During my trip to Tampa last week at the ACVA Convention, I was asked at the end of my presentation about the athlete's personality and what affect does that have on performance.  Below was my brief answer:

• LIke everything else, personality definitely has value and is of importance when managing players on a team
• The word personality comes from the Latin word Persona...meaning mask
• While traditional Sports Psychology assessments measure personality, Sports Axiology is able to objectively measure what's behind the mask
• Which has a greater impact by your players on winning or losing a game...your player's personality or their decision making ability during the actual performance

While personality styles contribute to social cohesion, a player's value pattern can provide a much deeper level of insight and understanding into why a person makes decisions the way they do and can therefore have a greater impact on task cohesion. 

Which do you tend to focus on when dealing with players...their personality style or their value pattern?  Most coaches tend to say personality because that is the easiest to see (i.e. 'mask') and react to, but just imagine the power of knowing a player's value pattern and how they make decisions?  Not only does this allow me to coach at a much more effective level, but it helps me to understand and communicate with athletes in a more meaningful way.