Leaders must use different skills and tactics to successfully guide different types of employees and team members. To make this easier, you can give your employees a pre-employment assessment test that determines what personality style they have. The pre-employment testing behavioral quadrants define the four personality styles as expressive/social, controller/assertive, supporter/empathy and analyzer/logical.
Expressive/Social
Expressive individuals are relationship-oriented people who like going to social events, talking about problems, and sharing their opinions. They aren’t good at doing paperwork or being detail-oriented. Let them handle tasks that involve announcing information. Examples of positions that social types are good at are lecturing, promoting, public relations, networking, and politicking. When expressive are under pressure, they are prone to ridicule others. They dread boredom, so make sure to keep them interested in their tasks.
Controller/Assertive
According to the team that put these quadrants together, these A-types fear failure and can be highly effective at leading teams. You can let controllers manage projects, manage salespeople, sell products, close sales, lead people, and lead teams. They are also suitable for running businesses and representing people in court. Under pressure, assertive can become confrontational. Tasks that controllers like being in charge of other people, getting things done, winning games, confronting people, asking for money, and sharing their opinions.
Supporter/Empathy
In contrast to assertive, supporters fear confrontation. They want to keep the peace. People of this personality type are interested in caring for others, working out disagreements, helping, soothing people, and consensus building. Let them handle tasks that involve helping others or coming to agreements. Examples of positions they can thrive in are problem-solving, administrating, teaching one on one, apprenticing others, assisting health care professionals, and serving customers. Be aware that under pressure they become more agreeable, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Analyzer/Logical
You can give tasks that require attention to detail to analyzers. They enjoy paying attention to detail, being structured, staying organized, being thorough, and being methodical. As a team member, analyzers prefer to be quiet while organizing or systemizing. Analyzers fear mistakes, and under pressure, they pull back. Positions that are suitable for logical types include accounting, technical work, making things, analyzing systems, programming, installing, driving, administrating, and estimating.
Understanding the different personality styles helps you become a better leader. You will know how to delegate tasks to those who are most suitable for them. You will also know how to tell when they are becoming overwhelmed. Ideally, you’ll want to prevent them from becoming too pressured, so they can continue operating at their best.