How can psychometric profiling add real value to my team?

We have all heard this saying before and no-doubt understand the sentiment behind it. Teamwork is only effective when people come together to work towards a common goal. It doesn't work as well when one person feels superior to all the others, insisting that their way is the best way. Ego is one of the greatest enemies to effective teams.

One striking example of great teamwork are the New Zealand All Blacks. They have the highest percentage winning rate in international rugby and one of the highest in any sport across the globe.

'Legacy' by James Kerr is a wonderful book that charts their success, distilling it into 15 lessons in leadership. The first of these lessons is “sweep the sheds”. This is the idea that no player ever becomes too big to do the small things that need doing. Even the Captain (probably the most famous rugby player in the world at any one time) sweeps out the changing rooms after games. Sweeping the sheds is a collective practise to keep the players and the team humble.

Individuals within teams

Every team is made up of individuals who all bring something different to the table.

No two people are the same. No two people have the same temperament, skill set and experience. No two people’s behaviours will be identical. No two people’s leadership styles will be exactly the same or respond to stress in the same way. Individuals come together to form teams and we would be fools to overlook this individuality.

All this said, teams are also a lot more than the sum of their parts. There is a beauty in bringing together very distinct individuals to form a team. Through the coming together, new ideas are sparked. New creativity is inspired. In a healthy way, new competition can be fostered. We can help bring out the best in others, leading others to help bring out the best in us. As the common cliché declares:

A common goal to galvanise the individuals within the team, firstly in commitment to one another, and secondly, to a common vision, can make a team more effective. And there are certainly tools that can help with this - like psychometric profiling.

What is psychometric profiling?

We have outlined in more depth what psychometric profiling is in our blog "What you need to know about psychometric profiling". Essentially, it is a tool to help us understand ourselves and other people better, which in turn enables more effective working relationships. As we have already seen, teams are full of “I’s”. How these “I’s” relate to one another is perhaps the most significant factor in the team’s success.

How can C-me add real value to my team?

There are many effective psychometric profiling tools available on the market. In fact, we have written a blog to help you decide which one is right for you: 5 Questions to ask when choosing a psychometric profiling tool.

C-me differs in one important way from other similar tools: instead of focussing on personality, we focus on behaviour. We believe that application is everything. Ultimately, it is the way that people behave in response to both colleagues and the challenges their organisation throws at them that really affects how well both the individual and the organisation develop and perform. 

We help individuals understand both their psychological preferences and how those preferences drive aspects of their behaviour; then how to use this knowledge to recognise these same elements in others and from that enable them to adapt their behaviour to improve their relationships.

Teach your teams how behaviours impact team dynamics. Give them strategies to understand their differences, resolve conflicts faster, and collaborate better to achieve their objectives with: 

• A shared language: We use colour to simplify behaviours and group them together. Discussing behaviours through colour enables braver conversations around what behaviours are needed, for example, in specific roles, working culture, team communication. It also enables individuals with wholly different approaches to quickly understand their differences and how to flex to relate to one-another. 
• Tasks aligned with motivation: Identify each team member's motivations and resilient strengths to better align team roles to each individual. Trial potential project teams to understand their strengths and possible group behaviours when stressed.
• Understand team dynamics: The C-me team colour wheel plots all team members' preferences on one graph to clearly display team strengths and areas for development, understand what happens under pressure, spark discussion around members who may need more support, equip leaders with the knowledge of how to better communicate and motivate their teams, highlight potential bias, and future recruitment needs...there are many more applications!
• Boost recruitment and retention: Spark productivity, cut hiring costs, better retain staff by considering preferences and personal motivations from recruitment stage all the way through to employee engagement and people development programmes. 
• Increase behavioural diversity: Get another perspective on your team's diversity and how this impacts on your performance and culture.

One of the great strengths of  C-me is that it is deeply relational. We want to help you and your team to understand yourself better, always in relation to one another. C-me is a tool that really helps teams see each member of the team for what they bring, feeding the realisation that we all bring something unique to the team.

As two senior school leaders recently remarked:

“The profiling and workshops that C-me recently delivered remotely have given us a common language for talking about difference and made a marked difference to our communication as a staff team. We feel better placed to deal with conflict and support one another. We would thoroughly recommend C-me as an excellent provider.” Louisa Mulvany, Deputy Head, Thames Christian School

“As a Head I used colour-profiling with my Prefects and Senior Staff and found it to be very effective in building teams.” Alastair Reid, Former Head Teacher and currently General Secretary of TISCA

If you would like to discuss how we could help support you in building your team, book a demo.