Managers! Don’t just manage your team as you’d like to be managed!

The great Maro Itoje?

Everyone has their own definition of what it means to be ‘great’. However, most definitions fall in line with the way you see yourself. You’re more likely to think Maro Itoje is a great rugby player if you…

1. Play rugby
2. Follow the British & Irish Lions
3. Extraordinarily also have the nickname “The Pearl”

As a manager, you’re more likely to hire and reward people that demonstrate positive qualities that you recognise in yourself. But this also means you’re more likely to misinterpret other people’s behaviour, and make poor judgements about their abilities.

I realised that as part of a course I took about 20 years ago. 🚨THEORY ALERT🚨 I was given a Myers Briggs test with the objective of demonstrating how different personalities perceive the world around them, make decisions, and, most importantly, interact.

Without boring you with the whole thing, one part of the test identified that I was an introverted thinker and an extroverted talker. Basically, when faced with a problem, I’d weigh various options in my head before coming out with the solution that made most sense to me.

Sounds reasonable enough, so you’d forgive me for thinking other people do the same thing.

But they don’t. If you’re an extroverted thinker, you’d really appreciate if I ran you through my “thought train” so you understood the reasons behind my decision. Just telling you what to do would annoy, confuse, and generally disengage you.

I’ve found my love of change can challenge people too. To get me to do something you just need to tell me “it’s new”, according to my team (and my Myers Briggs Profile).

A good example of this is a few weeks ago I jumped at the chance to present Motivii at Google’s first demo day. However, if I asked one of my team members (who will remain nameless) to present, they would have hated it. Likewise, some people hate moving desks, but I change desks every few months (yes I’m strange).

As a manager, if you assume your team want what you want, there’s a good chance that you’re wrong.

There are some quick profiling tools out there like 16Personalities, which allows you to understand peoples different motivators. Motivii’s Weekly Update & 360 feedback tools help with that, too.

And here are some simple tips for understanding your team without the use of technology or tests:

1. You can’t know what other people might be thinking, so ask them!
2. Other people won’t know what motivates you, so tell them!
3. Input from different types of people makes for better decisions.

I’ll leave the last line to the late, great Bob Hoskins…

It’s good to talk