Today’s guest poster is Jeff Brainard of Catch Your Limit, a strategic management and marketing firm in Tallahassee, Fla., where he also blogs regularly.
Are you a Boomer-AB? Maybe you’re a Gen X-I. Or are you a Red-Traditionalist?
Great. … I’ve learned that I hate details and have a constant need for praise. Now that I’ve learned that my boss only cares about results and has a mistrust for institutions, what do I do?
Organizations lose value every time we do a workshop, lunch and learn, or retreat with no follow up, no action plan and no way to incorporate what we’ve learned into our organizational culture. The knowledge is only valuable if it’s put to use. We can’t expect to change behaviors or attitudes in the course of a brief learning session. We can only gain understanding in that time.
For such such sessions to have any long-term value, the language of generations and communication styles has to become a part of the organization’s language. Here are three possible ways to make that happen:
- Share what you’ve learned about yourself. This can be as simple as posting everyone’s generation and communication style on their office door.
- Incorporate what you’ve learned into your meetings. At Catch Your Limit, before we host a meeting — whether internally or with a client — we have a discussion about the other people who will be at the meeting in which we consider their communication style and any generational differences. For us, it plays a role in how we deliver the information, how we interact and it guides us in how we conduct the meeting. It dictates whether we lead with research and process or instead choose to focus on the results of a particular initiative.
- Promote diversity in hiring. We use communication styles to determine who we will add to our team. We recently hired a new member to our team, and a major factor in making that decision was shoring up some weaknesses we had in terms of communication styles. We had people-people, idea-people, results-people but no process-people. Further, because we knew the strengths of our new hire’s communication style, we were able to create a role that is connected to those strengths. And if we have internal conflict, we ask ourselves if it is possible that this conflict is coming from a communication style difference or a generational difference.
How are you integrating what you know about your staff’s communication style into your organization’s culture? Share your thoughts in the comments of this post, and the best suggestions will be featured in the daily SmartBrief on Workforce.
Photo, Jeff Brainard
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When building organizations or building teams, Jeff is corret in that it helps to know the personalities of the team members. Professional sports teams oftenn use personality tests to evaluate individuals placement in the team roster, Companies do this too.
Many consulting firms use the Analyst-Link Commentary to understand how an individual will fit in to the team or company culture post-hire and the pre-hire version also rates and ranks a candidate's suitability to the job. In any case, in these tough times where there is no room for hiring errors and where teamsork is important this type of testing is invaluable.
JP Whalen, Organizational Specialist
HRDT
I find communications in the workplace fascinating as well as critical to a harmonious, productive workplace. Can you please suggest some specific personality tests that I can use?
Ms. Hanlon,
You really need to explore the specific goals you have with someone familiar with and skilled in using a variety of instruments to choose the one appropriate for you and yur team. That said, the MBTI is a tried and true instrument for team building and the Golden Personality Inventory is a new spin on it. You need to make sure whatever instrument you use is administered and interpreted by someone qualified to do so. Please remember that it is not the instrument but the quality of the interpretation and the facilitation of the team interaction that is the most important. In additon, care needs to be taken that confidentiality is respected as you follow through on using personality profiling to learn about other members of your team. Any posting of personality results should be up to the individual.
Susan Leonard, Ph.D.
Martin.Frankel Associates
I have used Thomas International Personality Profiling Analysis for over twenty years in executive recruitment. It is available as a web based sytem in a wide variety of languages – a truly international tool! Thomas also have a range of testing and assesment systems for use in recrutiment, career and personal development.
Hey Kelly,
We use a personality test we developed that is simply called Catch Your Limit Communication Styles. It is based on Myers-Briggs but instead of having 16 personality types we use 4, it is just a little easier for people to remember.
You may find some resources online. But some additional test that are all very similar are Disc, Colors & Myers Briggs.
The key is that whatever you do you gain an understanding not only of what you are what the applications that it has when it comes to teams, sales & interpersonal communication.
If I can be of additional help feel free to email me @ jeff@catchyourlimit.com
Great idea. I also think it's important that – in addition to promoting diversity in hiring – companies also continually celebrate their staff's diversity with some sort of recognition program. I recently wrote about this subject here: http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2008/12/09…. Recognition programs not only motivate individuals, but they promote camaraderie among colleagues and build teamwork.
@J.P.Whalen: I agree that personality type is as important as skill set in making the right hire. I do worry about the reliability of these tests, though. Are you at all concerned that they might pigeonhole people?
@Kelly Hanlon: You're getting some great advice from practitioners here. I'm still a fan of Myers-Briggs. I find the description for my type (ENTJ) pretty spot-on.
@Susan Leonard: Great point about privacy. I don't mind sharing this information about myself, but I can see how others might be hesitant.
@Mike Butler: Thanks for the tip.
@Jeff: I'd be curious to see how I would be labeled with the CYL system.
@Mary: Thanks for the link!
Personality profiling is fine for those wanting to know themselves. Personally, I have found that Belbin Team Roles is the most useful tool of these kinds. Not only does it help managers ensure all bases are covered in a team, it also provides insights into the effect your behaviour has on others and reasons why those annoying habits of your co-workers can be so valuable – that is, it helps you appreciate and utilise others' special skills.
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Leaders can influence how employees incorporate new learning into the organization by making it clear what strategic objectives and goals are being supported by the training. I find that often learners land up in a training room with no idea where and how to apply their new skills. I remember learning to play tennis as an adult – and it took tons of practice sessions to be able to play well enough to join a match. So another way to make the training stick is to provide regular opportunities to practice the new skills – deliberate practice, the kind where you get lots of feedback and encouragement (and missing the ball sometimes is okay!). Remind yourself you're a beginner in the new practice and watch how just a slight improvement, over time, can make a huge return on the training investment!
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