All Articles Leadership Would you rather lead a team of strong, difficult personalities or one with weaker personalities but more team cohesion?

Would you rather lead a team of strong, difficult personalities or one with weaker personalities but more team cohesion?

SmartPulse -- our weekly nonscientific reader poll -- tracks feedback from more than 210,000 business leaders. Would you rather lead a team of strong, difficult personalities or one with weaker personalities but more team cohesion?

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Leadership

SmartPulse

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 210,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.

Would you rather lead a team of strong, difficult personalities or one with weaker personalities but more team cohesion?

  • Give me the strong personalities with less team cohesion: 37%
  • I’ll take the weaker personalities with more team cohesion: 63%  

Stronger Teams Preferred. It’s interesting that two thirds of you opted for a team with weaker personalities but more team cohesion. That speaks to our basic desire to avoid conflict. The upside is the team operates harmoniously. The downside can be that the team members aren’t strong enough to become the next generation of leaders. If you ever have a chance to lead a weaker team with stronger personalities, give it a try. While individually they may be more challenging, if you can build the teamwork skills between them, you could be amazed by what they’re able to deliver.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and the host of the upcoming Executive Insight 16 — a leadership conference being held in New York this November.