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April 2011

Personality Mapping Can Help Align Employee Strengths

Business is all about people. A strong, diverse employee roster can often overcome a company's limitations in other areas. Many companies enjoy a healthy reputation (and equally healthy profit margins!) by simply keeping their promises and taking an honest, friendly approach with customers. What's often overlooked, however, is the delicate balance that owners and managers must create between divergent personalities. Collectively, all good employees want to do what's best for the company and the customer. Individually, they have many different ways of achieving that.

GSI-authored Playbook for Selling Success has a section devoted to how knowledge of personality mapping can be used to enhance your selling abillity. Click here to order this book.

Informal personality mapping is a method of examining the way people think, work and interact together. Grow Sales, Inc. uses a personality theory that organizes people into four different personality groups: Drivers, Relaters, Socializers, and Thinkers. Each personality type has specific strengths and limitations, and, more importantly, specific compatibilities with other personality types. Here are brief descriptions of each:

Drivers are organized, opinionated and achievement-oriented. They enjoy being "the boss" and seek sole design-making authority. As such, they tend to dominate other personality types, especially Relaters.

Relaters are nurturers and team players. They are risk-averse and make decisions only after they have consulted those around them. Relaters dislike the top-dog mentality of Drivers and the self-centered nature of Socializers.

Thinkers are thorough and methodical, preferring to make decisions by weighing all the facts. They prefer predictable behavior, sound reasoning and work equally well alone or within a team. Thinkers are able to maintain their methodical approach in varied circumstances.

Socializers are goal-driven, friendly, enthusiastic and independent. They are often thrill-seekers and jokesters, and enjoy being the center of attention - they're the reason why the company picnic was invented. Socializers can be impatient and unpredictable, which may rankle Thinkers.

All of these personality types can be potentially valuable to your organization. Ideally, you'd have at least one of each type in your sales and management ranks, but you have to work with what you have. In addition, which of these categories potential employees fit into may be a factor you consider in future hiring decisions. Giving a brief, informal personality test to job applicants may help you decide how good of a fit they'll be with your organization.

In addition, recognizing these personality types within your organization can help you align complementary personalities and help avoid conflict. For example, it may not be wise to pair a Driver salesperson with a Relater in customer service, as this combination is ripe for miscommunication and mutual dislike. Another potential conflict may occur in pairing a Socializer and a Thinker on a new product development task force. Keep in mind that this is one of many personality "maps" that can be used to identify personalities. For a detailed personality assessment, try this Jung Typology Test: www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm or call Grow Sales, Inc at 301-294-9900 for a consultation.

Disclaimer - The advisors at Grow Sales, Inc., are not psychologists, and we do not play them on TV. The information contained above is culled from our experiences in helping various businesses assess and organize the various personalities within their plants.

What Can Grow Sales Do for You?
Charting a course for aggressive, intelligent growth can be difficult. Grow Sales, Inc. has been helping printing and other graphic arts companies handle their growing pains with ease since 1996. Whether your company is in transition, the middle of an upswing or seeking help to get there, let us put our sales and marketing leadership to work for you.

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