Psychometric profiles can provide a systematic approach to understanding both team and leadership development.

There are many tools currently available such as MBTI, 16PF, OPQ 32 and TMS to name but a few.  The Team Management Systems (TMS) profile, for example, is a psychometric instrument which was developed by Charles Margerisson and Dick McCann in the early 1980’s.  They were conducting extensive research into what makes management teams succeed or fail, and identified that all work teams need to consider eight key activities essential for high performance.  The activities are:

Advising – gathering and reporting information Organizing – planning and making things happen
Innovating – creating and experimenting with ideas Producing – concluding and delivering outputs
Promoting – exploring and presenting opportunities Inspecting – controlling and auditing work
Developing – assessing and testing ideas and approaches Maintaining – upholding standards and systems

They subsequently used their findings to develop an instrument (the TMS profile) that would help to predict team success.  The instrument is based on the four preference measures used by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and adopted to work based situations.

As with most modern profiles, the questionnaire can be completed on line and a profile is produced on the basis of the answers given.  The profile identifies a preferred or ‘major’ role and two related roles around one of the key work activities highlighted above.  The instrument gives valuable insights into the way people prefer to approach work, and their preferred role within a team. The profile provides detailed feedback about an individual’s decision-making style, leadership strengths, and interpersonal and work preferences.

The profile can be used in various ways, for example:

It can be used to help teams understand and manage individual differences better, improve communications and provide the team with guidance and direction about how team working can be enhanced, by looking at what ‘gaps’ the team may have.

  • The profile can be used as a self awareness tool as a pre curser to either management or leadership development.By understanding their own personal preferences, an individual can identify their inherent strengths and weaknesses and what they need to work on.
  • It can be used with the leader and their team to enable the leader to develop a more effective and productive leadership relationship with them.

    Psychometric tools such as the TMS profile are an invaluable part of any organisation’s leadership or team development programme, as they can help increase our own self awareness and the impact we have on others.  Information which is vital if as we are to interact with our colleagues and teams more effectively.