How to make remote teams successful? Start with personality

In 2020, the world moved to remote work thanks to a little thing called COVID. For all of us working in the HR and people leadership space, this topic has taken up a lot of air time - working from home, hybrid work policies, RTO, regulations, work from anywhere… I could keep going.

But in the discussion around these ideas, there is one critical element that has not been given the priority it should be given - the people!

In fact, a recent study found that while 90% of companies plan to implement return-to-work (RTO) policies in 2024, only 24% have surveyed their staff about it.

With the shift to remote or hybrid work, the way individuals and teams work has also taken a dramatic shift.

Your personality is the engine behind a lot of your behaviour. It impacts on what motivates you, how you like to work, how you connect with others, how you respond in different situations and so much more.

And this is also true when it comes to making remote work work for you and for your team.

So in today’s TALY blog, we want to share with you a model for understanding how individual’s respond differently to remote working, to give you some ideas on making it work for you!

The TALY Personality Profiling brings together…

• scientifically-backed personality profiling

• tailored to the needs of your business, culture and the role

• delivered through customised, locally-built AI tools to ensure accuracy

Get in touch to find out more about how you can use TALY profiling to give you the insights you need to build great teams - from recruitment onwards! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.

How does personality impact on remote working?

As mentioned, your personality plays a huge role in almost everything you do. And in remote working this is true.

Since 2020, TALY has been working with clients to explore the relationship between personality and working from home, and we have uncovered 6 key dimensions that play a role.

Importantly, as with all things personality, there is no right or wrong here. The whole point is that we all approach different situations in our own unique and wonderful way.

The TALY Working From Home model allows individual team members to understand their natural style when it comes to working from home - and how they can make it work best for themselves.

Let’s have a quick look at each of the elements

Drive

Your goal orientation and the way you approach tasks. Does your personality naturally drive you to complete tasks and deliver outcomes, or are you more flexible in your approach.

For individuals, this can play a huge role in how they work through requirements when working independently at home - needing to structure their day in a way that aligns with their working style.

Emotional Intelligence

Your ability to understand your emotions and the emotions of those around you. During COVID, Emotional Intelligence played a huge role. But in working from home, this continues to be true.

How skilled are you in reading how you’re feeling in different situations. How well do you read the feelings and emotions of others when just communicating digitally?

Extroversion

Where do you get your energy from? For extroverts, working from home can be a challenge, missing the social and environmental elements that give them energy. How can this be recreated from home to keep the energy up.

Conversely, for introverts, it can be a challenge to maintain connection in a way that works for you.

Order

The process and structure you bring to how you work. When working from home, how do you approach your tasks and working through what needs to be done. How do you communicate this with your team - especially when working from home might require more structured working and allocation of takss than usual.

Emotionality

The fluctuation you feel in your emotions, and your emotional response. How are you personally impacted by different situations, change and uncertainty. How can you be open about this when working remotely? How can you get the support you may need?

Enthusiasm and Openness

How change and new ideas give you energy. For some, connecting with others, sharing ideas, collaborating and innovating can be the driving force behind their energy. How can you maintain this energy when working remotely.

And conversely, if this isn’t you, how can you make the creative elements of working from home make sense for you?

How to make it work for you…

Of course, there are plenty of ideas around today about making remote or hybrid working successful with your people. But if you want to push this further and bring personality into the mix (which of course you should!) then here are a couple of ideas to get you started…

Set a clear foundation

Be clear on your policy and ways of working. Once the foundations are in place and everyone is clear on the policy, you can then look at how an individual’s personality aligns to the policy, and how to make it work for them

Build in regular reviews

Times of change bring uncertainty. And while it feels like remote working has been around for a long time now, habits take a long time to form. Checking in regularly is important - using personality insights as a foundation for an open conversation.

Encourage self-reflection

Once individuals know their personality and how this impacts them when working from home, it’s important to encourage times of self-reflection. We are social creatures, and may look to the behaviours of others to guide our behaviour - but by encouraging individuals to stay true to what works for them personally, you’ll get to a better place.

Offer opportunities for sharing

Encourage the team to share different ideas on how working from home works for them. This will encourage an open environment where individuals feel confident to tweak their own ways of work, and to see it as an ongoing project.

Wherever you start, as with everything situation at work, people leaders and individuals need to recognise that personality plays a key role in creating alignment - and we all perform better when we feel aligned!

The TALY approach to personality profiling brings together a unique mix of Five Factor and Emotional Intelligence profiling to help organisations, hiring managers and teams to make better decisions about recruitment and teams.

Get in touch to find out more… we love talking about this stuff! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.