A recent article from the MindTools website provides some interesting insight into balancing interpersonal skills on teams. The authors ground their comments on the four dimensions of relational work identified by Timothy Butler and James Waldroop: influence, interpersonal facilitation, relational creativity, and team leadership.

Influencers are great at negotiating and persuading. Interpersonal facilitators are strong in sensing people's emotions and motivations. Those with relational creativity use pictures and words to build relationships and motivate others. Team leaders thrive on working through other people to accomplish goals.

Knowing which team members are strong in which dimensions enables you to keep your team motivated with appropriate rewards. It also lets you direct tasks to those individuals whose relational dimensions will lead them to be most engaged and successful in those tasks.

Labels: management, teams