high on HPI Interpersonal Sensitivity are warm, easy-going, and enjoy interacting with others. Those who score high on HPI Inquisitive will appreciate the opportunity to converse about beliefs and cultures. People with a high score on the Affiliation Lifestyles subscale value the opportunity to connect and strengthen relationships.

Virtual Games

Playing games together could take just the first 10 minutes of a meeting or be a separate event. Competitive employees will enjoy the challenge. Non-competitive employees will enjoy watching the antics of their co-workers.

• Play a remote game like trivia or a scavenger hunt using a platform like Weve.
• Themed escape rooms, such as those offered by Escapely, are filled with puzzles and clues that encourage team collaboration.
• Themed murder mysteries from My Mystery Party and others will allow team members to spend time together playing hilarious roles.

Who would like these virtual team-building games?

Team members who score high on HPI Learning Approach will appreciate complex games and memory tests. Those who score high on Inquisitive will enjoy brainstorming ideas and solving riddles or puzzles. People with high scores on Hedonism enjoy the spontaneity of game play, and those who score high on Sociability enjoy exhibiting in the limelight. Finally, high scorers on HPI Ambition will provide competitive energy and drive.

Virtual Classes

Learning something new together is a team-building activity that fuels deep connections. It could also reveal shared interests that co-workers didn’t know they had.

• Take an instructor-led mixology or cooking course with an organisation like Rockoly.
• Exercise your artistic side with a team painting event through Painting to Gogh.
• Recenter your team during a virtual yoga or mindfulness class offered by Krafty Lab.
• Level up your remote communication game with virtual improv training through TeamBonding.

Who would like these virtual team-building exercises?

Team members scoring high on HPI Prudence enjoy exercising a skill with precision and keeping on task. Those who score high on Inquisitive are intrinsically curious about new challenges, and those who score high on MVPI Aesthetics value creative expression. As well, people with low Sociability scores may feel less pressure to be social in a class setting.

Virtual Team Development

An essential part of the virtual team-building repertoire of an effective team leader is team development.

Data-driven team development uncovers how individual personalities affect team performance and team dynamics. Development helps team members contextualise themselves within the team and understand how they uniquely contribute to the team’s needs.

Who would like virtual team development?

Everyone benefits, of course. Leaders want to improve team performance. Team members want to work together effectively.

Team development sessions can help people learn about how they contribute to the team with their unique personality strengths. For example, those who measure high on Ambition tend to have high initiative and drive and are willing to assume leadership roles within the team. Those who score average or low on Ambition are more team-oriented and comfortable contributing in a supportive role.

Team members with high Sociability scores seek to know how best to engage with others. Members with high Prudence scores want to understand team interdependencies and processes.

People with moderate or low Power and Recognition scores value sharing credit and collaboration. Those with high Affiliation value opportunities to work with others. Team members with high Science scores value decision-making based on the data that team development provides.

The chief takeaway here is that team development is essential to positive team dynamics. From there, a variety of team-building games and activities engage and delight a variety of team members. Ongoing virtual team building enables ongoing rapport.

Once you’ve tried the activities listed here, you won’t be out of options—you could invite a goat to your next virtual meeting. Goats don’t drive engagement, per se, but they do enliven a weekly stand-up.

To discover how PBC helps support team development, contact us.

Contact us for more information Learn about the Hogan 360

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Recently on The Science of Personality, cohosts Ryne Sherman, PhD, chief science officer, and Blake Loepp, PR manager, explored the superstar effect and how it relates to teams and organisations.

Let’s dive into what to do about the problem of superstars.

What Is the Superstar Effect?

A superstar is a top performer. “The presence of a superstar impacts the performance of other people around them—often in a negative way,” Ryne explained. Just having a superstar nearby, whether on the same team or not, can hinder performance.

Record-breaking golfer Tiger Woods is an example of a superstar. The study that introduced the psychological phenomenon analysed the performance of top golfers with respect to the presence of Woods. When he was in the field, his opponents shot worse on average than when he wasn’t in the field. The mere fact of his presence seemed to drive down the performance of all of the competition. Even more remarkably, the stroke average of the best players was impacted more dramatically than that of average performers.

All possible explanations for this effect are mental. Perhaps the other golfers took more risks in trying to beat Woods. They also might have felt extra pressure because each shot matters more when competing against a superstar. Or they might have felt intimidated by Woods’s more eager and comparatively aggressive playing style, as golfer Ernie Els suggested.

We see the superstar effect in competitive chess, as well. Against the current world champion, Magnus Carlsen, most of the top players perform slightly worse than they do against other competitors. When Carlsen makes a move that looks like a mistake, other top players assume it is not an error but a complex play. What they should do is recognise the mistake and take advantage of it.

How Superstars Impact Teams

Imagine that, instead of Woods or Carlsen crushing individual competition, a top-performing sales rep or a hotshot lawyer is introduced into a new team. How does the presence of a superstar impact overall team performance in a corporate setting?

“The team on average may improve because the superstar is adding so much value, but individuals on that team might have lower performance because of the presence of that superstar,” Ryne said.

The superstar effect is a counterintuitive phenomenon. You would think that, with the addition of a high-performing team member, everyone else would rise to the challenge, so to speak. But when the skill gap is too great, others can feel fearful, intimidated, inferior, or defeated. The superstar effect could bring out employees’ derailers as they look for other ways to get ahead.

Another example of the superstar effect comes from the TV series Billions on Showtime. Intern Taylor Mason, whose investment prowess gains the notice of the main character and the consternation of the team members, is a corporate superstar. “You could see this psychological effect on the rest of these otherwise very successful investors and how it had a negative impact on their overall performance,” Blake explained.

What Organisations Can Do

If the presence of superstars is so detrimental to teams, is it better not to hire them at all? Not necessarily.

First, be realistic about the superstar effect.

Superstars can certainly add a lot of value, but maybe not as much as it first appears. A toxic worker is much more detrimental than a superstar worker is beneficial, for example. By that measure, an average team performs better than a team with one superstar and one toxic worker.

Second, redirect superstars’ competitive natures.

If your organisation thrives on internal competition, the superstar effect will likely hurt productivity. But if competition is correctly reframed as external, there could be a good result: the superstar could impact organisational competition adversely, not team members.

The superstar effect makes competitors feel that they can’t beat the star. Consider how it would have felt to compete against entrepreneur Steve Jobs at Apple in the 2000s. Or think of competing against Michael Jordan on various basketball teams in the 1990s.

For organisations to integrate superstars into teams successfully, defining the competition is key. Hypercompetitive people want to compete with everyone, but that tendency can be directed outward, protecting team members from competing among themselves.

“Smart organisations can use the superstar effect to their advantage in a positive way,” Ryne said.

Listen to this conversation in full on episode 56 of The Science of Personality. Never miss an episode by following us anywhere you get podcasts. Cheers, everybody!

Contact us for more information Learn about the Hogan 360

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