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“Creating Successful Leaders”

Tag Archives: insights discovery and improving teamwork

February 14, 2024 Improve Team Dynamics with Insights

You know it when you’re a part of it. A team with a great working relationship communicates well, respects each other, and has a great balance of creativity and strategy. This type of team has excellent rapport, and everyone feels as though they have a voice and their perspectives are respected. When you partner with a team like this, the work seems effortless and you tend to be highly productive.

How do you achieve such a “dream team”?

What can you, as a leader, do to foster the type of environment that produces great teams?

Excellent teams can be built in a number of ways, but in my experience, the very foundation of creating a great team involves getting to know your people at a deep level, and figuring out how they mesh with one another. This may seem like a daunting task, but there is actually a relatively simple tool you can use to develop this type of deep understanding of your team members: Insights® Discovery.

Insights® is a science-based program that helps people gain an intimate understanding of their personal thought patterns, behavioral tendencies, communication preferences, strengths, and more. The data gathered through assessments is analyzed and explained using a very approachable methodology: four colors. The main idea of Insights® is that we all have the capability to embrace all four colors (i.e., personality types), but we tend to prefer one or two colors over the others.

The colors are:

  • Cool Blue (analytical, thoughtful, data and strategy driven)
  • Sunshine Yellow (social, creative, idea and relationship driven)
  • Fiery Red (confident, commanding/natural leader, to-the-point)
  • Earth Green (empathetic, inclusive, pensive)

Though this is an oversimplification of the program, this gives you a general idea of the four colors and how they are associated with personalities (read more about Insights® and communication in this past blog post).

How does Insights® relate to team dynamics?

A person’s Insights® profile not only provides information and insights about how that individual functions (and their ideal environment), but also tells us how individuals relate to others. For example, we might learn that one person tends to embody many “Sunshine Yellow” qualities—they are gregarious, social, and more enthusiastic about idea generation than analytics or strategy. This person might work with someone who leans toward “Cool Blue” and is fairly quiet and reserved, likes to fully analyze the numbers, and wants to explore many options before making a decision.

If these two people do not understand A) how they, personally, tend to operate or B) how their teammate operates, they might start to clash or become frustrated with each other. On the other hand, if these individuals are fully aware of how each person tends to think, behave, and communicate, they can lean into each other’s strengths instead of clashing. Different people can be assigned different roles within the team (don’t put the Sunshine Yellow person behind a desk, crunching numbers all day; and don’t make the Cool Blue person lead a creative brainstorming session!), so everyone can shine.

I have been a Licensed Practitioner of Insights® for about a decade, and I can attest to its effectiveness. Communication and understanding improve, and suddenly teams are talking to each other using the Insights® color language (“My ‘red’ side is really anxious to get this done, but I think we should hear what the ‘blues’ have to say” or “I know this is very ‘green’ of me, but I think we should bring Becky into the conversation and see what she has to say”).

By acknowledging your own tendencies and understanding the thought patterns and preferences of others, you can begin to build a harmonious team that capitalizes on each other’s strengths and recognizes potential trouble spots. If your work team needs to improve its dynamics, consider taking a closer look at Insights®.

MARGARET SMITH IS A CAREER COACH, AUTHOR, INSIGHTS® DISCOVERY (AND DEEPER DISCOVERY) LICENSED PRACTITIONER, AND FOUNDER OF UXL. SHE HOSTS WORKSHOPS FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED CAREER OR PERSONAL GUIDANCE. 
CHECK OUT MARGARET’S ONLINE LEADERSHIP COURSE. 

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October 19, 2022 How Self-Understanding Boosts Productivity

“Know thyself” is an adage that goes back hundreds and hundreds of years. This may seem fairly straightforward (“Surely, I know myself better than anyone!”), but that’s often not the case. For one thing, how often do we actually spend time reflecting about ourselves, our perspectives, the way we process information, or the way we interact with others? For most people, these actions are unconscious. We move through the world without thinking about how we move through it.

Programs such as Insights® Discovery challenge us to sink deeper into our internal worlds and become better acquainted—or reacquainted—with ourselves. I use Insights® as an example because I’m a Licensed Practitioner of Insights® Discovery, but many other similar programs exist that help us drill down into the core of our being—StrengthsFinder, Enneagram, Myers-Briggs (informed by the findings of acclaimed psychiatrists Carl Jung, whose work is also the basis of Insights®).

These programs are valuable for helping us understand our personal tendencies, the unique ways we view the world and process information, how we interact with and relate to others, and the work that is best suited to our personalities. All of these findings are valuable for a number of reasons. In my Insights® sessions, people have made a variety of breakthroughs, ranging from clarifying their career paths to developing a better understanding of their strengths and areas of improvement.

Not only are breakthroughs possible, it’s also likely that everyday skills, systems, or functions will improve. One area that often improves is productivity.

How is productivity related to self-discovery? I can think of at least three links:

1. Communication Improves

The more you understand about your own and others communication preferences, the better you’ll be able to facilitate effective communication. For instance, if someone prefers direct communication, keep that in mind next time you have a meeting with that person. Don’t beat around the bush, and do your best to convey precisely what you mean.

On the other side of the coin, if you discover that you prefer indirect communication (an email or a voicemail) so you can think over your options before responding, make your preference clear. The next time someone calls on you during a meeting, say something to the effect of, “I would love to give you my thoughts once I’ve had time to mull them over. I tend to make better decisions once I’ve had time to analyze my options.”

2. Teamwork Improves

When a team goes through Insights® Discovery or a similar assessment program, they gain a deeper understanding of how each other operates. They learn that Maddie’s social tendencies shine during group work or team brainstorming sessions…but she can get frustrated or bored when asked to work alone. They learn that Max prefers direct communication and would rather talk candidly about an issue right away, rather than going through pleasantries or background information.

The team will also have access to a common language. For those who have been through Insights®, they might say, “That’s my yellow energy shining through!” Or, “I’m going to have to think about all this–you know how blue-energy folks love to analyze things!”

3. Suitability Improves

Far too often, we try to fit square pegs into round holes in the workplace. Once a team has undergone an assessment (and has had some subsequent coaching), it will become apparent who is content and well-suited to their current role, and who could use a shift. Perhaps someone is currently tasked with leading a group project, but would strongly prefer a background/support role. That discontentment will probably bubble to the surface when the team learns about each other’s work and communication preferences.

Learning about yourself on a deeper level is not just great for personal improvement, it’s highly valuable for improving team dynamics. If everyone on a work team took the same assessment test (preferably one that’s backed by science and has a proven track record), they would gain a more meaningful understanding of each other’s thought processes, communication preferences, and personalities. And they would also gain a common language to express these differences and distinctions.

MARGARET SMITH IS A CAREER COACH, AUTHOR, INSIGHTS® DISCOVERY (AND DEEPER DISCOVERY) LICENSED PRACTITIONER, AND FOUNDER OF UXL. SHE HOSTS WORKSHOPS FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED CAREER OR PERSONAL GUIDANCE. 

HER NEW EBOOK IS CALLED A QUICK GUIDE TO COURAGE.

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