Understanding your strengths and blind spots of your personality can be the most essential ingredient to leadership success. Have you ever taken a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment (MBTI)? Through this tool, a leader can learn about their personality preferences. When an individual becomes aware of what impacts them when they take in information or make decisions, they are better able to relate to the rest of their team.
So how does this really work and apply to real work environments? So let’s say you discover that when you lead, you tend to focus on facts, details and results. You use logical arguments in presenting your case to your team members. What if you have a few team members who are influenced more by their own values or the concerns of the people around them. The facts are not so black and white to them as they are to you. They focus on group consensus and shared values. So by understanding the difference between how you as a leader approach a work challenge and then having insight into how the team members attack an issue, can create a much more successful outcome.
Creating rapport with a team can help a leader accomplish their goals and fulfill their vision. Rapport can be established by understanding how you and your team prefer to interact.
Are you energized by people or by your inner thoughts and reflections?
Do you process information by using your 5 senses or by making connections and thinking of all the possibilities of your findings?
Do you make decisions in a logical and objective way or do you use your values and heart to guide you?
Do you approach life in an organized way with a need for immediate decision-making or do you go with the flow and thrive on spontaneity?
Leaders who learn about their personality preferences and obtain insight into other personality type preferences have a greater opportunity for forging a high performing team.