Bazi Profile | A Few Good Men…The Key To Your Team’s Success
His senior mentioned that as a leader, after determining the objective of a task, it is important for him to look for “a few good men” who will work passionately with him to accomplish the task. It was not too many months ago when he was spending countless nights planning and discussing with his team mates for a training camp for his juniors. He often complained about not having the support of his team mates or that they do not see eye-to-eye with his ideas. What great advice his senior who was only 16 then, gave my son!
For a team to be high performing, the leader’s vision, action, communication and decision-making skills are critical especially when change or crisis is involved. For a team to be cohesive and motivated, besides the steering leadership involved, good communication amongst the team members or what some would call “camaraderie”, is critical.
In the course of my research and practice of the 2,000-year-old metaphysical study of Bazi, I was pleasantly surprised that we can utilize this system to understand human characteristics and behaviour through their Bazi Profile. With Bazi profiling as a tool, we can identify the communication, decision-making preferences as well as the work styles and most suitable job roles of the various profiles. Once we are aware of and understand our leader’s, colleagues’ or subordinates’ strengths, inherent talents, communication and decision making styles through their Bazi Profile, we can learn and adapt the way we interact with others so that it will be easier to achieve common objectives and build better rapport with them.
Let us use some examples to elaborate how different profiles will react differently to a similar situation.
In the event of a fire, the reactions of the Bazi Profiles will be as follows:
Bazi Profile
•Director[1] – “Let’s go put out the fire!”
•Diplomat[1] – “Let’s take a look at what is the best way to extinguish the fire.”
•Analyzer[1] – “How and why did the fire started?”
Figure 1 – extracted from the book “Being Happy and Successful At Work and In Your Career[4]”
Figure 2 – extracted from the book “Being Happy and Successful At Work and In Your Career[4]”
I just finished a discussion with a client on recruiting, retaining staff and building an effective team. When building an effective team, similar to the above phrase “a few good men” (it could be “a few good women” or “a mix of men and women”), it is important to understand the team’s objective or mission so that you can recruit, retain and motivate the team towards its goals. Just like what my business mentor Mr Benjamin Avancena (CEO and a Founding Partner of OneAsia Healthcare Solutions Pte Ltd) says: “It is critical to first have an ‘inventory’ checklist of the resources available; especially the people involved in accomplishing the task, identify the ‘gaps’ and recruit the right people for the right roles.
When identifying the appropriate team members, it is important for us to be aware of our strengths, weaknesses and areas of deficiency. Once we are aware, we can utilize or engage the necessary resources at the appropriate stage of our team’s project or business venture in order to have success. For instance, if our team does not have someone with an Analyzer[1] or Philosopher[1] Bazi Profile, it will mean that most of the team members do not enjoy doing thorough market research. It is crucial to engage someone or outsource this preparatory stage, which is vital for the start of any new concept project or business venture for investigating the needs of the target market, their preferences, potential competition and threats.
Many experts on entrepreneurship and leadership purport and emphasize that having a common vision, getting everyone on the team to have ownership of this vision and repeating it often is crucial. However, it is one thing to have a common vision; it is another to break this vision down to the day-to-day tasks aimed at achieving this vision. You may ask, how do you get everyone to understand things from each other’s perspective when they are implementing the strategies? How do you get everyone to set aside their differences in opinion and expertise to work in tandem and harmony when achieving the set objectives?
As highlighted in a recent study[3] by Luci Leykum and Holly Lanham, researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, on the relationships at play within teams of physicians at hospitals: trust among team members and mindfulness of alternative points of view are critical elements of a functional team.
This is where the understanding of the various profiles of your team members becomes important. By utilizing the Bazi personality profiling system[1] as a tool to understand yourself and your team, there will be a better understanding of each team member’s character, strength areas, interaction style and work approach.
Similar to one of my training sessions for a client who wanted her department members “not to just see things only from their own perspective,” it is good to have sessions where team members, grouped according to their different profiles, can spend time investigating or tackling similar situations in more relaxed and learning environments. Through these exercises, case studies and the exposure to the different approaches that are shared and recommended from the viewpoints of the different profiles, team members will become more open-minded and empathetic as they begin to understand the rationale and work style of each others’ profiles. In the long run, this will definitely contribute to an organization’s continuous efforts to team building, harmony and effectiveness.
If you would like to know your unique personality profile based on the time-tested Bazi – Asian personality profiling system, you can get the following personalized reports online:
Janet Yung (amazon.com/author/janetyung)
Feng Shui and Bazi Consultant. Author. Harmony Adviser.
References:
[1]Terms utilized from Joey Yap’s Bazi Profiling system.
[2]Yung, J. (2012). Being Happy and Successful At Work and in Your Career. Kuala Lumpur, MY: JY Productions Sdn. Bhd. ISBN 978-9670310527
[3]Heidrick, R. (2012). How to Build a Better Team: Trust, Mindfulness, and Flexibility. Retrieved from http://www.texasenterprise.utexas.edu
