8 Personality
Types And How To Manage Them
by: Mike Figliuolo
from: Fast Company
Every team is made up of different personality types, and
some demand more time and attention from the leaders who manage them than
others. As every team leader knows, there’s no hard and fast management
strategy that fits every kind of employee. Short of that, though, there's a
rough framework managers can use to decide how to direct their energy toward
getting the most out of all the personalities on their teams. Here’s a quick
rundown of eight of the most common personality types and how to manage each one.
1. The
Rising Stars
Every team has a few obviously rising talents. They
noticeably, and for the most part independently, come up with ways to improve
how their jobs are done. It’s clear these stars will be moving on to bigger and
better things in the future.
Leadership Strategy: Promote internally. Acknowledge their reliable performance and reduce the
amount of supervision you provide these few—it's better spent elsewhere. Your
goal should be to help them advance toward their career goals while giving them
enough room to grow to make sure they don't leave for more enticing positions.
2. The
Domain Masters
These aren't your team's top innovators, but they're
among its most competent—amazing producers who rarely complain and never seem
to need much assistance. You can always count on them to get their jobs done on
time and well. They enjoy their jobs, have been doing them well for years, and
seem content to stay in them just about indefinitely.
Leadership Strategy: Nurture in place. As a manager of this personality type, your goal is to
keep them feeling valued and happy in their current role while also finding new
challenges to help them continue to grow at their own pace.
3. The
Squeaky Wheels
These folks may produce above average results, but they
consume outsize resources to do it. Not only do they frequently need help
fixing problems and figuring out how to do their jobs, they're regularly asking
for more support, budget, or staff.
Leadership Strategy: Wean patiently. You need these folks to keep delivering the good results
they've shown themselves capable of while reducing the resources they eat up in
order to get there. Encourage more independence by challenging them to solve
problems they would otherwise toss into your lap.
4. The
Steamrollers
These team members produce strong results but also make a
lot of noise delivering them. Still, like the "squeaky wheels," they
get the job done. What sets them apart is their attitude. They barrel through
any hurdles and step on a lot of toes. You'd rather not lose them or their
relentless drive, but you wish they were a little less pugnacious.
Leadership Strategy: Reduce the friction. "Steamrollers" take some coaching to become
better collaborators and more sensitive to the company culture. Show them how
to temper their approach to get the same results while reducing the toll their
actions take on others.
5. The
Stowaways
Most teams have at least a handful of these. They show up
to work, but that’s about it. If they don't bother you as a manager, it's only
because they're comfortable producing the bare minimum to stay out of trouble.
Leadership Strategy: Engage. Your goal is to get more from this type of employee than they're
used to delivering. Increase the amount of time you spend with them, discussing
the responsibilities of the job and the support they need to do it. If they
can't improve their performance enough to meet your expectations, you should
shift your focus to managing them out of that role so you can get someone in it
who meets all the organization’s needs.
6. The
Joyriders
These people are highly engaged, like coming to work, and
bring lots of energy to the office. They come up with all kinds of ideas for
extracurricular activities and run with them in a visible, all-consuming way.
The problem is you don’t see any real results in the main responsibilities they
were hired to perform.
Leadership Strategy: Refocus. Get these team members back on track tackling their core duties.
Assess why they aren't focused on the right things. Reassign or put a stop to
some of the social projects they're devoting their energies to. Recognize their
contributions to team morale, but remind them of what they're there to do and
turn the focus on their progress on business-related work.
7. The
Square Pegs
The 10% of your team that consumes 90% of your leadership
capital. These people claim to work hard and long and make sure everyone knows
it, but they still don’t get their jobs done properly. You have to double-check
everything they do. Their work is often late, incomplete, and sometimes
flat-out wrong. They've proved they don’t have all the skills they need for the
job they're in.
Leadership Strategy: Fill in the skill gaps. Your need to get these people out of the
"square peg" box in the short-term, either by helping them rapidly
improve their skill-set or redeploying them to another role they might be
better suited to.
8. The
Slackers
On paper, these workers have all the required skills. But
in practice, they just don't get results. They seem to be content knowing how to do their job instead of
actually doing it. You frequently have to push them and check on their
progress.
Leadership Strategy: Motivate. They might not look it, but sometimes the slackers are your
potential high-risk, high-return leadership investments. Your goal is to get
them to perform at the levels they're capable of. The main thing holding them
back is motivation, so if you can figure out how to excite and inspire them,
you might be able to turn lead into gold.
文章定位：
