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Dealing with the Challenges of Leading Teams with Diverse Personalities

Although every student leader wants to lead a strong team, those who have done it find that there are certain challenges that come with the satisfaction of leading such team. It is not an easy task to build and lead a team because they are made of people with differing characteristics. Some are gentle and easy going, while others are strong-willed, and problematic.

In evaluating the challenges that behoves leading a team, we must consider the following:

  1. Strong personalities: In leading a team, we must recognise that there are Individuals with talents and drive, they often have overpowering personalities. They can change the course of action in any team per time. You must be aware of them in your team else you will have a hard time leading. There are also the less expressive members of the team, they can be pushed aside and their contributions undervalued, they are usually the introverted members of the team, they are most of the times comfortable with everything that happens in a team. If you have ever been a leader of a team in your school before, debate team, football team, you would be acquainted with this experience. It is the responsibility of the leader to identify these team members and handle them differently.
  2. Balance team expertise: Let’s look at this story together, Music producer, George Martin wrote about the challenges of guiding the recording efforts of one of the most stunningly successful musical teams of the 2oth century, The Beatles. He said that each band member wanted to make their contribution to the recording louder. Paul wanted louder bass guitar, John wanted more rhythm guitar, Ringo wanted more drums, and George wanted more lead guitar. Martin’s challenge was to get the band members to listen for more than just their part in the final mix. Musical history shows that he met that challenge. This plays out at many times in our meetings as leaders. As a senior prefect, your labour prefect wants more discipline, and the rest also but you must be able to stand your ground to put a balance to all.
  3. Differences in working style: strong team members often have different disciplines in terms of how they complete their work. One team member prefers to work in relative isolation; another is very genial and talkative. There is no blueprint for the most successful working style. Strong team members perform in the way that they feel works best for them. As a leader, recognise this differences and you would get results with ease.
  4. Differences in processes: Over time, strong teams will build their own processes for reaching desired results. As they achieve success, they tend to have a firm commitment to that process. If the process clashes with the processes of other internal or external teams, however, the team leader has to find ways for the team to become more flexible and adaptable. This is quite challenging especially when team members echo the cliché, “this is how it is being done”. You must get them to avoid complacency.

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