GI N ON L FOIVNAGT I O N
HACKING YOUR TEAM Decoding your team could help you achieve maximum results. Scott Langley weighs in with some tricks of the trade.
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hink about your team for a minute. Nope. Not your sports team. Your other team – the one you work with. Have you ever wondered how people in the same organisation can be so different from each other? I am not referring to our cultural values, race or backgrounds. I am not talking about our lifestyles, education or family upbringing. Without a doubt, these certainly influence who we become and add to the rich diversity of our workplace, but I am referring to something more profound than that. Why is it that, in the same team, there are the fun-loving, carefree, life-of-the-party people who need to be noticed, while at the same time, there are the loyal, sincere and relationship-focused do-gooders who just need to be appreciated?
Why is the team simultaneously comprised of some calm, level-headed peacekeepers who get along with everyone, as well as the intense go-getters who thrive on getting results, crushing the opposition and being right (all the time)? These differences can be daunting to leaders who are trying to rally such divergent individuals behind a single, common cause on a daily basis.
KNOW YOUR TEAM MEMBERS’ MOTIVATIONS According to psychologist Dr Taylor Hartman, the root of these differences lies in our core motivations. His theory is based on the idea that people are primarily motivated by one of the four ‘core driving motives’, which subsequently determines
our general personality type. He identifies these personality types by colour: Reds are motivated by power Blues are motivated by intimacy Whites are motivated by peace Yellows are motivated by fun As per Hartman, we all have a combination of all four of these motivations to some degree, but you will have one motivation more dominant than the others. The demographic groups vary slightly from region to region, but the general distribution suggests that the population is comprised of 35% Blues, 25% Reds, 20% Whites and 20% Yellows. Hartman has authored several books – including The People Code and The Character Code – and created the Color Code Personality Profile. He notes, “The Color Code Personality assessment doesn’t categorise people into four groups – just what motivates them. Each driving core motive is represented by a color. There is no significance to the colors themselves; they are just a tool used to simplify a complex concept. The colors are used for ease in conversation and memory.”
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