Collaborating With Different Personality Types

Collaborating With Different Personality Types Group Objective and Ground Rules for Successful Collaboration: The key to successful collaboration between and among individuals with different personalities and specific skill sets is to minimize conflict attributable to personality differences while maximizing the contributions available by virtue of each person's talents and abilities. Ideally, individuals should be prepared to assist one another improve individual weaknesses, to learn from one another, and to contribute in the manner most conducive to the group's success.

In practice, individual personality differences may inspire antagonism and detract from a positive working relationship with others. Likewise, individuals may prefer contributing in ways that they prefer, despite the fact that the objectives of the group may require different applications of their respective abilities. Instead of willingly helping one another in some ways and appreciating the opportunity to learn from one another in other ways, individuals sometimes form pejorative opinions about others for their weaknesses and resent genuine overtures of assistance as a personal affront or challenge.

Therefore, the purpose of this project is to anticipate potential areas of likely opportunities for mutual support and avoid or resolve potential issues of conflict that could undermine the success of collaboration within the group. Kevin Ruden: Kevin's Myers-Briggs score indicates that he is an ISTP personality type, meaning that he is more inclined toward introversion, sensing, thinking, and perception. Kevin's positive qualities include being observant, calm, unpretentious, and pragmatic, but he needs improvement on his mathematics skills and one-on-one communications.

Kevin is a good listener but does not exhibit a high degree of trust in others; his skill set includes accounting, planning, organization, and multitasking. The key for Kevin's optimal contribution to the group's success will be his strategic foresight and operational planning, and possibly his substantive accounting knowledge and skill. However, Kevin's greatest challenge will be his necessary commitment to improving his interpersonal communication skills. His poor one-on-one communication skills in particular could undermine even his most valuable potential contributions to the group.

Therefore, it will be Kevin's responsibility to agree to present the product of his strategic and operational talents to the group in a manner conducive to improving his comfort and ability with respect to one-on-one communications. In that regard, Mandy Dobbs will be called upon to help Kevin develop in these areas, by virtue of her strengths in the realm of interpersonal communications and positive social interaction.

Marcus Leseberg: Marcus's Myers-Briggs score indicates that he is an ENTP personality type, meaning that he is more inclined toward extraversion, iNtuition, thinking, and perception. Marcus's positive qualities include being innovative, versatile, and entrepreneurial, but he needs major improvement in his listening skills, writing, and verbal communications. Marcus's skill set includes Excel spreadsheets, mathematics, research, and global awareness. Marcus will be able to assist the group optimally by collaborating directly with Kevin in the areas of strategic and operational planning.

His greatest challenge will be in improving his listening skills in the process of helping Kevin develop his one-on-one communication skills. Purely for his own development and long-term benefit, Marcus should also take the opportunity to practice documenting his contributions in writing, although it is not advisable for the group to rely on him alone in this regard. Mandy should probably provide her writing talents to assist Marcus as well as to ensure that written documentation is adequate.

Mandy Dobbs: Mandy's Myers-Briggs score indicates that she is an ENFP personality type, indicating that she is more inclined toward extraversion, iNtuition, feeling, and perception. Mandy's positive qualities include being extroverted and people-oriented, intuitive, sensitive, perceptive, creative, and highly optimistic. Mandy is not a particularly good listener and does not readily trust others. Mandy's skill set includes leadership,.