COMPOSITION OF THE TEAM

Within each team you have to deal with various types of people. Books have been written about these types. Introvert, extrovert, conservative, progressive, younger, elderly, millennials, red, green, blue, yellow…you name it.

To sometimes reflect on the composition of the team is useful. You can do that with the core quadrant game, DISC method, NLP, Rose of Leary, Covey, you name it.  

Too much or too little of certain types of people in your team has an effect on the team. Both on the dynamics in a team, but also on the performance.

It can happen that there are energy leaks here without you even realizing it. In the context of burnout prevention, it makes sense to look at this, occasionally.

TOGETHER

We all have our preferences, and we all tend to surround ourselves with people we like. Yet there may be a blind spot there. If we surround ourselves with people, we choose ourselves, we may exclude people we don’t like.

People who:

– be more critical.

-asking annoying questions.

-approach matters in a different way.

– dare to speak their mind against the current.

They may be labelled as annoying, while they can hold up a mirror to us.

That’s where the risk lies. If the team consists only of strikers (in football), who does the goal? Itis sometimes better that the team consists of a mix of people. Also, from people you might not like.

German football is a good example of this. They don’t have the best strikers or defenders. They don’t have Ronaldo or Messi.

They are always able to play the best in a team. Because they make everyone equally important and because they can all play in multiple positions.

This makes the team solid and can handle different opponents well.

They can rely on each other; they know what they have in each other, and they look out for each other.

With a more heterogeneous team, you get a team that can adapt well to the environment. The team becomes stronger, more self-aware and better.

CHANGE

If your team is one-sided and consists mainly of the same type of people, with their own work, in their own bubble, it is more difficult to continue to see the team as a whole.

I would advise you to think about that. And to ask yourself if this is wise. And whether the team wouldn’t be better off if there were other people on the team as well.

As a result, the risk of energy leaks will probably be less because people are more intertwined.

GROW 

The adaptability of a heterogeneous team may be greater than that of a homogeneousteam. It can be smart to choose someone who has a different background for the next vacancy.

Someone with a different view of things. Someone who is critical, honest and sincere.

The team can therefore grow in a direction that is stronger and more stable.

TRUST 

Especially in heterogeneous groups, mutual trust is very high. After all, there are few tasks or assignments that they cannot do. You often also see that employees can perform multiple tasks and are therefore more widely deployable.  The team is more intertwined.

A mentality like: “we can do that” is more common with these types of teams.

SUMMARY.

Check the composition of the team from time to time and try to get heterogeneity where possible.