Previous articles described four behavior styles all people have, and helped you identify your styles. You can now apply this knowledge to strengthen your leadership outcomes with your people at work. Of course, this also applies to your people at home.

This article and subsequent articles describe how knowledge of these behavior styles in ourselves and others can be applied in various leadership activities to enhance collaboration and productivity. This article addresses team leadership.


Highlights:

* Team problem-solving involves both Logical and Creative thinking.

* Team effectiveness depends on balancing Peacemaker and Warrior behaviors.


Teams are the building blocks of successful organizations. Teams should not be limited to people who look like the leader. Teams need diversity in thinking, as well as in age, background, and education. I have found that teamwork is most effective when diverse members understand and honor behavior styles of others.

People tend to be either Logical thinkers, or Creative thinkers, and they tend to be either Warrior thinkers or Peacemaker thinkers. The “Goldilocks” approach is needed to balance these behavior styles: This team has too much Warrior behavior, that team has too little, and our team is just right. This article offers examples for improving teamwork by understanding and balancing the contributions of the behavior styles.

Logical-Creative Styles

The Logical and Creative composition of a team is directly related to its productivity in problem-solving. This is because problem-solving should involve both the left and right hemispheres of the brain. The Logical left starts off by defining the problem, measuring it, gathering facts and analyzing them. The Creative right sees the big picture, recognizes new possibilities, and uses brainstorming and intuition to identify root causes and to create alternative solutions. Then back to the Logical left to evaluate alternatives and select one, and implement it by setting objectives, organizing resources, and ensuring implementation. Team members should represent these thinking styles, or better yet, be able to shift themselves from one style to another.

For example, a process-improvement team I advised was identifying problems with issuing contracts to suppliers. The team was preparing to come up with causes of these problems by using the Fishbone Diagram technique (Ishikawa diagram). This called for brainstorming ideas to get at the root causes of our problems. In a proper brainstorming environment, free of criticism, people are less inhibited and more creative.

When we brainstorm we need to make a conscious shift to the right-brain Creative style, and out of our left-brain Logical style that usually dominates at work. How did the team shift to the right? We conducted a one-minute meditation, which seems like an eternity during a business meeting, but it worked. I said something like this,

“Close your eyes, or keep them open seeing everything and nothing in
particular. Take three deep breaths, quiet the voice-of-judgment in you, and
create a space from which creative solutions can emerge.”

I asked team members to shift to Creative thinking with this one-minute meditation, and then we began generating ideas. Most inhibitions were gone and we produced many possible causes of poor contracting that are related to methods, money, staffing, material, and equipment.

We then easily shifted back to Logical thinking and analyzed each root cause. We identified the vital few causes that produced most of the problems, and developed remedies for those causes.

Exhibit 1 depicts how problem-solving involves both sides of the brain. The problem is defined on the left, brainstormed on the right, and the solution selected and implemented in the left.

Exhibit 1. Problem solving involves both sides of the brain.

Logical Left Brain

1. Define Problems
Measure
Gather facts
3. Select Solution and Implement
Analyze
Organize
Keep records


Making meeting-time well spent sometimes requires having separate meetings. For example, a meeting to analyze operations and performance data, and then brainstorm improvement strategies calls for two mindsets. First, the Logical mindset for dealing with analysis, facts, and detail, and then the Creative mindset for dealing with, synthesis, insight, and patterns. It may be more efficient to have a separate meeting for each thinking style. As an anonymous author wrote, “The arrogance of logic obstructs the use of new ideas.”

Warrior-Peacemaker Styles

Overemphasis in the cooperative nature of the Peacemaker can lead to poor team decision-making. Some teams are more concerned with their own interactions than with solving the problems at hand. There is pressure to avoid disagreements and encourage cooperation. When process becomes more important than the results in order to preserve team cohesiveness, this is known as groupthink. Team members exhibit a strong Peacemaker behavior at the expense of their own independent thinking.

To avoid groupthink we need to voice our differences, and work through them. Two things help us do this: First we revisit the mission of the team. This aligns team members in the same direction so that independent thought can be voiced safely, knowing that we all have the same objective in mind.

Second, we use the problem-solving process described above, that is, 1) define the problem, 2) brainstorm alternatives, 3) evaluate alternatives and select one to implement. Brainstorming encourages creative independent ideas that Peacemaker members might otherwise not express. This prepares them to do the most important thing to avoid groupthink, and that is to evaluate alternatives by thinking independently and voicing their opinions.

Being aware of excessive Peacemaker behavior at the expense of independent Warrior thinking encourages us to follow the advise from a Eighteenth Century Anglican saint who said, “Do not compromise to get peace, but instead comprehend to get the truth.”

On the other hand, Warriors can outweigh Peacemakers. Overemphasis on the aggressive nature of Warriors can also lead to poor team decision-making. Some teams become overly concerned with solving the problems at hand without regard for team cohesiveness. Interactions between team members suffer harm because the results become much more important than the process.

The team environment becomes competitive, and win-lose. This can lead to team members being more concerned with saving face and defeating the other person’s idea, than solving the problem. A dominant team leader exhibiting only strong Warrior behavior can cause this environment, or several team members exhibiting only this Warrior behavior could also cause this aggressive environment. When Warrior behavior outweighs Peacemaker behavior an aggressive taskmaster team environment is created.

Peacemaker team members perform team maintenance. They develop and maintain harmony within the team, boost morale, provide humor, and sooth hurt feelings. Warrior team members perform the role of keeping the team on task. They provide direction and advise, and they keep the team moving toward task accomplishment.

Sometimes the Warrior role is more important as deadlines draw near and decisions must be made. Other times the Peacemaker role is more important. The two roles should be balanced and only adjusted as the situation warrants.

Include all four behavior styles on teams

We all exhibit all four behaviors at one time or another, but when on automatic we default to a particular behavior. It is beneficial to have all four behavior styles represented on a team. Each has a role to play. Therefore, know your team members’ behavior styles so you can assign them tasks that fit their style.

For example, when your project is under pressure you probably want all your “aces in their places.” That is, put the Warrior in charge so the project will stay on schedule, the Logical person calculates costs and benefits, the Peacemaker ensures all are treated fairly, and the Creative person generates an open, innovative space. The non-directive Creative person is not the one to put in charge of the project when facing pressing deadlines.

We need to teach team members to work effectively with divergent styles, so they know the needs and expectations of other styles and can accommodate to them.

The next article will illustrate how the knowledge and use of behavior styles can assist in making decisions.