What Does Your Team Look Like?

When you consider the people in your team, what sort of mix do you have?

Ichak Adizes is one of the world’s leading management experts and he says that team management roles can be categorised into one of four personality styles.

He describes these four roles that together make up a successful management team

1. Producer

This is a high-energy individual who is focused on getting tangible results. This person doesn’t like finer details, ambiguity or abstract thinking.

A producer is a hard-worker who often works fast and very ambitious; less of a talker and more of a doer.

2. Administrator

This person is quiet and cautious and needs to know the details and processes or procedures before committing to something. This individual also dislikes ambiguity or uncertainty. This is the person who is least flexible when new projects come in.

An administrator has strong analytical skills and a structured approach  and develops systems to work efficiently and productively. An organisation depends on administrators for developing processes and systems that ensure that everyone works efficiently and productively.

3.  Entrepreneur

This is an imaginative and charismatic person who focuses on novel challenges and exciting opportunities.

An entrepreneur is very industrious and full of ideas with a sharp vision for the future  capable of taking calculated risks.

This team member is suited to distinguishing between opportunities and threats to the organisation.

4. Integrator

An integrator is the beating heart of a team who brings people together and is great at organising and resolving internal conflicts. This is a person who is emotionally intelligent and empathic and knows how to build trust and respect by creating harmony.

An integrator will focus on the process by working slowly and methodically with the goal of solving problems.  They can sometimes get distracted from the task when attending to team members’ personal needs.

Ichak Adizes developed this PAEI Model in the early 1970s and it is still relevant today.

Adizes says that most of us develop skills in all four of the above but we cannot develop equal strengths across them. He says that we have a dominant style and a management team becomes strong and effective when different managers each play a role. Which do you naturally fill most of the time?

Does your school team have someone covering each of the roles above? Is your management team as strong and effective as it could be or does it have too many administrators or Big Ps? And are any roles missing, and is this an issue?

All of the personality styles are equally vital for a school to succeed. Recognising and respecting the varying styles of our colleagues helps form a more cohesive school team. Diversity is key.

Find out what personality type you are by taking this questionnaire.