I’ve recently watched a webinar about how to lead and communicate better with your team during this world crisis. Everybody is dealing in a different way and some of us are struggling in this unprecedented time of lockdown. I particularly work much better at home and without the distractions of the office, but not everybody is the same.
R. Michael Anderson talks about mental health during this COVID-19 and how we can overcome the issues and communicate better, you can watch the meetup recording below.
He shares his views and real life experience on:
- The systems and processes you need to not just survive, but to thrive over the next few months.
- That real reason leaders cave under the pressure of a crisis…and how to not be one of those casualties.
- What exactly your team needs from you right now, and how to give that to them.
- How to find another level of leadership within yourself in just a few quick steps.
- AND how to do all of this right away so that you and your team perform at a high level when it’s needed the most.
One of the suggestions is to apply the DiSC assessment, which I am going to talk a bit deeper here. You can use it to help team members better understand each other and what is the way they prefer to communicate. Doing that you can improve the workplace and it can become a more productive and comfortable environment.
The whole point of this kind of test is to build emotional intelligence between its members, personal growth and self awareness. Reminding each other that we’re all human beings (not machines) with different perspectives, plans, experiences, and skills. This understanding is essential and helps teams to perform better and feel like a team avoiding a blaming/competitive culture.
When letting the team members know about the test, it’s important they understand it’s strictly a tool to understand each other better and work well together. There are no right or wrong answers !
By taking the personality assessment test and then reviewing the results together, the team will learn more about the other members and also themselves, noticing what is the best way to interact with each other.
The DiSC model organizes personalities among four quadrants, with people usually being dominant in one of them:
- dominance, an emphasis on accomplishing results
- influence, an emphasis on relationships and influencing others
- steadiness, an emphasis on cooperation and dependability
- conscientiousness, an emphasis on quality, accuracy and competency
Results from the DiSC model are presented on a circle, with a dot in one of the quadrants, so test takers can see where their personality lies and identify how much of each quadrant is relevant to them. Keeping track of the results can help everybody to better evaluate conflicts, recognize high performers and address communication issues on teams.
According to this detailed analysis from EQ experts Dr. Vanessa Druskat and Dr. Steven Wolff:
“Our research tells us that three conditions are essential to a group’s effectiveness: trust among members, a sense of group identity, and a sense of group efficacy.”
Here it is an example of a DiSC assessment:
This also reminds me of the “benefits” the companies offer: fruits in the office, table football, ps 4, bonus and the list goes on… When the only thing you want is to be able to work from home to stay with your dog and go to your local pub while it is still sunny.
It is impossible to make everybody happy, so it is better if you can understand what motivates EACH one of the team members instead of pushing things they don’t want/care.
You can take the personality test for free and understand more about yourself and how to better communicate with others here: https://www.truity.com/test/disc-personality-test
Resources:
Rafaela Azevedo 