Associations Next: What’s Your Type?
In this episode, we are joined by board governance expert Michael Wyland of Sumption and Wyland. We discuss assessing your board members to help everyone on your board better communicate and understand each other so you can get things done as a group.
Takeaways:
- No personality type is good or bad. Remember, this is simply a tool to use to help your board communicate better rather than a test to see who has a “good” or “bad” personality. Having common language and awareness of our strengths and weaknesses helps everyone understand others better.
- This is a simple, but very effective exercise. You can simply have your board take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test online and discuss as a group. The beauty is that you can make it as simple or complex as you like, upping your game to more sophisticated tests such as the MBTI, Gregorc, DISC, and Family Systems Theory tests.
- Use the information to adapt your communication style to those on your board. Board members are likely to process information in different ways. As a leader, you need to meet your members where they are. If your board member prefers email, use email. If they prefer texts, or phone calls, or Zoom, match their needs.
- Every time a board changes its membership, there is an opportunity to change the communication styles of the board overall. Assessing personality types and communication styles is an ongoing process.
