United We Stand — Divided We Fall

The Retail Florist

ABC Flowers & Gifts employs three full-time employees. Although each employee is highly professional, the shop as a whole is in conflict.

Personality clashes are undermining the overall success of the shop, and the manager is unsure how best to bring everyone together as a team — working efficiently and happily toward common goals.

Each staffer brings a distinct personality to the shop culture — personalities that include exceptional strengths and diverse weaknesses.

Jeff, for example, is the natural-born leader. He is always spearheading public relations events, such as open houses. In his effort to accomplish feats of historic proportions, however, he has developed a low tolerance for people whom he perceives as less enthusiastic.

Barbara, on the other hand, is the sensitive one. More reactive than proactive, she believes sales happen when she "connects" with customers. As a result, she prefers to spend time getting to know customers personally.

Trish became involved in the floral business because she loves flowers and finds great satisfaction in creating unique designs. She is the ultimate advocate of flowers, always generating enthusiasm among customers. On the other hand, she pays little attention to detail. She believes the impact of the design is more important than pure profit. So, she often stuffs too many flowers into her designs and pays little attention to shrink.

The manager decided to use a personality profile assessment to help everyone develop a respect for each other's personality differences and, in turn, foster a better sense of teamwork.

Using an assessment that listed various personality strengths, he had everyone circle the traits that best described their co-workers.

During the comparisons, it became evident there was a big discrepancy between how the employees at ABC Flowers & Gifts viewed themselves and how their co-workers viewed them.

A constructive dialogue began among the group, and, as a result, they each developed a deeper understanding of why their co-workers performed the way they did. From there, they all made greater efforts to communicate more clearly with each other.

It's important to note that learning to appreciate differences and value another person's personality should be only the first goal of a personality profile assessment.

Change is the ultimate long-term goal. In the end, all employees must want to change and be held accountable for making the changes necessary to come together as a dedicated, energized and focused team.