Personality

Teams
and
With Ryan Ross, Hogan Vice President of Global Alliances

Managers intuitively understand that achieving the right mix of skills, experience, and
personality is key to ensuring a productive team and content workforce. Get that mix
wrong – even by just one individual – and the result can be ruinous. Ryan Ross, Hogan vice
president of Global Alliances, discusses personality and teams.

How does personality affect team performance? What are the functional and psychological team roles?
A team is made up of individuals, and personality Functional roles in a team are simply based on
can be the mortar that holds the team together title, level in an organization, or past experience.
or the chisel that tears it apart. The makeup of It’s the old military example of just because they
the team, the demands, and what is needed to be have stripes on their arms or stars on their lapel
successful is dependent on the individuals. They you have to call them a leader. Psychological
roles are who we become in the team. Are we
have to be able to work together, and they have to
an antagonist or a creator? Are we focused on
be engaged with each other.
details and implementation or are we dedicated
What characteristics do high-performing teams share? to team collaboration? Are we focused on results,
relationships, pragmatics, process, or innovation?
First, high-performing teams are self-aware of their
collective strengths and their development needs In terms of composition, what do teams need?
as a team. They know where their blind spots are,
Teams need someone paying attention to the vision
and they’re willing to seek outside influence to help
and goals, and they need someone paying attention
compensate. Second, they are focused on a mission. – strategically – to how they’re going to get there.
Individually, they have clear objectives to contribute Teams need individuals who are driving the work
to the team, and there’s also a desire to keep score. and actually getting work done versus just talking
They want to know, “Are we winning as a team? If about it. They also need someone who is paying
not, what are we going to do to fix that?” It creates attention to details, as well as someone to keep
a sense of accountability. harmony and collaboration going in the team. If

© Hogan Assessment Systems 2012

Personality
and Teams
Teams need individuals who vary, which is what gives you the
uniqueness of individuals.
stand up, take punches and push
the envelope, then you wouldn’t
are driving the work and How do shared group values impact
fit in. It leads to the acceptance
of things that cause the every day
actually getting work done team performance?
employee to suffer.

versus just talking about it. They help build cohesion. People
How do we keep team members engaged?
who value the same things tend to
be interested in performing work Getting and keeping team
you think about societal roles, it’s
in similar ways. They focus on members engaged starts with
basically the same thing. You need
certain goals and share a common leadership. The definition of
a mayor, you need a city council,
language, even though they may leadership is being able to build
and you need employees. be new acquaintances. If I know and sustain high-performing
Can too much dissimilarity in a team be you value winning, competing, teams. The only way to do that is
problematic? and the way things look and with individuals that are engaged.
feel, we could already have a How do you get engagement?
You bet it can. Too many dissimilar relationship even if we just met. Through good leadership. How
values can be problematic. do you identify good leaders? By
Shared values are especially
You’re going to find that people looking at their personality. It’s
important today because
gravitate towards each other in a building block – teams that
organizations are doing so
a team. Teams need to identify are engaged will take action
much more virtual teamwork.
and understand their collective more quickly, and they’re more
Oftentimes, we don’t have an
strengths and shortcomings. If
opportunity to sit down and
you have a team that is on both
have conversations anymore, but The definition of leadership is
ends of the spectrum when it
comes to Adjustment (the HPI
because we talk the same way
or have the same values, those
being able to build and sustain
scale related to confidence and
self-esteem) – meaning that half
relationships are easier to make. high-performing teams.
the team is rock-solid and nothing What can shared derailers mean to a team? defensive when it comes to
bothers them, and the other half
Blind spots. Shared derailers outside challenges because
of the team freaks out when the
create a culture of derailment they want to protect each
room is too warm – then those
where a certain derailer is seen as other. The functional head
two groups are always going to be
just the way we are. For example, of the team must drive the
at odds. They have to recognize
say a retailer has a management engagement, or things get out
that shortcoming and meet
team with very high scores on of sync. It’s helping the leader
somewhere in the middle.
Bold (the HDS scale related to understand how to drive and
Values are a key challenge when self-confidence and arrogance) motivate a team by knowing
you have dissimilarity in a team. and Mischievous (the HDS scale who the players are, what they
We find that there are two or related to risk-taking and limit- value, and how that fits with
three common core values in a testing); that would breed a the mission they’re being asked
team and that the rest are free to culture where if you couldn’t to accomplish.

© Hogan Assessment Systems 2012 2