Leadership: I cannot believe these guys are so slow in making decisions!
Do you think that the decision making in your team takes way too long? On the other hand does someone in your team feel that decisions are made in hurry without any exploration of possibilities? Even more confusing is that this happens simultaneously in the very same meeting. How come? Now you are probably completely confused right? Don’t worry, that’s natural.
The reason behind this phenomena is natural tendencies. Different types of personalities have different preferences and expectations for instance what comes to the decision making process. For example very organized and thinking people are most of the time well prepared and structured. They have a good idea about the topic and they often have a preferred solution in their mind already before a meeting. Obviously they are extremely frustrated when the meeting lasts for a long time without any decisions. On the other hand the people who are extroverted and who’s natural tendencies include perceiving and feeling enter the meeting often completely unprepared. For them it is completely natural, as the issue was not discussed yet. These people form their ideas about the topic as well as the solution during discussion with others. When these persons with different natural tendencies go into the same meeting the results will nearly always be mutual frustration. By the way, that is the case in most of the meetings, you cannot avoid it and it is perfectly normal.
Good news is that diversity of personalities is absolutely crucial for success. A mix of different personality types are needed for making “good” decisions and building long lasting solutions. It helps tremendously if you and the whole team realizes and understands the fact that people are vastly different. There are methods for understanding the personality types and their preferred behavior. One of then is called Natural Tendencies Analysis (NTA). This simple method helps you to understand your own tendencies and the characteristics of your preferred behavior. According to NTA (or MBTI) there are generally 16 types of personalities. It is relatively easy to find out your own personality type. After knowing your type and the type mix of your team you could adapt your way of working so that it support the mix of people in the team. This would help you to remove unnecessary frustration, build and work in diverse teams capable of brainstorming, taking timely decisions and implementing with precision. Aren’t you curious to know how you are? For me it was an eye opening and liberating experience that turned my world around!
