Understanding your team’s different personalities and how this affects their approach to work and their output can help dramatically increase overall productivity. You can learn a lot about someone’s true character in the way they act, and react, to situations with others.

Indeed, how your staff interact with each other can either improve or hamper productivity. To prevent misunderstandings, conflicts, and the workflow from damming up, a manager needs to understand the different ways team members’ personalities affect their daily work interactions.

The completion of projects relies heavily on teamwork. If teams are unable to work together, projects fall apart, and clients don’t get the work they are paying for.

By understanding the personality type of individual team members, it can be easier to effectively manage productivity, general task workflow, and project completion.

The role of the personality types in teamwork

One of the easiest, and most successful ways of understanding individual team member’s personalities is using the Myers Briggs test (MBTI test). This can measure the kind of person your team are. The advantage of this is in better understanding your staff, you will be able to get the most productivity out of them.

The test is not about aptitude, but rather about personal preference. That is, about a person’s tendencies, what scenarios they work better in, and in which situations they’re more likely to thrive in.

The preferences are between a series of two opposing traits:

1. Introverted vs Extroverted

Introversion and extraversion are often referred to as attitudes that depict how a person’s cognitive functions operate. One exists, and thrives, in a world of places, things, and people. And the other is more focused on internal reflections, ideas, and thoughts.

Introverts are more thought-orientated. A lot of thought has to go into something before they take action. Whereas extroverts are much more active. Their momentum is maintained sole by their energy.

Introverts tend to create deeper knowledge, while extroverts are after more knowledge. And finally, introverts tend to recharge in the comfort of their solitude. Extroverts gain their energy by being around others.

2. Sensing vs Intuition

Intuition and sensation are two functions, and they reflect the way a person gathers information. Those who are more on the sensing side of this dichotomy, want to see tangible evidence. They want to be able to smell, taste, feel, see, or hear something for it to be valid.

The intuitive ones prefer their instincts, feelings, or hunches. They use their intuition to connect information, using concepts and ideas to explain others without being too hung up on physical evidence.

3. Thinking vs Feeling

These are the judging functions: feeling against thinking, and they represent how a person makes their decisions. A feeling person goes with their gut instinct. A thinking person will consider their options more rationally before making a decision.

The feeling person will prefer to make decisions based on their emotions. Typically, empathy is the biggest factor in their decision making, along with considering others’ needs.

The thinker employs logic and reason, detaching from their emotions, before coming to a decision.

4. Perception vs Judging

This is not an attitude nor is it a function like the last two. This last pair is about a person’s lifestyle preferences. This last pair only really works when combined with the above three pairs.

For example: A Feeling/Judging person will be empathetic; a Thinking/Judging person looks at life through a logical perspective.

Someone who’s perception is their dominant preference will mostly likely either be an Intuition/Perception person or a Sensing/Perception person.

By understanding the differing personality types, you can better organize and manage a team. Check this link for a comprehensive list of the 16 personality types. The Myers Brigg test doesn’t just determine who is outgoing and who is shy. It also assesses how individuals get their energy (do they need people or solitude to energize).

So, how do you use personality types to help increase productivity?

3 ways to use personality types to help increase productivity

Categorizing team members as simple extroverted or introverted is unhelpfully reductive. It is much more productive to use information on how different personality types work to ensure managers can get the most out of their teams.

The changes don’t have to be big either. Small changes to aspects like the workweek and office environment can help to improve focus for varying personality types.

Three ways to help your team members be more productive:

1. Reduce noise pollution

If your staff are in an office, it’s ideal to have work spaces where people who prefer quitter work spaces can thrive. This can be achieved with noise cancelling headphones, and areas where people looking for a little quiet can excuse themselves.

By creating these quieter spaces, or providing noise cancelling headphones it also helps the people who need noise. Relocating people who need quite allows those who thrive off noise and a little audible chaos to be comfortable in their ideal environment.

2. Offer remote and flexible working options

This has become easier as more and more companies have been forced to allow their staff to work from home. However, remote and flexible working options still have their challenges and obstacles.

In a pre-COVID survey, it was determined that 67% of workers would be more productive if they could work from home. Of course, for this to work, managers must be able to manage and monitor tasks and project workflow.

In the same survey, 61% said they’d be able to get more work done if they had more flexible work hours. Again, this requires managers and HR departments to have the right processes in place. This ensures that the projects are completed on time with minimal disruptions even if different departments work at different times.

3. Restructure breaks

Some productivity experts actually encourage people to take as many as 7 breaks each day for maximum productivity. However, anyone who’s ever worked in an office knows that is simply not practical. Finding time to take a lunch break is difficult enough.

The one thing all experts do agree on is that no matter what your personality type, a break away from work is important. Whether you are more introverted/quiet and just need to get away from the office and recharge somewhere, or you need to go and socialise with friends for your break.

Either way, it’s necessary to literally and figuratively walk away from work to recharge. Doing this can have a significant positive impact on your daily productivity.

How task management software can help improve productivity

Task management software can help managers work with different personality types to help ensure they are working at their most productive. For some personality types who need a little direction, like the advocate and the mediator, task management software helps provide that direction.

Feel in control and have a sense of direction

It does this by providing a visual collaborative platform that shows team members the project. Specifically, which tasks need to be done, and in what order.

This makes task workflow a visual process so that everything can be arranged and prioritized for those who like a sense of order in their work day. As well for those who like knowing the reason they’re doing task X is because task Y can’t be done until X is complete.

Easier communication

Task software management also makes it easy to communicate with your team members. And for those who get anxiety at the thought of phone calls, you can leave comments in the tasks and other people will get notified in real time.

There is also the option to message people through the task management software.

Work remotely or flexibly without fuss

Want or need to work remotely? Need to work flexible hours due to other commitments or health issues? Working remotely has become a reality for many businesses lately. With the right task management software, all you need is an internet connection, laptop, and your logins and you can work from anywhere, anytime.

Task management software allows creatives to focus their effort and energy doing what they’re best at. And the management of tasks, ensuring work is completed on time and in the right order is taken care of for them.

You can do teamwork in real time, no matter where you are. Sharing and delegating tasks to colleagues, and you can see their modifications on your screen straight away.

Productivity tips for different personality types

From ensuring staff take at least one meaningful break during the day, to providing an ideal work environment, there are quite a few things you can do to improve productivity for your team.

Improving your team’s ability to collaborate, whether they are in office or at home, goes a long way to increasing productivity.

Quire’s task management software has helped hundreds of organizations dramatically increase teamwork productivity, workflow, and project management completion. Whether your business is entirely remote, in-office or a combination of the two, our software can provide the solution for seamless task management.

This will help to ensure teamwork is carried out smoothly and efficiently. And, has the added advantage of being recorded into the software for future reference.