Team performance
Improve your teamwork with psychometrics
If you want to use your team’s strengths, it helps to know what they are
Developing team performance for more agile, resilient organizations
Why do my managers need psychometrics?
You have a budget and you want to make the most of it. Developing leaders and managers is often time intensive and can be costly. So why would you want to add to the cost by including a psychometric? The simple answer is, psychometrics improve teamwork.
Have you ever wondered why you and one of your colleagues just rub each other up the wrong way? You don’t mean to, it just happens and worst of all, it makes your working relationship difficult. Or there’s the individual who never seems to understand what you say and you sometimes struggle to make sense of what they mean. You communicate differently and have no real idea what to do about it.
Consistent and flexible
Now multiply this up by an entire team. You may feel you get on well with everyone but do they feel the same way about you? Do they feel the same way about each other? We are all quite different and understanding that is key to good team relationships.
If you understand how to help each person be the best they can be, then you are well on your way to building a successful team who can deliver excellent results. Not only that, it is a team which will encourage everyone to draw on their strengths and make the contributions they are each uniquely capable of. That is a team where people do their best work, communicate well and work together effectively.
What I found most useful was the HBDI. It allowed me to better understand my team. I have a large team to manage. Now, I know what to ask whom and what to expect from whom. I try to work with them according to their preferences and strengths. It’s making life so much easier.
Competitive Advantage
In a world where competitive advantage is often found in diversity of approach and skills, being able to facilitate the best work from your team can be game changing. Do you really want half of your team to feel that they cannot contribute fully to the team? Do you want to actively ignore some of the skills they bring to work? No matter how good your own emotional intelligence, or communication skills, or your leadership skills are, if you don’t understand the individuals you lead, then you are failing. That’s where psychometrics give your managers powerful insights for developing teams and peer relationships.
There are so many psychometrics available it can be hard to know where to start. DISC, Hogan, Insights, Myers-Briggs, Thomas and many more. All of them have people who will say they are the best ones to use. The short answer is, it depends on who you are using it with and why.
Practical application
The post-its say: The ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings, to make sense of them and use this information to guide one’s thinking and action. The emotionally intelligent leader is self-aware, socially aware, able to manage themselves well and build strong & positive relationships with others.
We regularly use Insights with some of our clients who want to develop managers and leaders. It has the advantage of being quite easy to understand and remember. No one has time to spend hours reading and memorising personality traits. We all need to have some kind of shorthand to remember critical information about the people we lead.
Knowing that you are a Red and two of your team are Green makes it easier to adapt your style of communication, the approach you use with them. It makes it easier for them to understand how to talk to you, too. When the whole team have a broad understanding of each other, it becomes much easier to enable everyone to participate and contribute effectively.
Where do I start?
If you are in L&D and want to discuss using appropriate psychometrics to develop your leaders, managers or teams, then do get in touch for a conversation. We have expertise in delivering a wide range of psychometrics and can advise you on which one will be most useful, depending on your specific aims.
If you are a director, manager or member of a team and want to know more about the value of genuinely understanding the people you work with or manage, then we will be delighted to talk further with you about how our development programs can help you fulfill your objectives. Do get in touch with us for a conversation.
With thanks to Jon Spencer who kindly shared his expertise, flipcharts and Insights course outlines for this blog. Jon is experienced and expert at using Insights to help managers transform their management style and make the very best use of the skills in their teams. Jon regularly delivers management development programmes to our international clients and to teams spread across Europe, the UK and North America.
