Organizations aren’t getting the performance they need from their teams. That’s the message we hear from many of our clients, who wrestle with complex challenges ranging from strategic planning to change management. But often, the fault doesn’t lie with the team members, our research suggests. Rather, it rests with leaders who fail to effectively tap diverse work styles and perspectives—even at the senior-most levels. Some managers just don’t recognize how profound the differences between their people are; others don’t know how to manage the gaps and tensions or understand the costs of not doing so. As a result, some of the best ideas go unheard or unrealized, and performance suffers.
Pioneers, Drivers, Integrators, and Guardians
Making the Most of Cognitive Diversity
When teams fall short of their potential, it’s often because leaders don’t know how to spot and manage the differences in how people approach their work—and as a result, some of the best ideas go unheard or unrealized. To help organizations claim this lost value, Deloitte’s Suzanne M. Johnson Vickberg and Kim Christfort provide a framework for identifying and managing four primary working styles.
Pioneers value possibilities, and they spark energy and imagination on their teams. Guardians value stability, and they bring order and rigor. Drivers value challenge and generate momentum. And Integrators value connection and draw teams together. Every person is a composite of these four styles, though most people’s behavior and thinking are closely aligned with one or two.
The four styles give leaders and their teams a common language for discussing similarities and differences in how people experience things and prefer to work. Once managers have identified the work styles of their team members and considered how the differences among them are beneficial or problematic, they must take steps to ensure that they’re not left with all frustration and no upside.
To get the most from the styles on their teams, leaders should (1) pull opposite types closer together to generate productive friction, (2) give more visibility and voice to people with nondominant perspectives, and (3) take extra care to get input from sensitive introverts, who risk being drowned out but have valuable contributions to make.
Five Executives Weigh In
Senior leaders at Marriott, American Express, Southwest, National Grid, and Kellogg share their experiences in applying Deloitte’s framework in their teams and organizations.
A Biological Approach
Helen Fisher, the biological anthropologist whose research informed Deloitte’s work on team chemistry, derives her personality assessment from brain science. In searching for an answer to what makes an individual fall in love with one person and not another, she found that four biological systems—dopamine/norepinephrine, serotonin, testosterone, and estrogen/oxytocin—are each linked to a particular suite of personality traits. Fisher explains the science behind her work, talks about how to identify and adjust productively to others’ personality styles, and considers whether personality screening can and should inform management decisions.
The Tests That Shaped the Industry
Over the past 100 years, three tests—the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Five-Factor Model, and StrengthsFinder—have had an outsize impact on the theory and practice of personality screening.
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