In many leadership teams, the challenge is not a lack of competence. More often, it is that people respond differently under pressure, make decisions based on different logic, and communicate in different ways.

When these differences remain unspoken, they can lead to misunderstandings, friction, or slower decision-making. That is why leadership team development often requires taking a closer look not only at shared goals and ways of working, but also at individual behavioural patterns.

Minna Pohjola, People & Culture Business Lead at Notarec, uses WorkPlace Big Five Profile® in leadership team development. According to Pohjola, how a leadership team functions often comes down to the leader’s self-awareness — or lack of it.

A leader’s self-awareness influences the entire leadership team

WorkPlace Big Five Profile® is based on the scientifically researched Big Five model of personality. It helps make visible the behavioural patterns that influence collaboration in everyday work.

The purpose of the assessment is not to put people into boxes, but to increase understanding of one’s own way of thinking, reacting, making decisions, and interacting with others.

Pohjola summarises the importance of a leader’s self-awareness clearly:

“A leader’s self-awareness is one of the most important leadership skills. Because we cannot lead others before we understand ourselves.”

When leaders become more aware of their own strengths and blind spots, it becomes easier for them to understand how their behaviour affects others. This can be seen, for example, in decision-making, interaction, and leading change.

Strengthening self-awareness helps leaders build trust, make better use of diversity, and lead more consciously.

Diversity becomes a strength instead of a source of friction

In a leadership team, different personalities, ways of thinking, and working styles can be a major strength. At the same time, they can also create friction if their impact on collaboration is not recognised or put into words.

WorkPlace Big Five Profile® helps make visible why one leadership team member may prefer fast decision-making, another may need thorough analysis, and a third may want more discussion before reaching a conclusion. It also helps the team understand why pressure, uncertainty, or change can activate very different behavioural patterns in different people.

When the different working styles within a leadership team are made visible, conversations can become more constructive, decision-making becomes clearer, and collaboration improves. The leadership team learns to make use of its members’ different strengths instead of allowing differences to create unnecessary friction.

A report alone does not change behaviour

In Pohjola’s experience, the best results are achieved when WorkPlace Big Five Profile® does not remain just a report. The assessment is most impactful when combined with individual coaching conversations and facilitated team workshops

Individual coaching helps leaders deepen their self-awareness and identify concrete areas for development. Facilitated team workshops, in turn, support the team in building shared understanding, ways of working, and trust.

This turns the assessment into a practical development tool that helps translate insights into action: How do we discuss difficult topics? How do we make decisions? How do we make use of different strengths? How do we build better collaboration as a leadership team?

WorkPlace Big Five Profile® as a tool for leadership team development

WorkPlace Big Five Profile® can provide leadership team development with a clear and practical language for understanding and discussing individual working styles, strengths, and team dynamics.

In leadership team development, WorkPlace Big Five Profile® can help to:

strengthen leaders’ self-awareness and understanding of their impact on others
make visible the leadership team’s different strengths, needs, and working styles
increase understanding of why people react differently under pressure, during change, and in decision-making
build trust and a more psychologically safe discussion culture
clarify collaboration, interaction, and decision-making
support the leadership team in using diversity in a goal-oriented and constructive way

Pohjola’s example shows that, at its best, WorkPlace Big Five Profile® does not only describe what kinds of people are in the leadership team. It helps the team understand how this particular leader and this particular leadership team can work together more effectively, make better decisions, and achieve better results.

Would you like to use WorkPlace Big Five Profile® in developing people, teams, or leadership teams? Learn more about the tool here.

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Minna Pohjola works as People & Culture Business Lead at Notarec in Helsinki. In her work, she uses WorkPlace Big Five Profile® assessments to support the development of leaders and leadership teams.