A Case Study in Team Building

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this study was to ensure that every team member within this first-to-market business is fully aware of the objectives of the business and how awareness of their own natural, instinctive behaviours can help them to draw on their strengths, which will therefore help them drive the business forward. The purpose of the self-awareness exercise is also to give each member of staff an understanding of their most productive environment, and allow them to learn how their characteristics can positively impact other team members and their own role. Environmental factors may include influences such as social preferences, structure and physical surroundings. Once these have been established, the business can then take action to adapt, where necessary, elements of the working environment, revisit and review job descriptions and create bespoke career progression opportunities per individual rather than a one size fits all environments.

ACTION:

To put this into action, a trait-based profiling assessment was used within the business and for all team members, including the senior leadership team, as well as their current external business consultant. All were willing and engaged participants which created a positive energy within the organisation. To complete the online assessment, it took between 15-20 minutes and the results were calculated instantly. Thereafter, individual feedback sessions were carried out in a confidential and private setting with each team member. Once completed and with the consent of each participant, the information was fed back to the senior leadership team. One of the great advantages of this type of report is that it is non-contentious as this is not an exercise to identify a ‘type’ and the objective is always to avoid typecasting, but instead to provide an insight into the personal traits of each individual.

OUTCOME:

The results from the assessment enabled the Directors to establish how best to manage each team member in accordance with their natural instinctive behavior. More importantly, once the most dominant traits were identified and explained during the feedback session to each person, it was encouraging to observe how much more aware they were of how they may respond to environmental and cultural factors which could potentially impact on their productivity. Furthermore, they could reflect back on how some of these behaviours may have affected colleagues. Armed with this insight, they agreed they would and could be more conscious moving forward.

These identified traits would enable not only team members to apply their natural way of behaving and responding to the needs of the business but allowed the Directors to make important decisions about how they needed to adapt, not just their management style but the cultural environment in order to offer the best support required to achieve the overall business strategy operationally. The profiling assessment enabled ‘pairing’ to be implemented; a process which pairs two members of staff together who possess different personality strengths, but which allows for gaps in skills to be bridged, that may have been missing previously. This also encourages staff to work together and to learn from each other’s strengths to help the team as a whole, succeed. For some roles within the business, the company was able to acknowledge that there were limitations with regards to certain role requirements, but the process of pairing allowed them to overcome this. Similarly, the assessment allowed the business to identify any potentially volatile relationships that may be in place or at risk of developing, in order to ensure these were either rectified or prevented.

Ultimately, the session resulted in the Directors growing more conscious of how their own actions and behaviours could influence the team and provided them with more information with regards to how best to manage their team by drawing on their strengths and being aware of situations which could prove to be more challenging. As a result of this, the company has experienced immediate improvements, less ambiguity in the role requirements for each individual member of staff, with an increased boost in morale. It is hoped that this will continue into the future, as the company continues to grow.

If you are interested in learning more about trait-based assessment and analysis and how it can benefit you as an organisation to understand more about your employees and their natural drivers and instinctive behaviours, please call Mohsin Hanif or Janet McGlaughlin now on 0113 332 0678 / 0161 960 0376 or email mohsin@wearemarmion.com