They're people, not profiles. (Don't expect team members to represent others like them.)

Musing for:

They’re people, not profiles

“Careful, those people tend to need detailed instruction.”

“Those people have a different culture around timeliness.”

“You need to give those people more frequent feedback.”

It doesn’t matter whether “those people” are grouped by race, creed, geography, gender, generation, or assessment profile. What you think you know about the group may mean nothing for the individual person on your team.

Why?

For most issues of personality and preference, there’s a far greater range of diversity among members within any group than there is between the norms of the different groups.

When you’re developing a relationship with someone you’ll be leading, be aware of the conclusions you make about a person based on what group you think they belong to. After acknowledging them, discard those conclusions.

Then, assuming you know nothing about the person, get to know them for the individual human being that they are.

You may discover some of those conclusions were true after all. But you’ll also learn of some that weren’t. And for those that are true, you’ll now have confirmation that those traits aren’t just your own bias.

When you know for sure how that person operates, you can serve them in a way that will make them successful.

And when they succeed, you succeed.

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