Maximising individual superpowers and unlocking team potential

As our snippet of inspiration for this month is “Independent smart, awesome together”, it’s the perfect time to shine the spotlight on how we bring personal development together with team development.

Working in today’s fast-paced business environment, we see how important it is for organisations to build cohesive and effective teams. One powerful tool that can significantly contribute to team development is the DISC personality profile assessment. We often recommend this as the starting point for team leaders and members to reflect on their own individual personality traits and then think about this in the context of their team.

Here are some of the ways that we see how a deeper understanding of personality styles benefits the team as a whole:

1. Improved communication

Matching and leading: with a deeper understanding of the different traits of each personality type, we encourage team members to think about how they can adapt their approach to either match a communication style or to take the lead.

Sharing openly: we’ve also seen that once all team members, including the team leader, start sharing their personality profiles with each other, it creates a sense of psychological safety and an environment where potential challenges can be shared openly.

2. Enhanced team dynamics

Balancing strengths: understanding personality styles can help teams recognise their collective strengths and weaknesses. We ask individuals to think about their individual superpowers and how these add value to the team, as well as areas where they might need more support. For example, consider how they react under pressure and what the team can do to help in this scenario.

Team building: in our experience, exploring DISC profiles as part of a team workshop helps foster mutual understanding and trust, and encourages empathy and collaboration. This can also help with conflict resolution as it enables teams to acknowledge and address disagreements more effectively.

3. Effective Leadership

Self-awareness: we work with leaders to help them understand their own DISC style and how they can adapt their leadership approach to leverage the traits of their team.

Team development: we work with leaders to tailor coaching and development plans based on team members’ DISC profiles. This personalised approach helps bring focus to the team’s unique challenges and how they can start to agree a team contract to resolve them.

We’ve also seen evidence of the above benefits in our own team at Juniper! We regularly reference our personality styles and traits when we’re catching up as a team. On a personal level, it's been great to see how each style brings valuable contributions, and that embracing diversity enhances team performance.