What is a Stabilizing Team?
Introduction to Team Types
What is a Team Type?
What is an Exploring Team?
What is a Bolstering Team?
What is a Cultivating Team?
What is an Anchoring Team?
What is a Stabilizing Team?
What is an Executing Team?
What is a Producing Team?
What is a Pathfinding Team?
What is an Adapting Team?
Introducing the Stabilizing Team
A Stabilizing Team is one of the nine Team Types identified by The Predictive Index.
Stabilizing Teams are known for being “by-the-book” and cautious with risk. Stabilizing Teams work together in a transactional manner with clear expectations about who does what and when. They share information on a “need to know” basis. With clearly delineated roles and tasks, they’re structured to avoid conflict. When conflict does happen, they may be slow to address it—and may prioritize damage control over relationship repair.
Natural Strengths
- Consistent and efficient
- Well-defined chain of command
- Clear expectations for how work gets done
Caution Areas
- Rigid structure may restrict how team members work.
- Team processes may create artificial roadblocks.
- Focusing on what’s practical may stifle creativity.
“I’m a Marketing Director leading a Stabilizing Team. As an Altruist, I thrive on structure and rules. Stabilizing Teams are known for being structured, practical, and ‘by-the-book’ so it’s great to lead a team that’s wired similarly to me. At the same time, our natural tendencies can mean that we seek perfection, over-engineer our work, and create obstacles to getting things done. This can slow us down. And we’re pursuing an Exploring Strategy, which means we need to move fast while remaining flexible! This requires self-awareness and coaching.”
— Erin Balsa
The science of a Stabilizing Team
A Team Type is a collection of individuals’ behavioral patterns, as plotted within the Team Discovery tool. Team Discovery aggregates each individual’s PI Behavioral Assessment results. Then, using PI’s proprietary calculations, the tool plots each team member against a four-quadrant map. This lets you visualize the degree to which each person falls in one quadrant versus another. For a team whose members primarily fall within the Process and Precision quadrant, you will often result in a Stabilizing Team.
But it’s not this placement alone that determines the Team Type. As mentioned, we have to consider how strongly individuals fall within each quadrant, so there are cases where you might get results that don’t seem as obvious, even if a large portion of the members fall within one quadrant. To better understand how these individuals are plotted, check out the video below.
Your business is not something you want to leave up to chance. To ensure a well-oiled machine, you need to understand how it runs and how to tune it. That means considering the behavioral traits of each new team member and how their traits can complement or balance the team they’re joining.
The Process & Precision quadrant
A Stabilizing Team is most commonly associated with this quadrant, but a team can have individuals from any quadrant.
- Focus on process and predictability
- Prefer analytical decision making
- Communicate after thorough reflection on their own
Getting the best out of your team
With each team, there are strengths you want to lean on, as well as caution areas you should account for. Based on what you’ve learned about Stabilizing Teams, use the interactive below to determine some actions to get the most from your team.
You shouldn’t just rely on your Team Type to achieve success. Although it’s important, there is also another factor to consider, and that’s your Team Strategy.