It’s no great secret that everyone works in different ways and that diverse work styles can often clash and lead to conflict. A well-balanced team that draws on the strengths of each member’s work styles can lead to increased productivity, innovation, and efficiency in the workplace. But nothing hurts productivity and growth like a team that doesn’t know how to work together. This often translates to lost time, workplace stress, financial costs, and employee departures.
All employees have practices and preferences that draw on their own strengths and weaknesses. Together, these different styles make up a team’s culture. For teams to work together effectively, they must be aware of each member’s ways of working, and leaders must be able to manage different work styles to their advantage.
Figuring out how to manage different work styles is tough! If team members don’t feel challenged, motivated, or heard by others on their team, they will quickly disengage. And if they don’t have complementary strengths and weaknesses, the result will be a group that is too uniform in work style and attitude, leading to reduced innovation and effectiveness. For instance, if everyone in a team thought only of strategies and end goals without considering the details accomplishing those goals (such as structure, time constraints, quality), their execution rates would be low, and work would fall behind schedule.
Identifying Work Styles
To be effective, team leaders must understand and manage a variety of work styles every day. Asking employees to complete a quick four-question self-assessment can give leaders the information they need to achieve the optimal balance of work styles:
When it comes to solving problems, I tend to be more:
(A) deliberate
(B) decisive
When it comes to relating to people, I tend to be more
(A) reflective
(B) outgoing
When it comes to my work pace or level of urgency, I tend to be more
(A) steady
(B) spontaneous
When it comes to processes and procedures, I tend to be more
(A) cautious
(B) freeform
Three or more A responses indicates a work style oriented toward stability. Three or more B responses indicates a work style oriented toward change. And an even split between A and B indicates a work style balanced between stability and change orientation.
Having employees assume different thinking hats can improve decision making within teams. For example, one employee may be tasked with coming up with new ideas and encouraged to bring unpredictable (or possibly even outlandish!) ideas to a meeting. At the same time, another employee can be tasked with being more discerning and charged with asking questions and assessing the risks of different ideas.
Assigning each team member a specific hat to wear at different times and for different projects can open up possibilities for more inclusive discussions by giving a variety of ideas and perspectives a seat at the table. This approach helps bust the dreaded group-think that often stifles innovation. It also shows that, in the right situation, every work style can be a strength.
Setting a Clear Vision for the Team
Managing challenging behaviors (such as steamrolling or overanalyzing) takes planning and communication. When beginning a project, managers should bring team members together to talk about objectives and goals and answer questions such as “How does the project support the company’s values and vision?” and “How does each person’s role support the goals?” Everyone should be on the same page and work toward the same outcome, but each person may arrive at the final goal differently because of their individual work style. It’s up to leaders to focus or redirect their employees’ strengths, make sure they understand their roles, provide feedback along the way, and give them the support or independence they need to do great things. (And because leaders set the tone for their teams, they also need to be aware of their own tendencies, preferences, and blind spots.)
Harnessing the Power of Diversity of Thought and Inclusion
When a team can see and understand how each person’s unique work style helps the team, the group’s capacity for better collaboration increases. A leader should examine their team’s unique culture and identify the team members’ shared strengths as well as each individual’s contributions. Talking about how different work styles have benefited the team can help everyone understand and appreciate the impact of diverse perspectives and skills.
Checking in Regularly
Because team dynamics can change, monthly team huddles help leaders conduct “temperature checks.” During these meetings, teams discuss differences, strengths, priorities, and actions for the future so that all members can work better together. Ongoing, frequent, and bite-sized assessments of a team’s culture increase members’ retention and engagement by driving better collaboration, more inclusion, and greater team effectiveness.
Intentionality in Team Meetings
During team meetings, leaders should draw on their knowledge of each team member’s work styles and strengths. They need to actively engage more reflective team members who might not readily volunteer what they are thinking, for example, and tap into people who are wired for specific topics. Leading team meetings with intention makes the meeting more productive and yields better outcomes.
It’s also important to meet people where they are. A team member who relies on facts to make decisions, for example, does best when provided with information that supports why something needs to be done (and may do their own research to verify that data). Someone who is a real go-getter will appreciate directness: a leader should tell this person where they stand and what needs to be done—then get out of their way and let them do it. And leaders should expect a team member who is very social to spend the first five to ten minutes talking about family, current events, or other updates before getting down to business. When interacting with employees in meetings, considering each employee’s personality and preferences will go a long way toward fostering the trust needed to execute the leader’s vision.
The variety of people on a team directly affects employee engagement, productivity, and retention. A leader’s ability to manage different work styles will shape the outcomes in all of those areas. By understanding their team members’ work styles (and their own) and how they influence team culture, leaders can bring balance to their teams, thus allowing each member to do their best work.
