As project managers we typically are asked to lead and manage a diverse group of specialists, few if any who work directly for us. Some of us have had formal project management training; we almost all have a technical specialty, but few of us have had training in how people get and process information and how they may react to others in certain situations.

Since our role as leaders require that we develop and manage highly functioning teams, it helps to understand and appreciate how our various team members deal with information.

 Generally speaking, most of our personalities will fall into one of the following categories:

• Directive: Gets to the point, just the facts, “What do you want? OK, now get out of my office.”

• Analytic: Very data driven, don’t offer an opinion without data to back it up. “Show me the facts.”

• Expressive: Enthusiastic, energetic, the team cheerleader. “Let’s git ‘er dun – and have some fun on the way.”

• Amiable: The Counselor, wants to support everyone, is afraid of offending. “Let’s be friends; give me a hug.”

Why is this important? Well, if you are a directive type trying to make an assignment to an amiable type and you simply state what is to be done and by when, without any preliminary discussion, you risk offending because of your perceived abruptness. The amiable perhaps goes off to another team member and asks why you are “mad at them.” Better, you as the leader know how to communicate more effectively.

In addition to personality, people will absorb information differently as well. Generally, we humans get information: 

• Aurally, through listening

• Visually, through reading or observing.

• Kinesthetically, through writing or doing

If you tell a visual person something and they don’t write it down you have a very good chance of them misinterpreting what you want or overlooking it all together. Similarly, if you send an aural person a note, they may never read it. The kinesthetic person will take notes, even if reading. As an aside, most of us as design professionals tend to be visual in nature.

One last human trait must be understood when dealing with team dynamics; people tend to be either “field independent,” or “field dependent.” What this means is that a field independent person generally ignores (more or less) what’s going on around them and is not motivated by the desire to please others. A field dependent person is not aware of much of what happens and is more motivated to please others. You can consider the former to be an individual contributor to the project while the latter needs to be part of a team and interact with them.

All of these are generalizations of course. In fact, most of us can be directive at times and analytic at times; most of us are both visual and hearing learners and most can be either field independent or field dependent depending on the situation at hand.

But usually we fall more or less into one of the boxes above. You should have an appreciation of how the members of your team deal with and process information as well as work within a team setting. While the above is an overly simplified, if you have the opportunity to lead your team through any sort of personality testing regimen like Meyers-Briggs, take advantage of it. It will make leading the team much less like herding cats.

About the Author: Michael Ellegood, P.E. has more than 40 years of experience in civil engineering including significant experience in the design and management of multi-million dollar public works projects. He has held senior management positions with leading consulting engineering firms and public sector agencies.

He is also an instructor in PSMJ's Project Delivery Excellence For Public Agencies, a bootcamp that focuses on simple project management approaches that achieve better results than traditional, less-effective, more time-consuming methods.

You might be interested in these other project management related blog posts:

How to Overcome Impediments to Effective Project Management
Taking the Pulse on Project Management Practices 
10 Things Every Project Manager Must Know
5 Tools Every Project Manager Should Be Using