Collaborator

Key Traits

Cooperative • Empathetic • Patient • Friendly

Overview

Collaborators are warm, informal, outgoing, and congenial people who get along comfortably with most people.

Natural Strengths

  • Cooperative
  • Empathetic
  • Patient
  • Friendly

Common Drivers

  • Freedom from
  • competitionOpportunities to collaborate
  • Supportive work team
  • Freedom of expression

Blind Spots

  • Not strong at technical work
  • Limited attention to detail
  • Difficulty adapting to frequent change
  • Needs reassurance

Team Dynamics

How you tend to behave and interact with others

Collaborators are natural team players. They’re known to be understanding, people-oriented, and persistent. They thrive in and help contribute to a culture of teamwork. Teams are often designed by default rather than intention. A strategic, data-driven approach to building teams is what helps organizations win.

Managing

How to communicate, direct, and delegate for better results

Often managers try to manage everyone the same way—and that’s usually the way they like to be managed. But this approach can backfire. People like to be managed differently—and it may not always be in a way that comes naturally to you. Even beyond the individual needs, teams require different leadership styles. You wouldn’t manage a sales team the same way you’d manage a team of developers.When working with Collaborators, remember that they’re unassuming, cooperative, agreeable, and socially-focused. They’re typically less effective with complex, siloed work that requires exactness and accuracy with details. Collaborators also have an intuitive understanding of others’ viewpoints and feelings. When managing this profile, consider some of the following suggestions:

  • Provide opportunities to work with others.
  • Allow freedom of expression; rigid rules and formality are typically off-putting.
  • Let them communicate and involve others.
  • Provide consistent and dependable support.
  • Build friendly environments; competitive pressure is less fun for them.