In today’s fast-paced business environment, effective change management is crucial for success. In the following article our founder, Charles Pulliam, explains the transformative AWE PHACTOR framework. The AWE PHACTOR framework was designed to help leaders navigate organizational change and drive strategic objectives. Click the link below to learn more about creating a resilient, adaptable, and high-performing team.
Author: rob.thomas
The Benefits and Pitfalls of DEI&A Training
The true value of DEI&A training is not often fully understood or utilized in the today’s workplace. In this article, Robert Dodds emphasizes the importance of proper DEI&A training, and how it has been proven to help grow your business. If you need help employing DEI&A training to reach the full potential of your business, give us a call today. We can put together a healthy DEI&A plan catered to your company’s unique needs and values.
To view the article, click the download link below. As always, for more calm, clarity, and business insight, follow us on social media or contact us today!
The Ebenezer Effect
Solushien’s is proud to present our first white paper, the Ebenezer Effect. This leadership ponderable explains how leveraging shared experiences can lead to the retention of a quality workforce. To download, click the ‘Download’ button below. For more insights and advice, follow us on social media.
Should you use personality tests in the workplace?
What’s your impression of personality tests? Maybe you’ve taken one as a job candidate, or perhaps you’ve used them to better understand your workforce. Depending on that experience, the execution, and the test itself, your mileage may vary. Personality testing can be quite a polarizing subject. But not all personality tests are the same. There are quite a few tools, such as psychometric evaluations, as well as behavioral and cognitive assessments, that we tend to erroneously lump under the same umbrella. In this post, we’ll unpack some of the misconceptions and limitations of personality testing, while also exploring:
- What are the most common workplace personality tests?
- What are some of the benefits of personality testing for employees?
- How does talent optimization go beyond personality testing?
If your goal is to determine whether personality testing can be a boon to hiring, your current employees, or your company culture, read on. You want to be clear on your options, and whether there’s a better approach for your organization’s needs.
What are the most common workplace personality tests?
A lot of things that aren’t personality tests get mislabeled. And many of the most commonly used tools, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, are not actually validated for workplace selection. That said, here are some of the most common personality tests, and what they aim to achieve:
- DiSC assessments help individuals and managers make daily workplace improvements.
- Five-factor models (also referred to as “Big Five” tests) have many variations, and gauge an individual based on the five “major dimensions of personality.”
- The Jung personality test assesses how you prefer to deal with different people, processes, and information.
- The MBTI test helps someone “recognize his or her true preferences” as they pertain to perception, judgment, and decision-making.
All of these evaluators (and others) have two key things in common: They’re free, and they’re not scientifically validated by a third party. Neither of those facts is disqualifying on its own, but it’s important context if you’re considering them for workplace use.
If you’re an HR director or people manager working with a limited budget, but still trying to gain an understanding of different personalities in the workplace, you start somewhere. Any of these tools may be helpful in identifying the personality traits and work styles of team members, but they’re not comprehensive. They are but one piece to a larger puzzle.
If you want to truly understand how those tendencies play out in the workplace, you need to go deeper.
What are some of the benefits of personality testing for employees?
Personality tests are most effective when you use them in conjunction with other tools. You may benefit from a high-level snapshot of someone’s personality traits in the recruiting process, but that will only take you so far. You need to also have a clear idea of what gaps you’re aiming to fill, whether you’re evaluating an outside candidate or an existing employee.
If talent strategy is a priority (and it should be), you’ll hire for job fit. To ensure you’re hiring the right people for the right roles, look at your existing team dynamics — namely your Team Type. This provides a baseline from which to start, with the strengths and strongest drives of the group already plotted and visualized. From there, a personality test can help you identify a candidate or existing employee with appropriate levels of:
- Extraversion/Introversion
- Agreeableness
- Steadiness
- Conscientiousness
Personality testing can also provide some insight into more abstract traits, such as neuroticism, but it’s generally not going to account for culture fit on its own. These tools may help you better understand an individual’s tendencies, but they’re limited in assessing potential job performance or a person’s contribution to team building efforts.
For those sorts of insights, you need to go further still…
How does talent optimization go beyond personality testing?
A talent optimized approach fosters awareness at every level: the individual, team, and the organization. It doesn’t necessarily exclude any of the aforementioned tools, but it accounts for more. PI’s behavioral and cognitive assessments, for instance, are scientifically validated (and regularly re-evaluated) by third parties.
The behavioral assessment takes you beyond the individual’s high-level traits, offering deeper insights into their workplace behavior. How does the BA work? To start, we take the word “assessment” literally. You can pass or fail a test, but the BA operates on the philosophy that all behavioral patterns are beautiful—when applied correctly. Along with a cognitive assessment and/or a job assessment, you can determine whether someone:
- Has the desired behavioral drives for team dynamics
- Can process new information quickly enough for the role
- Can assert themselves situationally where appropriate
And that’s really just scratching the surface. A talent optimized approach to filling an open role—whether with an external hire or internal promotion—has many benefits. You get a better sense of how a person will mesh with their potential manager; you also gain insights into their preferred working pace, and how that might play out within their new team.
Maybe you need a steadying presence to temper high-dominance, low-patience team members. Talent optimization provides a better sense of whether you’ll get that with a given person through the assessments, but also its other core aptitudes. The process helps underscore the significance of any change in head count.
Leveraged correctly, behavioral assessments can also promote inclusivity in the hiring process. They don’t remove bias, but they can help mitigate it, furthering your objective recruiting efforts when combined with other DEI steps.
Talent optimization is the whole picture.
Personality tests have their merits, but in a vacuum, you run the risk of pigeonholing or misjudging people from the outset. And too often, that sort of limited approach leads to external mishires or internal misfires.
Understanding how someone’s behaviors might manifest in the workplace—and specifically, your workplace—is critical to team cohesion. Don’t use this knowledge to just explain or excuse specific behaviors. Rather, leverage it in a way that promotes awareness at every level. In doing so, you’ll foster empathy, understanding, and leadership. That’s where talent optimization sets itself apart.
Want to know more about a talent optimized approach to hiring? Click here to get started.
Original blog found here. Used with permission from our partners at Predictive Index.
Why leadership agility is critical to company success
What is the future of leadership? We have spent the past year researching this topic and interviewing executives around the world.
We learned that the future is already here and that your organization’s survival is based on a number of key factors—including its ability to be agile.
The markets of today and tomorrow reward organizations that have the capacity and willingness to adapt. Market leaders have established cultures and management approaches that encourage creativity and rapid innovation. These approaches, commonly referred to as agile, encourage leaders to pivot faster in response to our volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world.
Many companies are attempting agile transformation, but without the shift in traditional leadership mindset, abilities, and development, they will be unsuccessful. It’s like putting a square peg into a round hole.
The business case for a new leadership model
We live in a fast-paced, ever-changing, disruptive time and it’s not slowing down.
- Since 2000, 52% of Fortune 500 companies no longer exist.
- Currently, 75% of all VC-funded startups don’t survive, 33% of small businesses fail, and only about 30% of family-owned businesses make it into the second generation.
- If that isn’t concerning enough, the CEO turnover rate in 2018 was the highest we’ve seen in 10 years.
Here are more troubling stats:
- Twenty-one % of millennial workers say they’ve changed jobs within the past year.
- Only half of millennials anticipate they’ll still work at their company one year from now.
- Nearly half of non-millennials say they’re open to different job opportunities.
- Two out of three U.S. workers experience professional burnout.
- Eighty-five % of employees worldwide show some level of disengagement.
We are experiencing a time of rapid innovation and advances in technology and digitization. Consumers are constantly changing what they want and need, and their expectations have never been higher, demanding 24/7 personalized service.
We are living in the “now” generation.
What are the implications? Organizations, teams, and employees need to be nimbler than ever, which implies leaders need to be agile to create agile teams and organizations.
Are you an agile leader?
What is leadership agility?
Simply put, leadership agility is the ability to effectively lead organizational change, build teams, and navigate challenging business conversations.
The five key drivers of agile leadership
The agile leader has the ability and capacity to assess risk, decide courageously, and act quickly to meet the rapidly changing environment while producing results and develop others’ capacity to do the same. We have identified five key drivers of agile leadership and 10 leadership competencies that can be leveraged, at scale, to change how organizations work and get work done.
The five key drivers of agile leadership are:
Integrity: Integrity is the foundation of agile leadership. Actions are driven by values and principles, which make leaders reliable and trustworthy. They have developed a depth of self-awareness, character, and purpose that naturally inspires those around them. Integrity is the most important leadership attribute, but it’s often overlooked or considered to be something that leaders simply have or don’t have. But we believe that any leader can develop integrity. The combination of self-awareness and accountability accelerates the development of leaders so their mindsets and behaviors are governed by principles of integrity.
Innovation: Agile leaders have an innovative approach. They exhibit a natural curiosity about their environments, introducing and encouraging new ideas and creating a learning culture. The agile leader’s role is less command and control and more facilitative. Think of an agile leader as a curator or a gardener who invests in team growth. With an unrelenting commitment to serving customers, they are willing to challenge the status quo and drive change.
Urgency: Agile leaders embody a sense of urgency. They bring focus to the organization by establishing challenging goals and maintaining a steady cadence. They make decisions quickly with imperfect data to keep the organization moving forward. Agile leaders decentralize decision-making by abandoning hierarchy in favor of self-organizing, cross-functional teams. Companies who follow the discipline of talent optimization know that selecting an organizational structure that supports the business strategy—and then updating that structure as needed—is key to success.
Engagement: Agile Leaders create engagement across the organization. They are inclusive across boundaries, generations, and geographies. They span up, out, across, and down complex networks of stakeholders to encourage cross-functional collaboration to generate optimal performance. Another key to talent optimization is the idea of developing leaders at every level. Agile leaders pull multiple levers to build engagement in individual contributors—and they understand that engagement begets productivity.
Direction: Agile leaders create direction for the organization and align people and resources to fulfill it. They focus on removing impediments and empowering teams to self-organize and take charge of their work. They are transparent in their communication and encourage a free flow of information to rapidly adapt to change. Agile leaders create an agile culture based on shared organizational values that align with your business and people strategies. Do you want a high-performing and engaged workforce? An organization that is aligned to your purpose, vision, and strategies? Be an agile leader.
Leaders, these questions can help you determine your agility.
These five key drivers of agile leadership and the 10 agile leader competencies are identifiable, observable, and measurable behaviors that are critical for a leader’s success. As you read through these, ask yourself, am I an agile leader? Is my leadership team agile? What do I and my leadership team need to do to be more agile? What does my organization need to do to be more agile?
- Self-awareness: How aware are you of your natural leadership attributes and strengths? Organizations that use talent optimization know that self-awareness helps leaders at all levels establish emotional intelligence. How do you show up under pressure and stress? How would you rate your ability to work effectively with a variety of different people and situations?
- Accountability: Are you taking ownership of your and your teams’ responsibilities and results? Are all members of your team and organization holding themselves accountable?
- Challenging the status quo: Are you having courageous dialogue, asking the tough and unpopular questions? Are you curious and comfortable in challenging the norms and sacred cows?
- Decisiveness: Are you able to make decisions, even if you don’t have 100% of the data? Are you able to take risks and pivot in a new direction?
Are you self-aware?
Use this checklist to identify gaps. >>
Used with permission from our partners at Predictive Index. Original post found HERE
Nothing said is everything…
Solushiens Partners with LeadStyle
[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″ custom_padding=”7px||2px|||”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,1_3,1_3″ _builder_version=”4.8.2″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||8px|||”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.8.2″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_image src=”https://solushiens.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Logo-SolMC-Black.png” title_text=”Logo-SolMC-Black” _builder_version=”4.9.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”|-70px||||” custom_padding=”|0px|3px|||” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.8.2″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.8.2″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” header_font_size=”50px” module_alignment=”center” custom_margin=”|||-2px||” custom_padding=”19px|39px||39px|false|true”]
+
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.8.2″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_image src=”https://solushiens.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/LeadStyle.png” title_text=”LeadStyle” _builder_version=”4.9.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-14px|||-65px||” custom_padding=”0px|||||” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″][/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” custom_padding=”8px|||||”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]
This week we signed a partnership with an incredibly talented group of Leadership Coaches who have created a personalized application and methodology we will be deploying, as applicable, in our future coaching engagements. LeadStyle was founded by Lara Dolnik and Shveta Pillai. Between them they have 40+ years of global, corporate experience across multiple industries and Fortune 500 organizations. They are ICF credentialed coaches certified in the MBTI, Gallup StrengthsFinder, EQi, and Integrative System Dynamics for Organizations.
LeadStyle takes a wholistic approach to coaching – mixing Personal, Physical, and Professional. Together with Solushiens we believe we’ve found a full life-cycle approach to coaching and leadership that starts with the employer and moves into the personal for an un-matched touch point system.
What might this look like if you partnered with Solushiens, you may ask? Above is a visual example of a recent proposal in three phases. In phase 3 we bring in LeadStyle for the ongoing and maintenance portion, which is perfectly suited for their expertise and flows seamlessly from our training.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.8.2″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]
We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions. Please drop us a note and get in touch to learn more about Solushiens or set up an appointment today.
To learn more about LeadStyle click HERE
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
What Leaders Need Most…Followers!
Is leadership truly effective without informed and committed followers? How successful can teams be without all members striving to work well together? It is interesting to note if you do an internet search for leadership books, you will find it very difficult to get to the bottom of the list. If you do a similar search for books on following, the list is sparse. Many people have written about how companies “rise and fall” on leadership. Most agree with the premise of the importance of leadership. However, we believe equal or greater focus should be put on the ability of individuals and teams to follow well. We believe following well is one of the best ways to learn leadership. We believe leaders become leaders within companies because they demonstrated the qualities and attributes becoming of a leader. Spending an unwarranted amount of time asking those same leaders to adapt to fit the teams they lead, without also hyper-focusing on each team member’s understanding of how to adapt to the unique positive traits of the leader, is counterproductive.
Visit our website www.solushiens.com to learn more or to schedule an appointment to discuss our Followship™ training services.
Spend One Day With Solushiens – Pivot to Success!!!
What if strategic planning was fast, clear, comprehensive, communicable, and executable with an investment of only a single team planning day? Solushiens has developed a one-day strategic planning methodology designed to meet ever-changing strategic planning demands driven by market uncertainty. Pivot Planning can be done at your company’s enterprise, business unit, departmental, or team levels. #clarity #intellectualproperty #leadershipdevelopment #executives #investment #reopen #team #riskmanagement #strategy #executableplans
Visit www.solushiens.com for an appointment to discuss or to schedule your planning session.
How Do I Know What I Think?
I heard a quote credited to E.M. Forster stating, “how do I know what I think until I see what I say…” How do I know what I think, until I see what I say? This profound question sent me on a reflective journey this week unlike any I can remember. The question made me consider a wide range of things like diversity and inclusion (D&I), career aspirations, fear and anxiety, strategic planning and execution, society in general, and much more.
Diversity & Inclusion: As we make snap judgements about people, how do we know what we think until we see what we say? How do we know all people in any people group are a certain way until we know someone from said people group? I venture to say, we really don’t actually know how “they” are until we have met ALL of them. I spoke about this in a presentation to a regional Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) group a few months ago. In the address I made the comment, “Social psychology is to diversity & inclusion (D&I) as on-base percentage is to the “Money Ball” story. Leaders with corporate responsibility and hiring authority will most likely hire the types of people they are familiar with… Especially leaders who are intent to mitigate risk of failure and to increase the odds of outcome achievement.” In other words, people will promote what they know. In the case of D&I, people will hire and promote who they know (figuratively of course). If hiring authorities are not personally familiar with the value of a diverse group of people, he or she is less likely to willingly hire a diverse team, especially into positions of leadership. In the Money Ball story loosing was the symptom and low on-base percentage was the underlying cause. A lack of D&I is a symptom and social psychology is the underlying cause. The real tragedy is most people make snap judgements about entire groups of people based largely upon assumptions as opposed to firsthand knowledge. How do you know what you think until you see what you say?
Career Aspiration / Fear & Anxiety: I had a conversation this week with a young professional about career aspirations. She communicated uncertainty about her ability to be successful in a job she’d never done. I reminded her of two things: 1) how do you know what you think until you see what you say and 2) embrace failure and/or the potential of failure, because a point of failure is the only way to recognize the need for improvement. There is no improvement apart from failure. Attributes and efforts make people successful, not the jobs they do. I advised her to stop looking for a job and to work to pay attention to what she loves. I encouraged her to find a place in which she can do the things she loves most often. Passions are catalytic to successful pursuits. Jobs are to passions as 501 (c) 3 is to non-profits. 501 (c) 3 is simply the tax code giving non-profits the right to function as they do. Jobs simply give people the right to function for organizations as they do. Non-profits pursue missions, not the tax code. People should pursue passions in their vocations and not jobs. We went on to discuss how the fear of failure is based on assumptions more so than factual knowledge. You don’t know what your worst fears are like until you experience them. You don’t know what you actually think about your worst fears until you see them come to fruition. Until you experience the reality of your pursuits, you don’t know what you think about them. How can you know what you think until you see what you say? My statements aren’t meant to negate the need for risk awareness and caution. They are not meant to inspire recklessness. My words are intended to free you from the crippling affects of fear and anxiety by seeing before formulating an opinion.
The E.M. Forster quote could be turned into a book, maybe even a series related to all of the places my reflective journey took me this week. Until I or one of you decides to write such a book I hope you remember to challenge what you believe you think. Ask yourself, “how do I know what I think until I see what I say?”
Remember, nothing said is everything, but everything said is something…
Charles Pulliam… Until next time…
