Today, each situation will require a different kind of leader. Today, teams are needed to adapt quickly to change. Therefore, dynamic leadership will develop an agile team, which can turn in a new direction as the context demands.
We live in a world that changes at very fast paces and teams are usually assembled quickly, as well as disassembled with the same dynamics.
Its members must connect quickly with the project leader, have the full power to make decisions and do the work, so inflexible leaders can slow down progress significantly if agility is not developed.
Here are 2 ways to build dynamic teams:
1. Make sure all players play correctly.
The level of self-awareness or self-knowledge of each team member helps to understand the other personality styles. When disagreements arise, this facilitates the resolution of opposing thoughts before something becomes more serious.
Self-knowledge tools, such as DISC, give team members a view of themselves and how they can be more effective “Where my talent is and where it isn’t”. This facilitates the specific development of “behaviors or skills” when necessary.
DISC-based tips for leadership self-awareness:
- For style “D”: As a leader, you should focus on the role of coach and give up your need for control, no doubt this will be to get out of your comfort zone and motivate team members to start solving small problems on their own.
- For style “I”: As a leader, your interpersonal skills will help you to conduct many debates but you should try not to accommodate those who only approve of you, this will be for you to get out of your comfort zone, and be impartial.
- For the “S” style: As a leader, you should concentrate on expressing what you think, without fear of your indications hurting others, leaving your comfort zone, as your need for harmony may prevent you from addressing conflicts, without taking note that conflicts that are not addressed are aggravated.
- For style “C”: As a leader your intention to ask too many questions, to get too much information, may lead you to be disconnected personally with your team, this will be to get out of your comfort zone, and interact more with your people as well as concentrate on the goal and not just the details.
2. Empower your team players.
Giving autonomy to your players is the great challenge of a leader, and requires the confidence of the leader in his players and vice versa. For this to know the strengths and weaknesses of each member of my team is key to delegate responsibly.
Feedback conversations should be framed in the person’s Disc.
Some tips to keep in mind might be:
- For the “D’s”: Try to motivate them to experiment with others, and be receptive to the failure that is, in short, the way they learn.
- For the “I’s”: Make sure he does the work so that other colleagues or peers can do theirs or have the resources. Not everything is persuasion and words.
- For the “S’s”: Try to get them to make decisions, and that changes are experiences to be embraced.
- For the “C”: Seek to differentiate in the processes what is important from what is superfluous, and not to see EVERYTHING with the same lens, in order to avoid being critical of “everything”.
Some Tips to change the way we perceive things:
- For the “D”: Ask questions to better understand how or why a result was achieved. There may be other ways.
- For the “I”: If your idea is not chosen, approval may also lead to success. Your natural persuasion and enthusiasm will surely be what it takes to achieve it.
- For the “S”: Approve and enter into a sudden change, you can support members in that process.
- For the “C”: Wait until you are in a moment or situation of chaos, and use phrases like “that’s good” and use your strengths to order that chaos.
In today’s world, those who adapt quickly to change will be the winners. If we want agility and dynamism we should achieve a great knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the members of a team, and according to this equation, know how much it will cost us, and what strategy to use. For example, if we have a team made up of a majority of C-profiles, we will have a great challenge, to produce and maintain dynamism, unless we incorporate D-profiles.
As you can see, success lies in the interaction of profiles. The DISC Group Map Report gives us the key information we need for these complementarity decisions.
By Gonzalo Rodriguez
PCC Coach (International Coach Federation)
Certified DISC Behavioral Analyst (International DISC Institute)
Action Group
Argentina