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One of the hardest parts about running a small business (or even a medium business, or even a very large business) is working with the people. This is one of the toughest things, but also one of the greatest.

One of the biggest sources of joy is to see people perform beyond what they ever imagined, but also one of the greatest areas of hurt and pain and angst, as you try to look after people, but they don't do what you expect or hoped,  or in fact, things that are downright awful.    

And so, the human resources element of running a small business is often about personalities. As we develop the skills to be able to deal with this, it’s often better to put the correct personality of a person in front of the other person. This is how we build teams. Most teenage boys understand this through playing FIFA, the online football game on Xbox or PlayStation, where they have to build a team that has ‘chemistry’. Building a team in your own place that has chemistry is critical, so understanding the advantages of who you bring in, and why you bring them in and what roles you give them is fundamental and often needs deep thought, understanding and insight.

The other side of this, though, is what happens when you end up in dispute with someone that you work with, when someone does something that you didn't expect or elicits behaviours that you feel are unacceptable. The courses of action you always have in those situations are, number one, to completely extinguish the person immediately.  If you're the boss, you always have that opportunity. It may cost you a lot of money if you do it wrong, but it's still your choice.

Number two is to try to coach someone formally or informally, try to improve them using a carrot or a stick method, normally known as a performance management review or otherwise.

The third method is discussion (Chris Barrows, all problems exist in the absence of a good conversation). The only problem with 0.3, which is almost always the best way to resolve almost every problem, is that a good conversation only works if both people speak and both people listen, and this is where the personality thing comes in.

Sometimes when personalities do not connect, it's very hard to hear the opinion of someone else, very hard to absorb it or accept it.  As a leader, this becomes one of your most important skills; it's why people with emotional intelligence tend to do better leading than people who don't have emotional intelligence.

Often, the generalist is a leader who has the emotional intelligence, and the specialist, who is more of a spectrum thinker, works solo or in a smaller team, but the personality thing and understanding the personality thing is the most important part of all of it.

Taking a step back in circumstances of difficulty and understanding who you're speaking to, why you're speaking to them, and what their motivations are. That's something that's useful to learn, useful to be able to do whatever tricks or tools you need to do it.

It's a minefield, HR, you can systematise as much as you like, but you cannot make allowances for personalities.

That's an art, not a science.

Colin Campbell, Chris Barrow, and an intrepid group of dentists will be cycling across the plains of Tanzania from Kilimanjaro in early February 2026. If you would like to support the charity, Bridge to Aid,  and this extraordinary challenge, please click here.

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