16 May 2017

How to create a cohesive team using personality tests

One of the great concerns of a leader is to have a cohesive team that works like a perfect, well-oiled cog. However, achieving this is not so simple and it is necessary to take some factors into account.

Not only do you need time and good organisation, but you also need individuals who are a good fit with each other. There are personalities that are totally antagonistic and will never work well together; for example, two people who like to lead.

In order to create a cohesive team, it is important that it is balanced, and to achieve this, the personality of each member must be taken into account. But how can you achieve this? The answer is simple: by including personality tests in your onboarding process.

The advantages:

Make sure your team is diverse and varied. Not only will it work better, but it will also be able to approach problems from different points of view.

Table of contents

Steps to create a balanced team

If you want to put it into practice, you just need to follow these 4 steps:

1. Make personality tests part of the onboarding process.

Once you've found the right person to join your company and they've been with you for a few days, ask them to complete a personality test.

Use the information to focus your work on the areas you are most passionate about or in which you can develop your full potential.

2. Use the tool to determine personality types.

There are a multitude of tools, tests and methods that will allow you to analyse the personality of each member of your team (we will look at some below).

Use them to find out “who's who”, optimise their work and place them in the most suitable position for each.

3. Commitment to diversity

Remember that the most important thing of all is that you manage to create teams with diverse personality types, which will help them to work better and be more successful in the assigned task.

Different types of skills and aptitudes should be represented in your ideal team.

4. Rotate roles according to the project's status

Some people are much better at kicking off and designing a proposal, while others, for instance, excel at selling and promoting the product.

Assess who should do what within a project and at what point you can make the most of their skills.

Personality test

As we were saying, there are different methods that will help you analyse a person's personality.

Choose one and always use the same criteria to compare the information between them.

DiSC Method

80 years ago, psychologist William Marston discovered that behavioural characteristics could be grouped into 4 main divisions. With him we can determine:

  • A person's place according to their environment.
  • The strengths and weaknesses of an individual's character.
  • The knowledge it brings to the company.
  • What is the work environment that allows you to develop your skills to the fullest?.
  • La imagen que tiene esa persona de sí misma.
  • How a person reacts to other types of personalities.

The four possible personalities are as follows and are described by these adjectives:

  • Decision: dominant, direct, decisive, high ego-strength, problem-solver, risk-taker
  • Interactioninfluential, enthusiastic, confident, optimistic, persuasive, talkative, impulsive, emotional…
  • SerenityStable, a good listener, possessive, predictable…
  • Complianceanalytical, fact-finder, high standards, systematic, precise…

Online test

You can also have your employees complete some of the online tests available nowadays. Two of the most recommendable are 16personalities and Truity.

Send your employees a link and then share the results among yourselves to get to know each other better.

In this way, by using personality tests, you will obtain very valuable information about your team that will enable you to manage it much more efficiently.

Edenred Spain

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