Team Leadership: How Behavioral Insights Improve Team Performance

Do leaders understand the dynamics of their team’s behavior? With the right behavioral insights, they can improve communication, collaboration, decision-making, and team performance. Sales leaders, in particular, should strive to improve the work experience for their reps as our research shows they face an average of 30% in staff turnover every year.

What is team leadership?

Team leadership is the responsibility of guiding a group of employees toward shared goals. They meet this challenge by assigning tasks to the team members best suited to handle them. They must manage different work styles, behaviors, and expectations of their team members. And leadership styles also impact how well a team works together.

Old-school management styles did not often take team members' differences into account. In today’s economy, which is frequently based on intellectual work and individual creativity, outcomes improve when leaders try to accommodate the workplace needs of their team members.

Why behavioral insights matter in team leadership

Every employee engages with co-workers and their supervisor in their own unique way. Some team members may be excellent communicators while others are standout collaborators. The team leader also needs to understand that every employee has their own way of making decisions. And workplace challenges can hold back even the best employee from progressing on a project.

When a leader has behavioral insights to understand what motivates each team member, they can make better work assignments. Behavioral insights can also assist a leader when they hold one-on-one meetings with each team member.

How behavioral differences affect team performance

Differences in behavioral tendencies significantly influence how individuals communicate, collaborate, manage conflict, and approach work. Some people communicate directly and quickly, while others prefer thoughtful discussion and detailed information. In collaboration, certain team members naturally take charge, while others focus on supporting relationships, maintaining accuracy, or building consensus.

During conflict, behavioral differences can lead to misunderstandings if people interpret actions through their own preferences. These tendencies also affect decision-making, pace, risk tolerance, organization, and problem-solving. Understanding and respecting behavioral differences helps teams adapt their communication, use individual strengths effectively, reduce unnecessary conflict, and work together more productively toward shared goals.

Communication preferences

Diverse communication preferences and styles can impact team performance. When some members prefer email while others prefer the office chat tool, information will not flow smoothly.

Team meetings can also be an area of concern regarding communication. If a few members believe meetings are a waste of time, they may not participate as effectively as their co-workers.

Decision-Making approaches

Differences in decision-making approaches can increase team conflict. Team members may be naturally inclined to make a quick decision or to take their time. They may want more information than they have at the time a decision must be made.

Likewise, one team member may always insist on using detailed facts to make decisions. Another team member may be more expressive emotionally. Tension could build between these types of employees unless the leader is aware of these tendencies and actively manages meetings to help team members stay focused on the objective.

Responses to change

Changes in the parameters of a project or to the deadline may causes some of the biggest conflict on a team. That’s because some members naturally find it easier to deal with changes. They will adjust their approach quickly. But taking time to process and understand the change will be a necessity for other team members.

Collaboration styles

Differences in collaboration styles can prove challenging when individuals work as part of a team. If one team member is particularly effective at finding coding errors, co-workers may label them as a fault finder. They can position the individual not as a fault finder but as a quality control specialist.

Similarly, the individual who excels at coming up with new ideas may be cast as a know-it-all. 

Approaches to conflict

Team conflict is a natural outcome when employees are matched to the wrong task and when the project unexpectedly changes. During conflict, some employees will become assertive, insisting they are right. More introverted team members may simply limit their interaction with others. All these behaviors can lead to work slowdowns.

Common challenges in team leadership

Strong teams are comprised of individuals with different talents and strengths. As they work together to complete their project, whether it is finishing a product rollout or selling a complex solution to a new customer, each person will have a role to play. The varying workplace styles and behaviors, along with different communication preferences will lead to heated discussions, outright conflict and work slowdown. 

To maintain loyalty and focus, leaders must establish ground rules. They should also model the kind of behavior they expect to see from the team.

Despite these efforts, some teams, such as sales reps, still believe that their manager could do more.

How leaders can use behavioral insights to improve team dynamics

Leaders must have detailed knowledge about team members’ likely behavior in various workplace scenarios. With the right insight, they can support each person while also maintaining progress toward the overall goal. Often, the leader will hold one-on-one meetings with each team member to provide feedback and encouragement.

During team meetings, leaders need to focus the discussion on work progress. But they can use behavioral insights to be sure everyone is heard. This may require them to encourage the quieter members to speak up. And they may also need to acknowledge the contribution of individuals who lack confidence.

Communication preferences

Leaders must encourage the team members to select the preferred form of communication and to insist on its use for teamwide information flow. During the one-on-one interactions, leaders can talk with each team member about the best way to communicate. One of the biggest challenges facing sales managers is that 21% of their team say there is no clarity in assignments and communication.

Decision-Making approaches

When a problem arises during a project, team members may struggle because of differences in how they make decisions. One team member may prefer to make a quick decision without consulting their manager. Other team members may want to analyze the complete workflow and make a recommendation to the manager. Managers must find the common ground between these approaches to make each team member feel valued.

Responses to change

Managers can get ahead of the chaos that sometimes results because of their team’s response to change. The best approach is to announce the change to everyone at the same time and then ask for feedback. During the discussions, they can acknowledge the individual concerns that are raised.

Collaboration styles

Collaborative styles often vary on a team. When team members don’t know each other well, the differences in style can lead to conflict and slowdowns. In these situations, the leader must make the unique strengths and contributions of each individual clear.  And they should guide team members to a process that includes compromise but still works for everyone.

Approaches to conflict 

A manager’s initial approach to a conflict between team members may be to encourage them to work out the details. But if the conflict continues or expands to include other team members, the manager may step in and ask team members to develop solid resolutions for this conflict.

How leaders can use behavioral insights to improve team dynamics

Leaders must have detailed knowledge about team members’ likely behavior in various workplace scenarios. With the right insight, they can support each person while also maintaining progress toward the overall goal. Often, the leader will hold one-on-one meetings with each team member to provide feedback and encouragement.

During team meetings, leaders need to focus the discussion on work progress. But they can use behavioral insights to be sure everyone is heard. This may require them to encourage the quieter members to speak up. And they may also need to acknowledge the contribution of individuals who lack confidence.

Behavioral insights and team communication

Leaders will have their own go-to behaviors for managing a team and any conflict that arises. But to effectively manage, they will need to adjust their communication methods.

They may need to break down big projects into smaller tasks to keep from overwhelming team members. And they may need to hold more frequent one-on-one meetings to review progress and to offer encouragement and praise.

When an ambitious team member is feeling constrained by the limitations of co-workers, the leader must be prepared. Keeping the employee engaged and productive is important in these cases. Offering empathy and guidance on longer-term career goals may help.

How to use behavioral assessments in team leadership

Leaders can rely on conversations with team members as one way to stay in touch regarding their expectations and frustrations. They can also observe team member interaction and performance to formulate their opinions. With that information, they may adjust schedules or work responsibilities. They may also encourage an offsite meeting at a coffee shop for two feuding team members to work out their differences.

But the best tool for understanding team members’ workplace attitudes and motivations is behavioral assessments. These standardized assessments make it easier to understand why employees behave in a specific way.

Assess behavioral tendencies

A standardized behavior assessment gives leaders insight into how each team member is likely to react to specific workplace settings. In addition, the assessments reveal the motivations behind behavior tendencies. Behavioral styles at work are important for managers to understand.

Discuss results with team members

Leaders can help team members become aware of their workplace behavior and style by discussing assessment results in one-on-one meetings. With this information, leaders can ask team members if they agree with insights. And they can discuss different tactics to use when they want to change their behavior and interactions with others. This approach shows flexibility on the manager’s part and can become one of the most impactful employee retention strategies.

Apply insights to team interactions

Some assessment platforms, such as TeamTrait^TM, report on a team’s work traits and compare the scores to a global average. A team may score lower than average on traits such as problem solving or collaboration. Managers can use this information to develop training and coaching programs to help employees improve these traits and work effectively as a team.

Monitor and adjust leadership approaches

To be most effective, leaders will adjust their approach with each team member, especially in individual meetings and communications. When they study their fit with each employee, they will learn how to improve outcomes. For example, they may need to follow up verbally given assignments with an email to be sure the team member understands the details.

To best understand their fit with individual employees, managers should take a DISC assessment for leaders. The results will indicate where a manager may need to be especially intentional when working with an employee about changing workplace behavior.

How TeamTrait supports behavioral insights for leaders

TeamTrait is the best-in-class solution for leaders who need behavioral assessments to help them understand individual employees and team behavior. Assessments highlight the communication styles and motivations of each employee. The assessment results also underscore the best workplace settings for employees and where they are likely to struggle.

Leaders can review this information with team members and ask them what details they would like to work on. Working together to develop a plan can increase the employee’s sense of belonging and commitment to improving their team participation.

TeamTrait data also highlights a team’s strengths and challenges. Managers with access to those behavioral insights can make better hiring decisions as well as better work assignments.

Final Thoughts: Turning behavioral insights into better team leadership

Behavioral insights can give leaders valuable context for understanding how team members communicate, make decisions, respond to challenges, and collaborate with others. These insights can be especially helpful when a manager is faced with a hybrid team leadership role. Rather than relying solely on observation or assumptions, leaders can use these insights to recognize individual preferences, strengths, and potential areas of friction. This deeper understanding can help leaders adapt their communication and leadership approaches to better support each person while maintaining clear expectations and accountability. Behavioral insights can also improve team dynamics by increasing self-awareness, encouraging more productive interactions, and helping leaders anticipate potential challenges. Used thoughtfully, they can contribute to stronger relationships, engagement, collaboration, and overall team performance.

Image by Yan Krukau on Pexels.