Avoiding Roadblocks: 10 Common Mistakes to Steer Clear of When Managing SYNCHRONIZERs

Successfully managing a diverse team requires not only knowing what to do but also understanding what not to do, especially when interacting with different personality types. For individuals with the SYNCHRONIZER profile, certain common management approaches can inadvertently create stress, stifle motivation, and hinder performance. These individuals, characterized by their warmth, sensitivity, and core need for personal connection and harmony, react negatively to environments and interactions that disregard their emotional well-being and relational needs. Understanding and consciously avoiding these potential pitfalls is critical for fostering a positive environment where SYNCHRONIZERs feel safe, valued, and empowered to contribute effectively.

1. Don’t Create or Tolerate an Emotionally Cold/Impersonal Environment

1. • Mistake: Fostering or allowing a workplace atmosphere that lacks warmth, personal connection, empathy, and focuses solely on tasks and efficiency without regard for interpersonal relationships
   • Negative Consequences: SYNCHRONIZERs perceive the world through emotions and crave interpersonal relational comfort and closeness. An emotionally cold environment feels inherently “hostile” and unsafe to them. It directly thwarts their need to be recognized as a person, making them feel invisible, unvalued, and like “just a number”. This leads to significant distress, demotivation, reduced engagement, and difficulty working effectively, potentially triggering their distress sequence (starting with the Please You Driver).
   • How to Rectify: Intentionally cultivate a culture of warmth and psychological safety. Encourage friendly interactions, team bonding, and expressions of mutual support. Lead by example by showing genuine personal interest in team members . Prioritize building positive relationships alongside achieving tasks. Ensure communication includes personal touches and empathy .
   • Real-life Example: A manager strictly forbids non-work-related chat during office hours and conducts meetings with a purely transactional agenda. A SYNCHRONIZER on the team feels isolated and demotivated. Rectification: The manager could initiate brief, friendly check-ins, allow for short social interactions during breaks, and start meetings with a quick personal greeting to foster connection.
2. Don’t Rely Primarily on an Autocratic Management Style
   • Mistake: Managing SYNCHRONIZERs predominantly through direct orders, commands, and top-down directives without seeking input, providing relational context, or showing personal consideration.
   • Negative Consequences: SYNCHRONIZERs thrive under a benevolent management style . An autocratic approach feels controlling, impersonal, and dismissive of their feelings and perspectives . It fails to meet their need for personal recognition and connection, making them feel dictated to rather than collaborated with. This can stifle their initiative, reduce motivation, and damage trust .
   • How to Rectify: Embrace a more benevolent and collaborative leadership style. Use the Nurturative communication style , involve them in decisions where appropriate, explain the ‘why’ behind tasks, and prioritize building a supportive relationship alongside managing tasks. Show care and offer support .
   • Real-life Example: A manager assigns tasks to a SYNCHRONIZER via curt emails listing only instructions and deadlines. The employee feels like a machine. Rectification: The manager could call briefly or add a personal note to the email, explaining the task’s importance to the team and offering support (“Let me know if you have any questions or need help getting started”).
3. Don’t Neglect Providing Recognition as a Person
   • Mistake: Focusing recognition solely on task completion or performance metrics while overlooking the individual’s personal qualities, efforts towards team harmony, or inherent value as a person.
   • Negative Consequences: This is perhaps the most critical mistake. The need to be recognized as a person is the SYNCHRONIZER’s primary psychological driver. Neglecting this leaves their core need unmet, leading directly to demotivation, distress, and potentially activating their failure mechanisms (like making mistakes to get any attention). They won’t feel truly valued if only their output is acknowledged .
   • How to Rectify: Make personal recognition a regular practice. Acknowledge their positive attitude, kindness, helpfulness, empathy, or contributions to a positive team atmosphere. Use their name, express sincere appreciation for them, not just their work. Integrate personal check-ins into routines .
   • Real-life Example: A SYNCHRONIZER consistently helps colleagues and fosters a positive environment but only receives praise when exceeding sales targets. They start feeling unseen and their engagement drops. Rectification: The manager should also explicitly praise their teamwork and positive influence: “Jane, I really appreciate how you always support your colleagues; it makes a huge difference to our team spirit.”
4. Don’t Communicate Solely Through Impersonal Styles
   • Mistake: Consistently using communication methods (e.g., purely factual emails, data-heavy presentations, directive commands) that lack warmth, empathy, or personal connection, thereby failing to engage their preferred Nurturative communication style
   • Negative Consequences: Communication that ignores their emotional needs feels disconnecting and invalidating. They may struggle to fully process information or feel motivated by communication that doesn’t resonate emotionally. This can lead to misunderstandings and a breakdown in rapport.
   • How to Rectify: Consciously choose warmer communication communication style where appropriate (face-to-face, video call over impersonal email). Regardless of the style, infuse communication with warmth, use their name, express empathy, and acknowledge the human element.
   • Real-life Example: Announcing a major team change via a generic, fact-only memo without acknowledging potential feelings or offering a space for questions. Rectification: Follow up the memo with a team meeting using a Nurturative approach, acknowledging potential concerns and inviting open discussion with empathy.
5. Don’t Dismiss or Belittle Their Emotional Expressions
   • Mistake: Invalidating, ignoring, minimizing, or criticizing a SYNCHRONIZER’s expressed feelings or emotional responses to situations.
   • Negative Consequences: Since they perceive and process through emotions, dismissing their feelings is akin to dismissing their reality. It can make them feel misunderstood, foolish, or rejected, directly impacting their sense of self-worth (“Am I loveable?”) and psychological safety. This can shut down communication and trigger significant distress.
   • How to Rectify: Practice active, empathetic listening. Acknowledge and validate their feelings, even if you perceive the situation differently (“I understand why that would make you feel frustrated”). Create a safe space where expressing emotion constructively is acceptable.
   • Real-life Example: A SYNCHRONIZER expresses anxiety about a tight deadline, and the manager replies, “Don’t be silly, it’s perfectly manageable, just get on with it.” Rectification: The manager could respond, “I hear your concern about the deadline. It sounds like you’re feeling pressured. Let’s look at the timeline together and see what support you might need.”
6. Don’t Force Them into Highly Competitive or Conflict-Ridden Environments
   • Mistake: Placing SYNCHRONIZERs in roles or teams characterized by intense internal competition, aggressive dynamics, or unresolved conflict without adequate support or mitigation strategies.
   • Negative Consequences: Such environments directly contradict their need for harmony and interpersonal relational comfort. The constant stress of navigating hostility or competition drains their energy, hinders their performance, and can lead to significant emotional distress or burnout.
   • How to Rectify: Strive to create collaborative team cultures. If competition is inherent (e.g., sales), balance it with team-based goals and recognition for supportive behaviors. Provide robust conflict resolution processes. Shield SYNCHRONIZERs from unnecessary negativity where possible.
   • Real-life Example: Assigning a SYNCHRONIZER to lead a project team known for its internal rivalries and lack of cooperation without providing tools or support for managing the dynamic. Rectification: Provide the SYNCHRONIZER with conflict resolution training, set clear expectations for respectful collaboration within the team, and check in regularly to offer support in navigating the dynamics.
7. Don’t Overlook the Importance of Positive Relationships for Motivation
   • Mistake: Assuming that task interest, salary, or career progression are sufficient motivators, while ignoring the critical role that positive, supportive relationships with colleagues and managers play in a SYNCHRONIZER’s engagement.
   • Negative Consequences: For SYNCHRONIZERs, the quality of relationships is often a primary determinant of job satisfaction and motivation. Even if the work is interesting, a poor relational environment or a bad relationship with a key person can lead to demotivation, disengagement, and potentially attrition.
   • How to Rectify: Actively invest in building positive team relationships. Facilitate team bonding, encourage peer support, and model respectful, collaborative interactions. Recognize that time spent nurturing relationships is not wasted but contributes directly to motivation and productivity for SYNCHRONIZERs.
   • Real-life Example: A manager focuses solely on individual performance metrics and ignores simmering tensions between team members, assuming everyone will “just be professional.” A SYNCHRONIZER on the team becomes increasingly withdrawn and unproductive due to the negative atmosphere. Rectification: The manager needs to address the team dynamics directly, facilitate communication, and reinforce the importance of mutual support.
8. Don’t Misinterpret Over-Adaptation (“Please You” Driver)
   • Mistake: Taking a SYNCHRONIZER’s tendency to readily agree or accommodate (especially when under stress) at face value, assuming it reflects genuine capacity or agreement without checking further.
   • Negative Consequences: The “Please You” Driver can lead SYNCHRONIZERs to overcommit or suppress their own needs/concerns to avoid conflict or gain approval. Mistaking this for genuine willingness can lead to them becoming overwhelmed, stressed, and ultimately making mistakes or burning out. It can also prevent managers from understanding the true workload or potential issues.
   • How to Rectify: Look beyond the initial agreement. Gently probe for underlying concerns or capacity issues: “Thanks for being willing to help, Sarah. Just checking in, how does this fit with your current workload? I want to make sure it’s manageable.” Encourage them to be honest about their capacity and make it safe for them to say “no” or negotiate.
   • Real-life Example: A SYNCHRONIZER immediately says “Yes, of course!” when asked to take on a last-minute, complex task, despite looking visibly stressed. The manager assumes all is well. Rectification: The manager should follow up: “I appreciate your willingness, but I also see you have a lot on your plate. Let’s quickly look at priorities together to make sure this is feasible without overwhelming you.”
9. Don’t Respond to Mistakes with Harshness or Blame
   • Mistake: Reacting to errors made by a SYNCHRONIZER (especially if they are already showing signs of distress) with anger, sharp criticism, public reprimands, or a blame-focused approach.
   • Negative Consequences: When SYNCHRONIZERs make mistakes, particularly in second-degree distress (Drooper mask ), they often already feel inadequate or helpless. Harsh responses confirm their worst fears, deepen their distress, damage trust, and shut down their willingness to take risks or learn from the error. It reinforces the negative cycle rather than correcting the behavior.
   • How to Rectify: Approach mistakes as learning opportunities. Focus on understanding why the mistake happened (was it unclear instructions, lack of resources, feeling overwhelmed due to over-adaptation?). Address the issue privately, calmly, and supportively. Focus on solutions and prevention, reassuring them of their overall value.
   • Real-life Example: A manager shouts at a SYNCHRONIZER in a team meeting for a typo in a presentation. The SYNCHRONIZER becomes visibly upset and withdrawn. Rectification: The manager should address the typo privately later: “Hey, I noticed a small typo here. Let’s get it corrected. Just wanted to give you a heads-up for next time. How are things going otherwise?”
10. Don’t Ignore Their Sensory Needs
    • Mistake: Disregarding the impact of the physical work environment and the sensory aspects of communication on a SYNCHRONIZER’s comfort and well-being.
    • Negative Consequences: While often subtle, consistent exposure to unpleasant sensory input (noise, clutter, harsh lighting, uncomfortable temperature) can act as a chronic low-level stressor, draining energy and impacting mood. Ignoring this aspect means missing an opportunity to enhance their comfort and motivation.
    • How to Rectify: Be mindful of creating a generally pleasant and comfortable work atmosphere . Allow for personalization of workspaces. Choose comfortable meeting locations. Use a warm and pleasant tone of voice in communications . Solicit feedback on environmental comfort where appropriate.
    • Real-life Example: Consistently holding important team meetings in a cold, sterile, windowless conference room with uncomfortable chairs. Rectification: Where possible, choose more pleasant meeting spaces, ensure comfortable seating, perhaps bring in coffee or water, and start with a warm welcome.

Handling Mistakes: Keeping Energy High

When a SYNCHRONIZER makes a mistake, the manager’s response is critical to either restoring or further depleting their energy. To keep their energy and motivation intact, avoid:

• Cold Detachment: Maintain warmth and connection.
• Harsh Criticism/Blame: Focus on learning and solutions.
• Public Reprimands: Address issues privately and respectfully.
• Dismissing Feelings: Acknowledge any upset or frustration they feel.
• Ignoring Context: Understand why the mistake might have happened (stress, over-adaptation?).
• Creating Fear: Foster psychological safety, not fear of error.
• Autocratic Tone: Use a supportive, collaborative tone.
• Ignoring Relational Impact: Acknowledge if the error affected others and discuss resolution kindly.
• Rushing Solutions: Validate feelings before problem-solving.
• Assuming Negative Intent: Mistakes are often linked to distress, not malice.

Instead, approach with empathy, focus on support, collaboratively find solutions, and reaffirm their value as a person.

Use Cases: Guiding SYNCHRONIZERs Through Mistakes Towards Goals

The goal when a SYNCHRONIZER makes a mistake isn’t harsh control, but supportive guidance that corrects the issue while preserving motivation and leveraging their desire to contribute positively.

• Usecase 1: Overlooked Detail Due to Conflict Avoidance
  • Situation: Sarah (SYNCHRONIZER) missed a key requirement in a team report because challenging a dominant colleague felt too confrontational.
  • Guidance: Manager (using Nurturative/Requestive approach): “Sarah, thanks for pulling this report together under pressure. I value your collaborative spirit [Personal Recognition]. I noticed requirement ‘X’ seems to be missing, and I know sometimes team dynamics can make things tricky [Acknowledging Context/Feeling]. Can we look at it together? Ensuring all requirements are met is crucial for the client [Linking to Goal/Relational Impact]. How can I support you in integrating this piece smoothly?”
  • Motivation Towards Goal: By validating the potential difficulty (“team dynamics”), offering collaborative support, and linking the correction to a positive outcome for the client (appealing to their desire to help), the manager motivates Sarah to fix the issue without triggering deep distress. The goal is achieved through support and appealing to her relational values.
• Usecase 2: Errors from Over-Commitment
  • Situation: Mark (SYNCHRONIZER), trying to please multiple managers, rushed several tasks and made data entry errors.
  • Guidance: Supervisor (using Benevolent/Nurturative style): “Mark, I know you’ve been juggling a lot, and I really appreciate you stepping up to help everyone [Personal Recognition]. I did spot a few data errors here, and I’m wondering if the workload is feeling overwhelming right now? [Empathy/Checking In]. Accuracy is key for this process [Goal]. Let’s prioritize together and maybe talk about how to manage multiple requests so you feel supported and can focus on quality [Support/Solution Focus].”
  • Motivation Towards Goal: The focus is on support and workload management, not blame. By acknowledging his positive intent (helping others) and offering practical solutions (prioritization, managing requests), the supervisor helps Mark regain control and motivates him towards the goal of accuracy by providing the necessary support structure, appealing to his desire to do well when properly supported.
• Usecase 3: Decision Hesitation
  • Situation: Lisa (SYNCHRONIZER Team Lead) delays assigning an unpopular but necessary task to avoid upsetting a specific team member.
  • Guidance: Mentor (using Nurturative/Requestive approach): “Lisa, I sense you’re finding the task assignment difficult, perhaps because you’re concerned about [Team Member]’s reaction? Your care for the team’s feelings is a real strength [Personal Recognition/Validating Feeling]. It’s tough balancing individual feelings with team needs [Empathy]. Can we brainstorm ways to communicate this assignment that explains the necessity clearly but also acknowledges it might be challenging, ensuring [Team Member] feels supported? [Collaborative Problem-Solving]”
  • Motivation Towards Goal: The mentor validates Lisa’s feelings and values (caring for the team) but reframes the challenge. By focusing on how to communicate with empathy and support while still moving forward with the necessary task, the mentor helps Lisa align her actions with both her values and the team’s goals. The motivation comes from finding a way to achieve the goal harmoniously.

Avoiding these common management mistakes is fundamental to creating a workplace where SYNCHRONIZERs can not only perform but thrive. By prioritizing authentic personal connection, empathetic communication, a harmonious environment, and genuine appreciation, managers can directly meet the core psychological needs that drive this personality type. When mistakes inevitably happen, responding with support, understanding, and a focus on collaborative solutions—rather than criticism or blame—preserves their energy and reinforces their motivation. Leading SYNCHRONIZERs effectively is less about control and more about connection; master these “Don’ts,” embrace the “Do’s,” and you will cultivate a loyal, engaged, and highly valuable asset to your team.