Entrepreneurs often want to get tips and advice on how to build a virtual team. Questions high on the agenda are how to interview people to check out their skillsets, speed of working (when they are paid hourly), reliability and so on. Something that is often missing, though, is the question about the personality factor.

To have a successful team you need to be very precise on what sort of personality you have, what kind of person is good to support you best and how many team members you have with different personalities. Personality typing involves psychological classifications of different types of individuals.

This is done to help people for self development, to see how they fit into a team, what their best learning style is, to determine what approach in life they usually take and what jobs are actually right for them. I  know stereotyping or “pigeonholing” people is not PC or “in”, but it can be a powerful tool for understanding people.

This also applies to relationship troubles where people of different personalities come together who may not understand why the other half is behaving in the way they do and sometimes get upset and angry by the other person’s actions. Personality-typing can help these people to understand the other person better, not to see actions as a personal affront, but to see how the other person actually views the world.

The impatient Driver/Director type personality

It’s great to be able to see the world with the eyes of your partner because then you are more understanding and maybe can bridge the gaps and find ways to communicate with each other without blame and fights. It is also beneficial for individuals to determine what sort of job would be great for them and see in which area they would find most fulfillment and use their strengths rather than their weaknesses.

I still remember that my dad wanted me to become an IT professional and study computer science with a lot of mathematical content in the courses, while I was actually  better at learning languages, writing and the arts. It was a big disappointment for my parents and they felt I was just being difficult. I genuinely didn’t really grasp maths at school, trying hard, but never really “getting” it. My elder brother did get maths, he was exceptional at it and became a computer specialist.

He was quite a quiet person, didn’t like the limelight and worked well by himself. He was detailed and the thought of making a speech terrified him. In contrary, I always volunteered when speaking up or even giving speeches or announcements to large groups and never got nervous at all. I just acted naturally and found it enjoyable.  I loved being around people and working with them, brainstorming with them and working in a team environment. My brother didn’t.

Coincidence? No. Personality typing helps us understand why my brother wasn’t good at public speaking and I wasn’t good at maths or working in a lab examining specimens.

For me learning about personality typing was a big relief. Finally I understood why I wasn’t patient when it came to endless data checking, working alone in a closed room until a solution was found or fiddling with number doing accounting. When I found out what type I was it meant for me, that actually I was a person with a lot of value to give to society, but not in the way my parents wanted me to do. I was good and bad at some things, but exceptional at others.

I remember in the past, mostly at school, people/teachers always advised to overcome your weaknesses, work on your mistakes and get to become good at what you dislike. Strangely, though, many top achievers rather nurture their talents and discard their weaknesses. They don’t even try to overcome their weaknesses, they just ask other people to deal with the areas they are not good at.

The 4 personality types

An example is Richard Branson, who is an excellent and charismatic visionary who loves big picture thinking. He is a person who comes up with amazing ideas and lets other people implement and finance his ventures. He isn’t working on becoming a detailed implementor or financial whizz who sits for hours in his office analyzing figures and checking balances, he rather utilizes his biggest strength of big picture thinking and innovating, and asks the people who are good at what he’s not, to do what they do best.

A person like him would become impatient at longwinded reviews and “boring” data collection, whereas other people love data collection and checking things and would never want to invent anything new as it’s way too scary for them.

Giving people the tasks they do best gives them the  biggest satisfaction and they also offer the fruits of their labour and strength to society.

The same sort of thinking is necessary when you are an entrepreneur and want to build a team of supporters around you. You first need to determine who and what type you are, what you are good at, what kind of person brings out the best in you (when you work with them) and what kind of person is the right for the tasks you want them to do. This sounds complicated, but is not as complicated as it sounds right now.

Click here to read more about the 4 types or here. Once you familiarize yourself with the different types you will recognize them, regardless of what the author calls them. A, B, C, D or Driver, Expressive, Amiable and Analytical or Powerful, Playful, Peaceloving and Problemsolving. Once you familiarize yourself with the types, you know exactly which one is meant by its description.

Copyblogger, an amazing blog for entrepreneurs who want to find out more about copywriting on the net and Internet marketing, also has a take on the personality-types on here. Don’t forget to sign up for the blog updates, they are really good!

I bet by now you have fun playing with the personality types and start thinking what types your family members and friends are. It’s really useful to know and don’t forget to type your clients because it will save you from misunderstandings and troubles. When you clients feel understood and supported appropriately you will gain the benefits!

After you have found your own type that feels right to you,  look at your business and what the role in your business is that you like most. I understand you may call yourself CEO (chief executive officer) or head coach or consultant, but which tasks or services dp you like and use most. Be honest. If there are things you just find a drag, admit it and be ok with it. It’s not a problem, it’s a good thing because now you know you can find a support person or assistant who is good at what you are not good at.

If you are a person who is very artistic, full of big picture ideas, but doesn’t like to sit down and put it all on paper or research it, then you need someone with these complimentary skills. Find an assistant who loves to sit down and check things, researches in books and online, is a bit introverted and has a strong attention to detail. This person is probably the opposite of you and you may find her/him a bit boring, but don’t look for a carbon copy of yourself even if you click with someone like you on the phone.

Be careful: if you are excited about interviewing someone and you feel they are so much like you and consequently so much fun to chat to, you should take note. You may just be talking to a perso who has the same personality style as you, which is not a problem when this person is a client, but might cause you headaches when this person has to work for you, because she or he is not complimentary to your own strengths.  If you hire this person you hire a mini me. This person will possibly be have the same strengths and weaknesses as you. Do you need someone like you or do you need someone who loves what you hate to do? Chances are you need someone who is rather complimentary to you.

Also think about the tasks you want your virtual assistant/VA to do for you. If you look for a website coder, chances are the best choice for the job is a detailed person, usually quiet, introverted, patient and works best when you tell them exactly and precisely what you want from it. Don’t expect her or him to give you lots of creative flair or any surprises. Don’t think this person wants to come up with the ideas and you can do something else, you need to take a lead with this type of person and enjoy that they will do exactly what you tell them to do. How good is that?

If you hire a graphic designer, chances are this person is artistic and creative. He or she may not like it when you are too strict and narrow minded with your ideas. They will want to create a logo or graphic and show it to you as a kind of surprise, full of pride and easily offended when you don’t like their draft. Be careful not to upset them with blunt criticism, give them some positive feedback and tell them the mood you want to create rather than the exact image that you have in your head. These type of people often think in pictures, so describe your wishes in pictures, too. And be open, they may actually come up with a fantastic new approach that is better than yours!

If you hire a customer service person, this person is probably bubbly, friendly and likes to make friends. He or she is outgoing, fun and easygoing. They often create a good feeling within you you after talking with them. They are patient and thrive in the helping industries. If you get a VA who applies for a customer service role in your company, such as first point of contact or complaints department, this is the right one to choose. If the person you hire has a cold voice, an abrasive personality, is either shy or introverted, stay away! She or he won’t be warmer or friendlier with your clients either.

These are examples of classical personality traits people should ideally display show if they are in the right job.  Many times, though, a quirky creative artist may apply for your bookkeeping tasks because he/she can’t find another job right now or doesn’t know yet what they really are good at, because you would probably end up with a mess in your Quickbooks. Ideally your bookkeeper is a detailed person, not a creative person, with a lot of attention to detail. You get the gist?

The Analytical Type

Similarly, when you look for an infusionsoft or shoppingcart specialist you need to write down the qualities you think  a person needs to have to be successful in this role. This would be similar to the bookkeeper and the web coder: attention to detail, patience, focuse, doesn’t get impatient when testing autoresponders or links for hours, etc. Don’t make the mistake and hire someone who is impatient and gets sloppy after a few hours, simply because their personality doesn’t match the job description.

Create job descriptions for the tasks you need done and come up with the personality that fits the description. When you write an ad, mention these traits so that everybody who applies knows what you are looking for. This will make your job of hiring easier  and you may get more applicants with the right attitude, skillset and personality type.

Rebecca Stafford, Dr Bruce MacDonald and Dr Elizabeth Broadbent with Korean robot Charlie. Photo / Supplied

Jobs are a dying breed. That is to say fewer people are going to have a single employer in the future, says Craig Rispin, a business futurologist.

Instead workers will be like the freelance event co-ordinator, freelance journalist or change management contractor – contracted for specific tasks rather than given a 9-5 salaried job.

Rispin goes as far to say that all jobs will be freelance in the future. It’s probably a scary thought for people who need the security of one employer, one salary and the accompanying benefits such as holidays, sick pay, bereavement leave and so on.

“Jobs are disappearing and work is becoming transactional,” said Rispin.

“You offer your services for the period of time that a company needs them in return for set payment.”

The jobs that won’t be lost in the future are those that require critical or creative thinking.

“You can’t outsource writing a symphony, or innovations because you’re creating new ideas, which is something that only humans can do,” said Rispin.

Business futurologists such as Rispin work for large corporations. They analyse trends, anticipate significant changes and identify potential threats and opportunities for the business.

The future of work is concerning the Government as well. The Workforce 2020 study by the Department of Labour attempts to understand future labour market forces.

The report found that four of the factors that will shape the labour market in 2020 are:

* Demographic shifts * Globalisation * Pressure on natural resources * Technology

In Rispin’s future world, innovation will be the key to survival. Conversely, the big threat is jobs that can be automated or moved abroad.

It’s not pie in the sky. It has happened to many occupations over the years. Once upon a time people were employed in accounts departments to do little more than add up lines of figures by hand. Those jobs disappeared with the invention of adding machines and calculators.

The 2020 report tracks this trend. If the report is right, personal assistants are on the way out, physicists are in serious decline, and malt workers are extinct. On the other hand microbiologists are in demand.

Such changes affect workers. They are also of grave concern to those who have their whole working life still ahead. One of the big problems for young people, says Rispin, is that they get advice from their parents or career advisers who “trot off all the old stuff”.

The classic example of this is Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ father, who admonished him for dropping out of university to follow his passion in IT instead of getting a real job.

According to Career Services, parents can best help their children cope in the new world of work by helping them understand that their career is a lifelong journey, rather than a destination.

It is no longer enough to ask, “What should I do?” Instead, the questions should be:

* Where do I ultimately want to be in my life? * How should I do it? * How does this fit with my life values and goals? * What could be my next step? * How can I prepare for the next change as I do my current work?

Those people already in the workforce need to ask themselves how technology could change their job or do away with it, says Rispin.

In some cases it is blindingly obvious. It’s only a matter of time before ticket collectors on Auckland ferries are replaced by machines.

Even the humble rubbish collector is affected – with rubbish trucks able to lift and empty bins.

That’s just today’s technology, not the yet-to-be-invented technology. Accounts clerks who were replaced with calculators probably had no idea that a machine could be invented that did their job.

“You need to look at whether you add any value [to the organisation],” said Rispin. If you don’t, a machine can probably do the job.

He cites the example of visiting a pharmacy, asking for information about a product, and being read the information on the box. A touch screen informational computer or even a robot could be more helpful.

And that’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Rispin refers to a project at Selwyn Village, a retirement care facility in Auckland’s Pt Chevalier, where a robot called Charlie does menial tasks such as taking residents’ blood pressure, blood glucose and oxygen levels.

The robot also offers entertainment to keep residents alert. It has nine music video channels, a selection of quotes, a phone system, so residents can call family or friends, as well as Brain Fitness – a game to improve memory.

The Selwyn Foundation says it won’t reduce staff numbers. But care of the elderly is generally a bottom-line-driven industry and operators could be tempted to use robots instead of workers and cut jobs.

Robots such as Charlie cost just a few thousand dollars these days, not hundreds of thousands of dollars as they did in the past.

The march of technology also downgrades the value of certain jobs.

A pay clerk, for example, was a highly specialised role before computers came along to crunch numbers.

The role became commoditised in the 1970s and 1980s and the relative earnings of pay clerks fell.

Some of the remaining jobs have been moved overseas in the past decade.

Rispin believes many of today’s technical jobs will become tomorrow’s entry-level jobs, meaning young people will need to be better educated and have more critical thinking and creativity skills than their parents had.

Rispin cites the example of a taxi driver he met recently.

While he was waiting in the queue to pick up his fare, the driver had attended two university lectures online.

His plan was to become an SAP database manager after finishing his degree – a job which in the past required many years of experience.

Many such jobs are being outsourced to low-wage economies.

“We are offshoring the low-value jobs and we want the high-value jobs to stay,” Rispin said.

That’s why, when you phone 018, you’ll speak to someone in the Philippines, or your Vodafone customer services enquiry will be answered by an Egyptian.

Even some high-value jobs are being sent overseas.

Some architectural and engineering design and documentation work is being sent to India.

Technology puts those outsourced jobs at risk too.

If you order a Dell laptop from Dell.co.nz, your order needn’t be handled by a person at all.

Computing intelligence determines what parts are needed according to your preferences and the jobs are eliminated.

The good news is that as old jobs die or are replaced by technology, new jobs and whole industries will be invented.

If, for example, you first entered the world of work more than a decade ago, you wouldn’t have had the option of being a carbon emissions trader. Such a job didn’t exist. Nor were change managers, life coaches or3D animators seen as mainstream jobs.

“I met a guy in the airport who was involved in ‘bioinfographics’,” said Rispin.

“It’s graphic modelling of medical research and universities have just started courses in this and there is already a professional society.”

Nanotechnology is another new industry. Futurologists of the 1950s such as physicist Richard Feynman dreamed of building minute machines.

Then in 1986 the term nanotechnology was coined and funding of research got off the ground in the 1990s.

Another high-demand industry is biotechnology. It’s a huge growth area with enormous promise and a worldwide workforce which is expanding by the day.

FORWARD THINKING

* Many more people will freelance. * Perceptions of what a career is are changing. * People will have more careers in their working lives. * Complex jobs are becoming entry level.

I’m sure there are many people who would love to change the way they work, escape the corporate cubicle or tiny office without even a window in order to swap it for their own homeoffice with a view. Additionally, they’d be able to be at home with the children, which is the reason for the majority of virtual assistants’ decision to quit the corporate life, for example.

In past years it was readily accepted that mums would go back to work as soon as they found a good childcare service and the baby reached toddler stage, but nowadays people question this former trend and it’s probably a good thing. Looking at the rate of kids nowadays getting into trouble as they don’t have any parent around, it can only be beneficial to have more time available for your children.

Other people decide to switch into a home office because of the way they like to work. Some want to work a different set of hours than the usual 9-5 as they might be nightowls and most productive in the evenings. Others want to be able to be more creative in their profession, which is often not possible in mainstream jobs in big offices. There are lots of reasons why people are starting to realise that they could work differently than they used to work, but before you take the plunge, check out this article by the Freelance Switch blogger: http://freelanceswitch.com/start/kick-starting-a-freelance-business-when-you-cant-afford-to-fail/