Sorting through types of entrepreneurs is not something human resources get to do. Entrepreneurs, especially founders, often are the first employee. They set the tone and the future company culture. In effect, types of entrepreneurs translate into types of companies.
At the same time, hiring based on personality type is a big deal nowadays. More and more human resources managers include some sort of personality testing into hiring. Why? Because more and more organizations want to make sure they onboard the right candidate. Personality testing seems to be a safe way to ensure employees will fit in.
Yet, oftentimes the same results don’t apply to types of entrepreneurs. In fact, it appears that entrepreneurs that “make it” constantly change the paradigm for which personality type does what. Hence, let’s cover personality types for a bit, and then go into types of entrepreneurs.
Team dynamics helps you play team roles to your advantage. By team roles, we mean Belbin’s team roles. To be sure, they are based on decades of observation. Teams observed over long periods of time in order to determine how teams work. Without a doubt, there is value in decades of insight. In light of so much research, team roles work to explain how teams work together. Being that, they provide a perspective in how to build teams. Furthermore, they can explain why things go bad with teams.
Each of us has a set of favorite roles. What’s more, we can shift from one role to another. Owing to our unique makeup and personality. Hence, getting a balanced team together is tricky. At the same time, it is easier than you’d expect. We’ve explored the general theories in the first part of this team dynamics series
Team players always focus on team efforts. And teamwork and productivity go hand in hand. When every team member does a brilliant job, the overall results will match. And it’s our job to make sure we accommodate the team.
Even romantic relationships can be difficult to find and develop. And those typically involve 2 people. Recruiting, onboarding and developing a team member can be even more difficult. Firstly, there are many more people involved. Secondly, the incentives and end goals are different. Lastly, the strategy may or may not be based on exclusivity.
Truth be told, teams go through a long and difficult process to ensure the “right fit.” And that’s why teamwork doesn’t just happen. And it’s not too much to ask for a team player to step up and meet the team level. It might sound surprising. But today being “good at teams” is still a skill.
Most entrepreneurs are quick to experience fatigue. It’s only natural. There are simply so many decisions to make. Anything can go wrong, anytime. And some days are plain awful. Some days you might want to shut everything down. And move somewhere and fish for a living. Or fix fishing nets.
It is the work. Being an entrepreneur is a lot of work. And everything about that work is special. You deal with countless items every day. Product, strategy, development, marketing. New markets, optimizing. Or too much optimizing.
Productivity hacks are not a cheat. Instead, think of them as an enhancement to your productivity. A regular working experience has certain limitations. Entrepreneurship does not.
Productivity is a key issue for entrepreneurs. It has grown as an issue along with the number of startups. And the knowledge base on productivity is growing. Along with it, so is confusion. There are claims that the 6-hour workday is optimal. Others put in 60 hours of work every week and go on city breaks in weekends.
The world is crazy for enhancing productivity. Why? Maybe it’s because we’re so far from where we started. And we cannot reconcile our current success. Or maybe it is standard greed. We want more. And when you want more, you know what to do. Increase productivity. Or maybe we’re scared that in the future 80% of jobs will be lost to AI. It’s still productivity that we’ll be concerned with then.
Meetings are about to die. Particularly since collaborative work has become the staple of modern office life, they are about to die. And after they die, they will move somewhere better, virtual. Somewhere in the cloud, or in a special bundle of apps. But don’t get your hopes up high yet.
After all, there have been attempts to put new life into meetings. Some preach against inherent inefficacies. “Make meetings purposeful”, they say. Others are deluding themselves that theater methods will do. So “treat your meetings like an improv session”, they say. Seems like everyone thinks that “The Office” is a documentary. That we should all turn Michael Scott and do some improv.
A lot of articles out there talk about introverts and extroverts. As well as how to deal with their personality traits. However, they hardly provide clarity as to what it means to be introverted or extroverted. Or what managers should do to accommodate such variation within any team. Since this a common issue, we decided to explore it. And also offer some tips. You will better understand what introversion and extroversion entail at team level. Furthermore, how to deal with conflicts fueled by such differences.
In a culture where speaking up and sharing ideas are highly praised, an introvert may find it difficult to thrive. That’s why we need to find effective ways to make introverts on our team feel valued and heard.