Every team has people with different personalities. And while diversity among team members is a good thing, a lack of understanding about other team members’ personalities can cause all sorts of friction and frustration. That’s because personality affects communication, and how well your team communicates determines their success — and ultimately, the success of your business.
The Key to Better Communication
A good team knows each other — strengths, weaknesses, personalities, and communication styles — and then uses what they know to work well together. It’s this mutual understanding and respect of others’ personalities and communication styles that produces a happier, healthier, stronger team, which is good for everyone involved.
At Business Builders, we love personality tests because they’re objective and informative. When answering the test questions honestly, you get an accurate picture of who you are and, depending on the personality test, how you communicate.
We really like the DiSC assessment in particular because it focuses on behavior and measures how people respond in different all kinds of environments, which can easily be applied at work. When your team knows each other’s personalities, it helps them:
- Improve communication
- Increase productivity
- Manage conflict better
And who couldn’t use more of all those things at work?
4 Things You Can Do to Help Your Team Communicate Better
Every office and team is different, so what works for us may not work for you. However, over the years, we’ve found a few things that have allowed us to get to know and understand each other better, and it really has helped us work more effectively together.Â
- Get desk cards.
If you come into our office, you’ll notice that there’s a little card pinned up at everyone’s desk. It has our DiSC personality on it and helps others know how to best communicate with us. If used as intended, it can be a total game changer for your team.
- Use assessment tools.
On our team, we have a good mixture of personalities, and we’ve been able to learn more about ourselves both personally and professionally by completing personality assessments. The kind of assessment you use is up to you, but whether it’s the DiSC, Myers-Briggs, or something else, your entire team will be able to find value in it.
- Make a team grid.
It’s helpful to know where you stand personality- and communication-wise in relation to your team. A team grid puts everybody’s information in one place, so you can get a quick look at where everybody stands. We’ve used a team grid as a simple guide to navigating relationships within the team.
- Take a team quiz.
It doesn’t have to be long or complicated, but a team quiz can be a good activity to do together. We’ve taken the time to do this before, and if nothing else, you learn a little more about yourselves, each other, and get to have some fun!
At the end of the day, it’s important to remember this:
People are hard.
People are different.
But people are required for a successful business, and they’re very much worth the investment.
What Are You Doing to Build a Stronger Team?
Whether you own a business or help lead one, personality assessments are a good way to help your team communicate better. Not only does it offer the opportunity to build self-awareness, but it also provides the chance to enhance interpersonal skills, which is a benefit to all.
If you’ve used personality tests at your business that you love, tell us about them! We’re always interested in trying new things, learning new things, and helping one another grow.
