Day 5: Bridging Personality Differences in 1:1 Meetings
Here’s what to do when you and your team members have very different personality types
What if the thing making your 1:1 meetings feel off isn’t the agenda, the timing, or the rapport – but the fact that you and your team member have very different personality types?
What’s coming up today:
Why the same 1:1 can feel productive to one person and pointless to the other
The 5 personality trait pairs that shape 1:1s – and the friction that can show up between them
A helpful tip for leading someone whose personality traits are the opposite of yours
Welcome to the fifth and final day of our Mastering 1:1 Meetings Challenge.
Over the past four days, we’ve covered a lot of ground. Knowing what the meeting is for. Running a useful 1:1 when you don’t have much rapport yet. Delivering hard feedback. Handling the team member who isn’t showing up to the conversation.
Today we’re zooming out to something that’s been quietly running underneath all four of those days: personality.
People think, make decisions, and see the world in pretty different ways – and personality traits shape a lot of that. Your traits influence the assumptions you bring into a 1:1, how you naturally respond in the moment, how much structure feels right to you, how direct you tend to be, and what you notice first.
Today is about getting curious about where your traits and your team member’s traits differ – and making small adjustments based on that.
As a reminder, here’s where we stand in this challenge:
Day 2: How to Make 1:1s Productive When There’s No Rapport Yet
Day 5: Bridging Personality Differences in 1:1 Meetings (You Are Here)
The 5 Trait Pairs That Shape Your 1:1s
In the 16Personalities framework, every personality type is made up of 5 trait pairs – and each one shapes how a person tends to show up to a 1:1 meeting.
Below, we’ll walk through all 5, pointing out a few things to notice when your traits and your team member’s traits lean in different directions.
A quick note before we begin: This article is most useful if you know your own personality type and can roughly guess the types of your team members. If you don’t know your own type, take our free personality test. And for team members, check out our short Personality Type Identification Guide.
Okay, let’s get into the good stuff:
