Do you know what personality type you fall into?  Have you ever tried to classify who you are, what motivates you or aggravates you, what job might suit you best?

For a manager, it’s a good thing to know about yourself, but even more important is having that information about your staff.  In fact, it’s vital to running a successful company.

Ensuring you have the right personalities in your business is as important as having the right skills and experience – and has to be a consideration at recruitment stage.

It’s no good having a business full of creative, idea-generators if there’s no-one with a logical and practical personality to think about the workability of their grand ideas.

And you can’t cram a team full of studious introverts who are great at getting the work done but won’t say boo to a goose, because who’s going to go out and network and sell your product or service?

To have a profitable and successful business, you have to get the mix just right.

Placing the right people in the right position can make or break a company, whether it’s a receptionist with a sunny disposition who is unflappable and able to multi-task or a gregarious salesperson with an uncanny knack of reading people and situations.

Finding someone with the right personality traits has to be high on the list when searching for fresh talent.

Some managers are brilliant at personality profiling, simply from having a conversation with someone.  If you find that more difficult, you might want to consider psychometric testing as part of your interview process.

It can help determine whether a person is suited to their role, who they would work best with, how you can motivate them to achieve their potential and how you can develop them within the company.

If you haven’t recruited with personality in mind, it could be the reason you’re experiencing staff tensions, which can lead to operational dysfunction.

The good news is, it’s never too late! Personality profiling can be a really useful team building exercise.  Take an afternoon out and get your workforce taking the Briggs Myers test, or DISC profiling.

Learning more about what makes each other tick could help resolve existing issues, and prevent future friction.

You might find it even leads to a staff re-shuffle, matching the right people with the right tasks and teams according to their personality could have a huge, positive impact on your productivity.

If you would like further advice and guidance on recruitment issues, or successfully managing a team, call ETC and book a free business review.