Individualist
Individualists march to the beat of their own drum and are always up for a challenge. They're confident, analytical, and persistent—strong-minded people who quickly turn ideas into reality. Hungry to solve problems and move forward, they dislike being bogged down with the details.
Highlights: Self-confident Analytical Drives change Methodical
Maximize your business potential by tapping into people’s natural strengths.
The Individualist Reference Profile—like all Reference Profiles—has many unique strengths and characteristics. Understanding the differences in your people can help you build a company that achieves the results you’re after. The same way you’d build a world-class sports team, knowing how your people think and work helps you optimize for success.
Characteristics of the Individualist
Individualists are highly independent; they like to creatively solve problems. They seek to drive results, and they’re comfortable delegating details. For a more detailed and accurate reading of your behavioral pattern and how it pertains to your unique business situation, schedule a consultation.
Natural Strengths
Self-confident
Analytical
Drives change
Methodical
Common Drivers
Independence
Opportunities to work with facts
Flexibility
Freedom from changing priorities
Blind Spots
Can be unorthodox in their approach
May appear stubborn or opinionated
Doesn’t like too much structure or direction
Difficulty with authority
The Individualist on a team
Individualists are big-picture thinkers and natural leaders. They’re known to be directive, persistent, and factual. They’re valuable contributors to any organization, as they flex to achieve the desired result. Teams are often designed by default rather than intention. A strategic, data-driven approach to building teams is what helps organizations win.
Business strategy and the Individualist
Before you know whether someone is the right person for the job, you need total clarity and alignment on the results you’re after. What’s the goal or desired outcome? When we ask questions like this, we get a better understanding of the need to align people strategically for specific results.
When you put people in the right roles, you avoid turnover, toxicity, disengagement, and lost productivity. In the case of the Individualist, while they can do a variety of things well, they naturally gravitate toward strategic activities that seek to drive results.
Managing the Individualist
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 Individualists, remember that they’re directive, risk-tolerant, agreeable, and factual. They’re typically most effective in work environments where they can interact with people as they choose, but also have space to work alone when needed. They also enjoy the freedom to do things in the way that feels right to them. When managing this profile, consider some of the following suggestions:
Give them space to develop and act on their ideas.
Provide them with challenges and problems to solve.
Allow freedom of expression; rigid rules and formality are typically off-putting.
Let them lead and drive initiatives.
Provide opportunities to take risks and innovate.
Build a work environment that’s receptive to new ideas, change, and risk.
Explore talent optimization.
Companies that struggle to build high-performing teams are often missing critical people data. With our tools, expertise, experiance, and talent optimization, you can stop guessing at how to get the most from your people— and better align your people to deliver on the results you’re after.