Team Building Tip: Personality Profiles, Who Am I Really?

February 20, 2014

Team Building Tip:  Personality Profile Tools, Who Am I Really

Personality Profile Tools are not a measure of skills, abilities, knowledge or intelligence.  They are a tool that that highlights behaviors, emotions, actions, and communication style.  Most importantly, it identifies your preferences.

While we all can use both hands, we have a preference.   Same with how we view the world and interact with others.

There are many personality profile assessment tools including DISC, Myers Briggs, PDI, Core Values Index, Predictive Index etc. They all have their pros and cons and can be useful for organizations looking to improve performance through more effective interactions.

Rainbow Leadership Tool

One tool we use at Terrapin Adventures is called Rainbow Leadership.  Our thanks to Dick and Lura Hammond of Leadership on the Move for introducing this simple and easy to administer tool.  By answering 22 words or phrases that best describes your behavior style, it identifies a personality preference color: red, yellow, blue, or green.

Reds are result oriented, wants action and are bottom line people.  Yellow are extremely expressive people who never met a stranger.  Blue are creative deep thinking & caring people.  Green are highly organized and love details and want to be in control.

While most people have a dominant preference style, it is by no means static.  People change depending on whom they are interacting with.  People also react differently under stress and time pressure (tend to go to their comfort zone).  Sometimes people react based upon roles they have been designated in an organization and not their true underlying personality (CFO focusess on bottom line and budgets even though they may have other personality preferences).

You can improve your team’s effectiveness by changing how you relate to different personality types.  In the Rainbow Leadership world

• Reds need direct interaction that challenges and confronts them
• Yellows get involved and show interests in others
• Blues need to think things through and plan the steps
• Greens like to outline the task and have clear cut tangible goals

By understanding these preferences about yourself and your co-workers you can

• Mix and match people to complement each other appropriately
• Understand how people will respond to different stimuli and challenges
• Adjust communication style to get best results

For groups looking to sponsor a team building program including personality profiles, send us an Inquiry Form.

Matt Baker, Chief Adventure Officer, Team Building Facilitator, Terrapin Adventures

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 20th, 2014 at 10:00 am. Both comments and pings are currently closed.