Motivating different personality types

Engagement & Motivation
March 13, 2018

Here is a winning leadership strategy you may not have thought of: Know the ins and outs of your employees’ personalities and you will unlock exactly how to maximize their effectiveness within your organization.

The more an employer understands the unique traits in each team member, the easier it is to interact with them, inspire them, and have every individual operating at their full potential.

Not only that, but by understanding which personality types work best together and which tend to butt heads, you can more confidently ensure harmonious teams.

But apart from routine interaction with your team members, how can you learn their personality types?

Reliable personality tests take the guessing work out of employee placement and motivation.

Personality tests can be administered at any time - even as part of your onboarding process. Have your employees complete one online and get the results within minutes. An awareness of what your employee holds as a moral belief, what fills her with passion, what behaviour she can’t stand and what their own behavioural habits are is enlightening for both of you.

Take these insights one step further and arrange a personality-type education seminar for the entire office. Without having to point out an example in the office of every personality type, your employees are likely to recognize traits and behaviours in themselves and in their co-workers. An awareness of how to interact with and motivate co-workers is invaluable.

Personalities can be categorized in many ways: for a detailed analysis of the psychological traits in your employees, you can have them complete the Myers Briggs Personality Test. However, even simpler surveys can provide you with useful insights into the relative preferences, traits, and attitudes of your staff.

As an introduction to identifying the different behaviour styles in your organization, here is a brief description of A,B, and C personalities. This approach to personality categorization describes traits exhibited related to work ethic and communication style.

Below is a brief description of these personality types, how they tend to function, and where you may want to consider placing them in your organization

Type A

  • These individuals are fuelled by achievement and recognition, often making them more vocal than other personalities in their pursuit of success.
  • Extremely organized, impatient and decisive, you will typically see type-A employees’ work spaces covered in lists, schedules, reminders, and sticky notes.

Where To Use Them

Type-A individuals are often suited to leadership positions where the constant demand for decisions and action necessitate someone with their more aggressive, competitive, and achievement-oriented nature.

Type B

  • Type-B personalities contrast strongly with Type-A; they are less stressed by external pressure, have more patience, are less competitive and achievement-oriented.
  • Their perceptive, compassionate, and supportive nature drives them to make a difference in the lives of those around them, co-workers and clients alike.

Where to Use Them

‍You will want to place Type-B personalities somewhere where they can have frequent interaction with others such as in customer service or human resources. When it comes to rewarding these employees, letting them know you appreciate them verbally goes a long way.

Type C

  • This last personality type tends to be highly analytical and detail-oriented, valuing time to themselves to achieve precision.
  • Unlike Type-A and Type-B, these employees will be appreciative of autonomy. Although they may still enjoy a good conversation, the presence of other people with whom to connect and collaborate is not nearly as effective in keeping them engaged and inspired.

Where To Use Them

‍Often, these employees will naturally gravitate to roles where most of their work is done not with people, but with numbers or other inanimate objects. Most Type-C personalities will not crave a leadership role and can be relied on to get that behind the scenes work done reliably and accurately.

It’s not uncommon for someone to demonstrate a blend of these personality traits, making the need for each employee to complete a thorough personality test all the more evident!

Some of your work force will be capable of filling numerous roles, so the tricky part is deciding which one will take advantage of their unique qualities best—that’s where a thorough personality test like Myers Briggs comes in.

Strategic arrangement of your staff can introduce your company to higher levels of engagement and profitability than ever before!

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Explore Qarrot to see just how easy recognizing multiple employees and teams can be - book a demo today!

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The Team at Qarrot