Team Member Types

www.all-in-all-leadership.blogspot.in Naveen K Dandge

Different Team Member Types

http://www.all-in-all-leadership.blogspot.in/

Introduction

There will be different personality types in the team members. One team member may have more than one type. Each team will have the mentioned types. If not, we will have to create the positive ones by mentoring, coaching and setting expectations.

Cntd..1

I have been seeing some managers/ leaders deal with the regular situations as and when they occur. IMO, It is always better to set the things appropriately so that for you, no need to be very cautious on the day to day activities. Empower your team so that you can concentrate on the strategic goals of your team/organization.

Cntd..2

As we said above, we need the positive types in the teams. If not, embed the types/qualities by mentoring/setting expectations into the team so that the team will be self organizing with in itself.

Points of Discussion

Constructive Types

Destructive Types

How to Deal with Destructive Types

Questions?? & Answers!!

Team Members

Constructive Types

Team Members Constructive Type

• An Initiator is someone who actively initiates ideas and activates on a project. This type is considered positive because it is proactive and can be highly productive.

Initi

ator


• Information seekers are people on the team who actively seek to gain more knowledge and understanding related to the project. This is a positive role because fostering an understanding among the team is important, and open communication should be valued.

Info

rmati

on S

eeke

r


• An Information Giver, as its name implies, is someone who openly shares information with the team. Although not all information may be shared (for instance classified or secret information must be kept confidential), the overarching principal is to focus foster good communication and a good flow of information on the project.In

form

ation

Giv

er


• Encouragers maintain a positive and realistic attitude. On the project, they focus on what can be accomplished, not on what is impossible. This is a positive role because it contributes to the team.

• This particular personality type is the one of them who binds the team with motivation and encourages to go the extra mile. If you have one in your team, you are the luckier one. He will do half of your job ! ;)

Enco

urag

er


• A clarifier, as the name suggests, is someone who works to make certain that everyone’s understanding of the project is the same. This is a positive role because it ensures that everyone has a common understanding of the project goals and details.

• Usually, this type, Information Seeker and Information Giver will be part of one single team member.

Clar

ifier


• In Music, harmony is not same as melody but it complements and enhances the melody. Similarly, a harmonizer on the project will enhance the information in such a way that understanding is increased. This is a positive role because the overall understanding of the project and the context, or the details surrounding it, are enhanced.Harm

onize

r


• Summarizers take the details and restate them succinctly or relate them back to the big picture. This is a positive role because details on the project may become overwhelming, but the summarizer can keep things simple enough for everyone to understand the higher purpose of the tasks.

• If this guy has good data/information presentation skills over an email/ document, that would help a lot for whole of the team delivery.

Sum

mar

izer


• The term gate keeper has two possible uses in the project management literature. The first definition is used differently in the project management than it is in other disciplines. A gate keeper is someone who draws others in. Someone who says, "We haven’t heard from the other end of the table today", would be and example of a gate keeper. This is a very positive role because it encourages the entire team to participate on the project.

Gate

Kee

per

Team Members

Destructive Types

Team Members Destructive Type

• Destructive types have to be dealt as soon as they have been observed. They have to be mentored and clear expectations are to be set. And keep under observation till they are working as expected.

Actio

n


• If the same team member has more than three of the destructive type attributes, he/she has to dealt carefully. If there is no change in the behavior, it is always good to take out the rotten apple.Cr

itica

l Acti

on


•An aggressor is someone who is openly hostile and opposed to the project. This is a negative role because it serves no productive purpose on the project.

Aggr

esso

r


• Couple of scenarios where you can find aggressors.1. If a natural aggressive guy being with the team for longer duration and you enter as a lead/manager, there is high likely chance of that guy starts opposing you. One of the reasons is, he will start thinking that he owns the team. The case would be worse if the aggressor is half-knowledged. You can not explain him how to proceed with your action plan and he will not come up with his action plan. More over, high likely he will be disturbing/playing around with other team members emotions. Little complicated. Isn't it?Ag

gres

sor c

ontd

..


• A blocker is someone who blocks access to information and tries to interrupt the flow of communication. This is a negative role because of the disruptive effect poor communication can have on the project.

Bloc

ker


• This one people will do consciously or sub-consciously. The ones who does consciously had to be found sooner and set expectations.

• If he does it sub-consciously then explain and make him understand of the implications of his actions on the team and delivery. He can understand and give him a plan to over come that problem then things will go right.Bl

ocke

r con

td..


• A withdrawer does not participate in discussion, resolution, or even the fleshing out of ideas. Instead, he is more likely to sit quietly or not participate at all. This is a negative role because it usually produces a team member that does not buy into the project and can have a negative effect on the overall team member that does not buy into the project and can have negative effect on the overall team morale.W

ithdr

awer


• If all the team members are participating in discussions, decision making actively then most likely the team will reach the performing stage very quickly. If one guy is a withdrawer, entire team takes long to reach performing stage.W

ithdr

awer

con

td..


• A topic jumper disrupts effective communication by constantly changing the subject and bringing up irrelevant facts. This is a negative role because it prevents issues from being fully discussed and brought to closure.

• This is similar type as blocker. The same remedies applies to him as well.To

pic

Jum

per


• A recognition seeker looks at the project to see what is in it for him. He is more interested in his own benefit rather than the project's success. This is a negative role because of the damaging effect on team morale and because a recognition seeker may ultimately jeopardize the project if doing so somehow personally benefits him.Re

cogn

ition

See

ker


• Interesting one. This type usually other members of the team will recognize easily. But in some cases, the recognition seeker does not show himself like that on the straight lines. But when the other team members does not have good general knowledge, the RS will start showing his GK skills and take other team members over a period of time to a stage where the team members start believing that this RS knows ALL. So funny right. You start observing the various teams and team members.. ;).

Reco

gniti

on S

eeke

r co

ntd.

.


• The dominator is someone who disrupts team participation and communication by presenting opinions forcefully and without considering the merit of other's contributions. He will likely talk more than the rest of the group and will bully his way through the project. This is a negative role because valid opinions are often quashed, and the project may take on a one-dimensional quality.

Dom

inat

or


• If the dominator is not knowledgeable enough, he will take whole of the team in a very wrong direction. With this, there is a high likely chance of people not developing their skill set as required. That in turn slows down the team's delivery.

Dom

inat

orCo

ntd.

.


• A devil's advocate is someone who will automatically take a contrary view to most statements or suggestions that are made. This maybe a positive or negative role on the project, but it is often associated with a negative role since it often disrupts and frustrates communication, discourage people from participating, and stalls progress.De

vil’s

Adv

ocat

e


• They will always be ready on one foot for the cat fight. What ever you do, say, not do, not say still they will have a problem. And unfortunately, it will be very difficult to talk and come to common understanding on anything. So, better use toughest path to set expectations, if it does not work.. .throw him away.

Devi

l’s A

dvoc

ate

cont

d..

Destructive Type How to deal with?Aggressor

BlockerWithdrawer

Topic Jumper

The mentioned negative types can be handles easily. Little Mentoring, coaching should be fine

in most of the cases.

Recognition SeekerDominator

Devils’ Advocate

The mentioned negative types can not be handled easily. Mostly, they will be behaving deliberately. These types need a strictly set

with expectation. If the same team member posses more than one type of these, it’s advisable to get rid of him asap.

Destructive Type How to deal with?

What If

you find too

many of

destructiv

e type

in the

team

It is advisable not to spend much time in mentoring/coaching and/or getting buy-in from them. Be a dictator for some time and get the things done. Later, slowly you can move towards

coaching, mentoring again

Destructive Type How to deal with?

Team Member Types Q & A

http://all-in-all-leadership.blogspot.in/2015/08/different-team-member-types.html

More Topics 360 degree Leadership Time Management &

Multitasking Mind Mapping

Techniques Negotiation Skills Selling Your Ideas Ownership Conflict Management Risk Management Decision Making Models Skill Gap/SWOT Analysis Root Cause Analysis

Effective Team Meetings Demo/Presentation Skills Emotional Intelligence How Leaders Build Trust Upward Management Managing Across Design Effective Team

Meetings Team Member Types Building High Performance

Teams

Leadership & Management

Team Member Types