FAQ how do I utilise my qualities?

All kinds of instruments have been developed over the years to help you to recognise your qualities. They function like spectacles that help you to recognise what your strong and your weak points are. That enables you to see on which points you need the help of others and how you can develop yourself. There are various ways of finding out what your own preferences and qualities are.

Here we briefly review the Core Qualities, the MBTI profile, the Enneagram, and the Belbin team roles. You can find out more about these models on several websites.

A good way of getting your strong and your weak points in focus is to chart your core qualities. The notion of core qualities was originally invented in the Netherlands by Daniel Ofman. Core qualities are strengths that characterise a person, and they are also the positive points that another person will mention about you first. These qualities will backfire if you take them too far. If you are very good at taking decisions, you may fall into the trap of becoming too insistent. If someone else takes a certain quality too far, it may provoke irritation on your part. Your reaction to it is called an allergy. An allergy of this kind is often connected with one of your qualities. If you are very modest, you will be incredibly annoyed by people who keep patting themselves on the back. Challenges lurk behind allergies.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a widely used instrument to obtain a clearer picture of your personal preferences. The MBTI was developed in the United States and is based on your original talent in the field of obtaining energy, arranging your environment, organising and taking decisions. In the end MBTI arrives at 16 personality types. Your profile offers point of contact for looking at your style of work and the points on which you need to learn more, but also at the people with whom you could work together best.

The Enneagram describes nine different types of people. These types are distinguished by patterns of thinking, feeling and doing. The Enneagram tells you something about your strong and weak points and about your motives.

There is also a translation into types of entrepreneur, for example the BusinessLocus model that defines six different types of entrepreneur. For instance, are you a pragmatist, an expert or a developer?

Maintaining a steady footing in relation to the other person is important for smooth cooperation. Working in a well composed team works the best. You cannot always influence this, but here too it may help to be aware of the fact.

By now the Belbin team roles have become a household name. Belbin sees team roles as a coherent package of innate qualities and skills. If you take them into account, the team will function better. For instance, Belbin distinguishes the creative soloist, the down-to-earth pragmatist, the driving force or shaper, the mood monitor, and the perfectionist completer finisher.