Big Five for team coaches: how to prepare a team session with personal user guides

As a team coach, you don't want to spend the first session guessing. Guessing who decides quickly and who needs time to think, who seeks out conflict and who avoids it, why two people keep talking past each other. A Big Five profile for every team member gives you a picture in advance, and gives the team a shared language for talking about working preferences.

This article walks through how to prepare and run a team session with personal user guides based on the Big Five. From individual guides as input to concrete team agreements afterwards, including a half-day session outline.

Why use the Big Five in team coaching?

The Big Five is a widely researched model that describes personality on five dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional sensitivity. For team coaching that brings a few advantages.

• Scales instead of boxes. Nobody is a type. People have preferences that are more or less pronounced.
• No preference is better. Reserved is not better than outgoing, flexible not better than focused. That makes it easier to discuss differences neutrally.
• Recognisable behaviour. The dimensions match what you see in teams: how people deal with change, planning, social energy, collaboration and pressure.

The chart below shows how the preferences on the five dimensions are spread across 2,705 profiles on Personal User Guide.

Conventional11%Curious43%Progressive46%

Flexible19%Methodical35%Focused46%

Quiet25%Merry40%Dominant36%

Competitive13%Reasonable44%Compassionate43%

Undisturbable47%Relaxed37%Sensitive16%

If you want to go through the dimensions again, read the Big Five explained.

Step 1: individual guides as input

Ask every team member to take the personality test a few weeks before the session. Each person then gets a personal user guide: a description of how they communicate, collaborate, make decisions and respond to change and stress.

• Explain the purpose. Make clear that the guide is a starting point for conversation, not an assessment. Nobody is judged on a profile.
• Ask team members to read their own guide and highlight what fits and what doesn't. That recognition, or the lack of it, is valuable input for the session.
• Agree on visibility. Be clear upfront about who can see which guides.

As the coach, you read each guide from your own perspective. Note what stands out: where are the pronounced preferences, and where does someone sit in the middle?

Step 2: reading the team guide

The team guide brings all profiles together. You see the team's average profile, the spread on each dimension and the outliers: team members who sit clearly outside the group line. Three questions help when reading it.

1. Where is the team alike? A team that sits strongly on one side of a dimension often shares a strength there, and a blind spot. A team where nearly everyone wants to decide fast may miss risks that nobody voices.
2. Where is the spread large? Big differences are not a problem, but they are a place where alignment is needed.
3. Who sits outside the group line? An outlier often brings a perspective the rest is missing. At the same time, that person risks feeling like the odd one out. Name it carefully and never as a problem.

Take an example team of six on conscientiousness. Where people sit on the scale shows where the team needs agreements, for example about planning and structure.

Liam GreenFlexible

Sandra ScottFlexible

Natalie MillerMethodical

Jack DavisMethodical

Ryan BakerMethodical

Peter KingFocused

FlexibleFocused

These are the demo profiles of the example team on Personal User Guide.

The playbook turns the team guide into three priorities, observations and deeper questions, with a print-ready PDF for the session. Use it as a starting point and add what you know from the intake and your own observations.

Step 3: zooming in on two working styles

Often one specific working relationship is at play: between a team leader and a team member, or between two colleagues who need to coordinate a lot. With gap view you compare two guides from a neutral perspective. You see where they recognise each other, where they complement each other and where there is a predictable risk of misunderstanding.

Use this mainly in your preparation or in a separate conversation with the pair, not to analyse two people in front of the whole group. Gap view: compare two personal user manuals shows how such a conversation can go.

Step 4: strengths under pressure

Every strength has a downside when pressure rises. Someone who is usually thorough may get stuck in detail. Someone who is usually decisive may override others. The risk analysis shows for each team member which behaviour can become less flexible under pressure, overall and per dimension.

That is valuable information for a coach, but also sensitive. Ideally discuss it one to one first, or let team members choose what they share with the group. In the group, an open question works well: "What do you see from me when things get tense, and what helps me then?"

A half-day session outline

Here is an example of a session of about three hours. Adjust the timings and parts to the team and its question.

1. Opening and purpose (15 minutes). Why are we here and what do we want to have by the end? Repeat that the guides are a starting point, not a verdict.
2. Recognition in pairs (30 minutes). Team members tell each other what they recognise in their own guide, what doesn't fit and what they want others to know about them.
3. The team picture (40 minutes). Show the team overview and ask what stands out before you explain anything yourself. Discuss where the team is alike and where the spread is large. Link it to the work: "Where do you notice this?"
4. Break (15 minutes).
5. Pressure and tension (40 minutes). Discuss how people react under pressure and what they need from each other then. Work from recognisable situations, such as a deadline, a customer complaint or a sudden change of priorities.
6. Making agreements (30 minutes). Choose two or three themes and write one agreement per theme that everyone can actually carry out. Concrete and checkable: who does what, and when.
7. Closing (10 minutes). What is everyone taking away, and when will you look back?

1. 1
   StartOpening and recognition in pairs

   Set the purpose and repeat that the guides are a starting point. Team members then share what they recognise in their own guide.

2. 2
   ExploreTeam picture, pressure and tension

   Discuss where the team is alike and where the spread is large. After the break, explore how people react under pressure and what they need from each other.

3. 3
   AgreeMaking agreements and closing

   Write one concrete, checkable agreement per theme. Close with what everyone takes away and when you will look back.

Agreements that stick

The session is only the beginning. Agreements fade quickly if nobody brings them back. That follow-up is where team coaching differs from a one-off team training.

• Record the agreements somewhere the team actually uses, not in a report nobody opens.
• Plan a short review after four to six weeks: which agreement works, which doesn't, and what will you adjust?
• Encourage team members to share their personal user guide with new colleagues. That way the shared language survives when the team changes.

Three pitfalls

The profile as an explanation. "That's just how he is" ends the conversation. Use preferences to ask questions, not to excuse behaviour.

Too much information. Five dimensions, spread, outliers and risks: it is tempting to show everything. Choose what is relevant to the team's question.

Personality as the only lens. Roles, structure, workload and context also shape how a team works. A profile is one perspective, not the full picture.

Getting started

Do you work with teams and want to use personal user guides in your programmes? Take a look at the pricing for coaches, and start with your own guide so you experience what your team members will see.

Organisations looking for support use the find a team coach page to get in touch with coaches directly. Looking for a coach who works with the Big Five yourself? Find a team coach and ask in your first message how they work with personal user guides.

Frequently asked questions

How do you use the Big Five in a team session?

Ask team members to take the test beforehand, read the individual guides and the team guide, and use similarities and differences as a starting point for conversations about real work situations. Close with agreements you review after a few weeks.

Do all team members have to share their profile with the team?

Agree on that upfront. Work with clear arrangements about who sees which guide, and let team members choose what they bring into the group, especially for sensitive parts such as behaviour under pressure.

Why the Big Five rather than a type model?

The Big Five uses scales instead of types, and no preference is better than another. That makes it well suited to discussing differences without putting people in boxes.

How much preparation does a Big Five team session take?

Allow time to read every guide and the team guide, plus an intake conversation with the client. The playbook gives you a first structure, which you add to with what you know about the team.