How to truly understand your people for better performance

To understand your people effectively, you must look beyond surface-level skills and identify their underlying work personality, natural motivations, and preferred leadership styles.

Key takeaways

• Every employee possesses a unique work personality that dictates how they approach tasks and collaborate with others.
• High-performing teams are built by balancing eight core work activities, from pioneering new ideas to ensuring methodical execution.
• Effective leadership requires adapting your style – whether directive, democratic, or non-directive – to match the specific needs of your team members.
• Understanding the natural blind spots of different personality types allows managers to preemptively resolve team friction.

Most leaders believe they know their teams well because they see them every day. You know who hits their deadlines, who makes the best coffee, and who is most likely to speak up in a meeting. But do you truly understand your people at a level that allows you to predict how they will react under pressure or why certain projects consistently stall?

The challenge for modern People leaders is that traditional performance metrics only tell half the story. To build a culture that thrives, we need to dig deeper into the 'why' behind employee behaviour. When you understand the intrinsic motivations of your staff, you can move from reactive management to proactive leadership.

The science behind why you must understand your people

Understanding your people isn't just a 'nice to have' HR initiative – it is the foundation of organisational design. At Compono, we have spent over a decade researching the intersection of personality theory and team performance. Our research shows that when people are placed in roles that align with their natural work preferences, engagement and productivity soar.

We all have different preferences based on our personality, so much so that every person has a dominant preference. We refer to this as a person’s work personality. The difficulty for many managers is trying to force a 'square peg' employee into a 'round hole' task. For instance, asking a visionary thinker to spend all day auditing spreadsheets is a recipe for burnout and disengagement.

By using data-driven insights to map these personalities, you can create a more cohesive and understanding work environment. This isn't about labelling people; it's about giving them the language to express how they work best. When a team understands each other’s natural tendencies, they can collaborate with less friction and more purpose.

Identifying the eight core work personality types

To truly understand your people, you need to recognise the different roles they naturally inhabit within a team. High-performing teams typically perform eight key work activities: Evaluating, Coordinating, Campaigning, Pioneering, Advising, Helping, Auditor-level checking, and Doing. Each of these activities corresponds to a specific work personality.

For example, The Campaigner is your visionary. They are enthusiastic, persuasive, and future-focused. They excel at 'selling the dream' and rallying the team behind a big idea. Conversely, The Auditor is methodical and detail-oriented, ensuring that those big dreams are actually accurate and compliant.

Then you have The Doer, the reliable powerhouse who focuses on practical execution and meeting deadlines. Without a 'Doer', even the best plans remain theoretical. On the other end of the spectrum is The Pioneer, who thrives on innovation and doing things differently. A balanced team needs a mix of these types to ensure that ideas are both generated and executed effectively.

At Compono, our People Intelligence Platform helps you reveal these team insights automatically. By inviting employees to complete a short assessment, you can plot every team member on a visual wheel, making it easy to see where your strengths lie and where you might have gaps in your team design.

Adapting your leadership style to match your team

Once you understand your people and their personality types, the next step is adjusting how you lead them. Effective leadership isn't a one-size-fits-all approach; it is a continuum that ranges from Directive to Non-Directive styles. Your ability to flex between these styles is what defines your success as a manager.

The Evaluator or The Coordinator often thrives under Directive Leadership. They appreciate clear instructions, structured goals, and logical frameworks. They want to know exactly what success looks like so they can work towards it efficiently. In a high-stakes environment, this clarity is essential for them.

However, The Helper or The Advisor typically responds better to Democratic Leadership. They value collaboration and want to feel that their voice is heard in the decision-making process. If you use a purely directive approach with these types, you risk damaging the team harmony they work so hard to maintain.

Finally, Non-Directive Leadership is often the best fit for The Pioneer. These individuals need autonomy and the freedom to explore new possibilities without constant oversight. By trusting them to manage their own process, you empower them to innovate in ways a structured approach might stifle.

Managing conflict through personality insights

Conflict is inevitable in any workplace, but it becomes much easier to manage when you understand the personality dynamics at play. Most team friction arises not from bad intentions, but from differing work preferences. When you understand your people, you can translate these differences into strengths.

Consider a clash between an Auditor and a Campaigner. The Campaigner wants to move fast and explore new ideas, while the Auditor wants to slow down and check every detail. To the Campaigner, the Auditor seems like a roadblock. To the Auditor, the Campaigner seems reckless. As a leader, you can bridge this gap by acknowledging both needs – the need for speed and the need for accuracy.

You might say to the Auditor, "We need your detailed perspective – can you provide some initial feedback on this plan?" while encouraging the Campaigner to "walk through the plan step by step" to satisfy the Auditor’s need for precision. This approach validates both personalities and keeps the project moving forward without resentment.

Using tools like Compono Engage allows you to monitor these team dynamics in real-time. By understanding how different personalities interact, you can foster growth and cultivate harmony even during high-pressure periods.

Key insights

• True people intelligence comes from mapping natural work preferences against the eight essential team activities.
• Leadership is most effective when it is tailored to the individual's work personality and the specific demands of the task.
• Conflict is often a result of misunderstood work styles; using personality data helps reframe friction as a diversity of thought.
• High-performing cultures are built on the foundation of psychological safety that comes from teammates truly understanding one another.

Where to from here?

• Explore: Compono Platform
• Talk to an expert: Book in a 15-minute chat to get a walkthrough of Compono.

Frequently asked questions

How do I start to understand my people better?

The best way to start is by using a validated work personality assessment. This provides a common language for the team to discuss their preferences and helps managers identify the natural strengths and blind spots of each employee without relying on guesswork.

Why is work personality more important than just skills?

Skills can be taught, but natural work personality is much more stable. Understanding how someone prefers to work – whether they are a 'Doer' or a 'Pioneer' – tells you how they will apply their skills and how they will fit into the existing team culture over the long term.

How does understanding my people improve retention?

When people feel understood and are given tasks that align with their natural strengths, they experience higher job satisfaction and lower stress. This alignment is a key driver of employee engagement, which directly correlates to higher retention rates in modern workplaces.

Can a person's work personality change over time?

While people can learn to 'flex' into different styles, their core work personality tends to remain consistent. Instead of trying to change someone, effective leaders focus on placing them in environments where their natural tendencies can shine.

What are the benefits of a diverse mix of work personalities?

A team with a diverse mix of personalities – like having both 'Evaluators' and 'Helpers' – ensures that all eight critical work activities are covered. This leads to better decision-making, more innovation, and fewer operational 'blind spots' that could derail projects.