Use Personality Types to Make Sure Teams Get Things Done
We have found that every team is made up of two broad types of people– the Idea Makers and the Doers. If you’ve ever taken a Myers Briggs test, you might know these two groups as Judgers (J) and Perceivers (P).
Myers Briggs defines the two types of personalities in the following ways.
Perceivers or Idea Makers
Myers Briggs’ Perceivers are people who love thinking about big-picture concepts and focusing on big goals. They thrive in environments where they can think about as many options as possible without feeling restricted to choose just one.
Perceivers Prefer Brainstorming and Developing a Variety of Options
A Perceiver feels most comfortable when brainstorming a lot of projects and keeping options flexible, emphasizing spontaneity and ideation in team work sessions.
Judgers or Doers
Myers Briggs’ Judgers are people who are much more structured in their approach. They prefer to finish one project before starting another, and they thrive when tasks are clear and achievable.
Judgers prefer to stick to a plan and they are always oriented toward the finish line. In team situations, they are focused on creating and implementing a plan.
Team Composition
Early Phases
In the early phases of a project, Idea Makers, or the “Myers Briggs’ Perceiving” type, are crucial. They inject a project with the vitality and excitement that creative people bring to the table. By visualizing many possible options without getting too bogged down in the details, they are essential to any project that hopes to address a big goal with a new or an alternative approach.
The flexibility and creativity that is so useful in the early stages of a project can become a liability in later stages. As teams choose an approach and start to make plans to move forward with that approach, Perceivers can impede progress because they prefer not to make decisions or not to set up plans. This is where the Doers, or “Myers Briggs’ Judging” people, come in.
Later Phases
Doers have the ability to take all of the ideas that Perceivers conceptualize, to make decisions about which option is best, and to put a plan in place to reach the finish line. While these characteristics can restrict early stages of planning, they are vital to later project stages because they ensure that there is a plan in place and that projects are actually finished.
Project Execution Issues
So why do these two types of people so often butt heads in work environments? Some of the common issues that project leaders and program offices (PMO) often encounter include:
- Low value ideation
- Work load imbalance
Low Value Ideation
A common issue is that the Idea Makers can feel like their early-stage brainstorming is not received well by the Doers on the team.
As a manager, you can help solve this problem by reminding Doers that early-stage ideation is productive and can lead to better results in the long run.
Work Load Imbalance
The most common issue that often arises between the two types of team members is that the Doers feel that they carry the brunt of the weight of a project in its later stages. Idea Makers are difficult to pin down, and Doers do not want to feel like they have to nag their coworkers to get things done. How do you solve this problem?
The Solution
One way that has proven effective for struggling teams is to use an external system to “nag” every team member to accomplish their assigned tasks.
Accountability software systems like CommandHound provide external reminders and notices to each team member to remind them to accomplish their tasks on time. This way, team members who embody Myers Briggs’ Judging do not have to feel personally responsible for the Idea Makers’ tasks.
An accountability system like CommandHound will do all the nagging, reminding, escalating, and reporting to make sure things get done.
Use Accountability Software to Help Doers and Idea Makers Work Best Together
By going beyond simple task management software, CommandHound makes it possible to escalate tasks if they are not accomplished on time and to keep a record of team members’ individual performance against assigned tasks.
Team members can keep track of their own to-do’s, and team leaders can monitor which individuals are pulling their weight.
Accountability software solutions like CommandHound, allow team members to focus on their individual strength, whether ideation or planning, and to let CommandHound keep everyone on the same page to accomplish big goals.
Would you like to know more about how to use accountability in the workplace to drive business performance? Download our Ultimate Guide to Accountability in the Workplace.
