Plan_for_Positive_Influence

A Plan for Positive Influence Teamwork is necessary in all areas of business. According to an article in the North American Journal of Psychology, work teams are defined as “groups of individuals who have a common purpose, interact to accomplish organizational goals, and share responsibility for team outcomes” (Kline, 2008, p. 65). In order for work teams to be effective, the personality and values of each team member must be taken into account. This paper will develop a plan to utilize the assessed personality and values of each team member to work effectively as a team. Team Assessments Each member of the team completed several assessments including the DISC assessment, emotional intelligence assessment, job satisfaction and involvement assessments, and attitudes toward workplace diversity assessment. As the following table shows, three of our five team members tested as the Impressor Style. Team Member/ Assessment Mary Thomas Yanina Florez Shelley Ingold Caroline Crawford Ric Maltba DiSC Score The Impressor (Ic) The Producer (Ds) The Impressor (Ic) The Impressor (lc) The Go-Getter (Sd) Emotional Intelligence Score 42 40 37 43 38 How Involved Am I With My Job' 33 43 22 50 40 How Satisfied Am I With My Job' 72 80 67 81 59 What Are My Attitudes Towards Workforce Diversity 16 11 -3 14 -4 This style is more interactive. This personality gets impatient and wants to win with flair. The other two team members are the Producer and the Go-Getter. The Producer, though a dominant style, is less direct than most dominant styles. This is also the style of the Impressors. The Go-Getter is indirect; however, this style is a great short-term planner. The Go-Getter style will be a great complement to the three Impressors. The Impressors tend to underestimate the time it takes to complete a project, whereas the Go-Getter is very strong at defining the timeline needed to complete the job successfully. Our emotional intelligence scores are all considered high. Again, three of the five members scored higher than 40 while two others are just below the 40 mark. In the article in the Industrial Engineer, this number was identified to show that our team can recognize and manage our own emotions while responding effectively to others (Hughes & Terrell, 2008). This is critical in working together. The diversity in a work team will not be a problem with our group. We had three diversity optimists and two diversity realists. This means that we are all very open and positive toward diversity in the workplace or work team. On the values assessments we all scored very differently, however, with our work styles we could still be an effective team. Improving Motivation, Satisfaction and Performance To motivate our team, we need to look at our assessments and determine what would motivate each personality type. Motivational theories assist team managers in motivating their team. McGregors Theory Y is a more participating approach to team management (Peterson, 2007). With our team members, this type of approach would be more motivating. If we assigned a team leader, our collaborative natures would allow us to work well together. This approach seeks input to find the best outcome. Our assessment number for job involvement shows a high involvement in almost our entire team. This type of participative management will allow our team to stay motivated and involved, which leads to doing a good job. To improve job satisfaction, the team leader needs to communicate the team goals to each member. They also need to take time and meet with each team member to discuss their strengths and interests in the team project and try to assign tasks appropriately. Assigning tasks that employees like will help increase job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is best measured using surveys (Robbins & Judge, 2007). As a team, we can each complete a single global rating survey with a score of 1 to 5 on different areas. This will allow us as a team to address any area that fell below the level of a 2, this will allow every team member to believe that their input matters, increasing their satisfaction on the job. To improve our team’s performance, we should take advantage of our strengths as identified in our team assessments. Since we are all less direct than a dominant, we should ask for volunteers for the team leader. Then we need to break down the assigned project into parts and again, take volunteers. Then any parts that are not taken or anyone who doesn’t have an assigned task can be assigned by the team leader using the job involvement score and the DISC score. Since we have a go-getter that is good at timelines, we should have him break down the timeline to ensure we meet the assigned deadline. Attitudes, Emotions, Personalities and Values Attitudes, emotions, personalities and values are all factors that each individual has uniquely, these factors affect our behavior. Personality is defined as “the sum total of ways an individual reacts to and interacts with others” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p. 106). The Type A personality is constantly struggling to achieve more and more in less time. They don’t cope well with downtime. Values are the difference in right and wrong for each individual. Values influence a person’s perception, which in turn, affects their behavior. Emotions are “intense feelings that are directed at someone or something” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p.260). Because emotions are directed at someone, they affect a persons behavior and ability to work together. Attitudes are “evaluative statements concerning objects, people or events” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p. 74). The attitude a person displays toward another person or a job, affects their behavior and their ability to work well together. If a team were made up of all Type A personalities, then things would be so fast paced and obsessed with acquiring things. However, some Type A personalities are good to help keep the pace moving and the team motivated. A mix with Type B personalities allow for more fun and work just to get the job done not display the achievements. If the team valued different things in the job, each team member would be working towards their values and not the team values. This could make accomplishing the assigned tasks difficult. Conclusion After reviewing our assessment and considering our individual values, we have a well-rounded team that should be able to work cooperatively and accomplish many tasks. The less direct style will work with a participative approach to managing the team and the assigned work. This will lead to more satisfaction and maintain motivation. References Alessandra, T. (2007). The platinum rule. Retrieved February 2011, from University of Phoenix, Week Two, LDR531 - Organizational Leadership. Hughes, M., & Terrell, J.B. (2008, April). The emotionally intelligent team. Industrial Engineer, 40(4), 34-39. Kline, T.J., & O'Neill, T.A. (2008). Personality as predictor of teamwork: A business simulator study. North American Journal of Psychology, 10(1), 65-78. Peterson, T.M. (2007, December). Motivation:How to increase project team performance. Project Management Journal, 38(4), 60-69. Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2007). Organizational behavior (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.