How Well Do You Know Your Team?

COLLABORATIONCOMMUNICATION

4/8/20252 min read

I once had a coworker who drove me crazy. (OK, maybe there’s been more than one, but we’ll keep today’s story focused.) They would ask question after question in our team meetings, and I would think, “Don’t you trust that I know what I’m talking about?” and “Let’s finish this project already!”

Then we took a communication style assessment as a team, and it changed everything. I learned that my coworker’s natural style was skilled at anticipating potential risks and making sure we had everything in place to succeed. Their incessant questions were motivated by a desire to create stability for our team – a hugely valuable role.

My natural style, on the other hand, prioritizes relationships over tasks, and I realized I must be driving my coworker crazy by glossing over details in order to maintain team harmony. With better understanding of one another, and a new tool of shared language to talk about our differences, our work together became much more productive and enjoyable.

I’m an advocate for workplace personality assessments in every organization. They are invaluable in clarifying and understanding our messy human motivations, communication styles and preferences, offering:

Improved communication: By understanding my coworker’s core motivation and natural communication style, I was able to better interpret their actions and adjust my communication to be more effective. Our new shared language made it possible to talk about our differences without getting defensive – and even approach them with humor.
Better conflict resolution: Instead of continuing to be frustrated and resentful of my coworker’s incessant questions, I was able to proactively shift my communication with them and manage our areas of friction.
Greater empathy and connection: Understanding my coworker’s style allowed me to empathize with the values and worldview that drove their behavior.
Increased self-awareness: I better understood my core motivations and how they showed up in relationship with my coworker, allowing me to more intentionally choose my words and actions.
Improved team coordination: By gaining appreciation of the stability my coworker brought to our team, we could leverage their superpower across projects by trusting them with the details.

There are many great choices out there: StrengthsFinder, Myers-Briggs, DiSC, 5 Voices, The Predictive Index…the list goes on. My personal favorite is the Enneagram. It offers a framework of nine interconnected types, each with a unique perspective on the world and a specific way of interacting with it. Whether you are a Helper, Challenger or Peacemaker, the Enneagram can offer you and your team a richness of insight into your communication, motivation, strengths and challenges.

Are you interested in learning how the Enneagram can help your team? Let’s talk!

Coalesce Consulting

Organizational Culture Development · Team Facilitation · Strategic Planning