Appreciating Diversity.

I've learned over the years that it takes many types of personalities in order to make a successful team.

Some of these personalities that make a successful team are:

• The Dreamer - this person will have all of the big ideas and no idea how to get there. But, will most often contribute to the creative nature of the team.

• The “Yes” Man - as annoying as this personality can be, it could also be very important. This type of personality would generally diffuse tense moments and will continually have the mantra: “why can't we all discuss along?” They can sometimes be the mortar that holds an otherwise overly dynamic team together.

•  The Turtle ­- this personality will always seem slow to react, but will review every finite detail of the situation. As frustrating as this is, sometimes the turtle is your best friend as he is a polar opposite to the dreamer. The turtle often challenge ideas and can sometimes come off as negative. But they always have the same goal in mind. They want the team to be successful. This type of person will need constant encouragement and will be useful in drawing the road-map in order to reach the final destination.

• The Shortcut - this person will spend more time trying to get out of work than actually working. You might think that it is quite odd to have a person like this on the team as I did until I sat down and thought about it. This person will most often find the easiest and most direct route to accomplish a plan. Think about; they do not want to do any extraneous work and so will find the path of least resistance. This may not work. During product development as it will cause an inferior product. But, think how valuable this could be when designing and implementing procedures and searching for duplications of effort. This type of personality will have an innate ability to spot these duplications and with a little direction can give keen insight on how to avoid them.

It can often be a challenge dealing with all of these personalities and trying to keep the team in the same direction. That's where you come in. Aren't you the leader? Leaders simply lead. You put the right tools in place give the team an accurate focus, and let the subject matter experts do their job.

This makes the assumption that you will still be involved in the process, as an observer and a mentor in order to provide guidance and to steer team back on track when they lose their way. 

One of my mentors, always told me:

Leaders lead people, managers manage processes.

I never fully understood that until recently. There were times that I performed as a leader thinking I was a manager and there are many times that I performed as a manager when I thought I was the leader.

Which personality are you?

Are you the leader, the dreamer, the yes man (or woman), the turtle or the shortcut?

I look forward to seeing your comments.