InnerActive Consulting – Insights

How do You Select Members of a Team?

Many will agree that people are the most important asset of an organization. More importantly, however, is how well those people work together to accomplish a common goal. Whether a company has
thousands of people working in various locations worldwide or just a handful working in one small office, teamwork is vital to success. So, how can you ensure that your teams are performing at their fullest
potential? How do people contribute to the team differently? Have you built effective teams?

To begin answering these questions, you must learn how to really understand each member of the team to
identify their work style and how it compares to others in the group. You also need to look at the inherent
strengths that each person brings to the table. Not their expertise or their background, but those things they seem to be good at just because that is who they are.

Once you understand the team members, you can not only build a team with the most effective combination
of strengths, but you can also learn how to leverage each individual’s strengths for a dynamic team that
works at its highest potential. Only then will teams reach goals that have been unattained by individuals,
work at levels of productivity no single person can achieve or impact the bottom line more effectively as a
group. In fact, maybe we should revisit the assets of an organization. Perhaps TEAMS are more important
than people on their own?

A Senior Vice President for a Technology Company discovered the importance of using assessments to assist in selecting a diverse yet functional group to lead a very important company project. His first attempt had been a failure because he selected a team consisting of passive and non results oriented individuals. His second Team consisted of a balance of results oriented, active, detailed, persistant, and influential individuals that produced the project in record time, within budget and a quality product ( as described by their customers.).

To learn more about using assessments in selected or evaluating Team Effectiveness, call me at 901-757-4434. We have been implementing assessments within team for over eighteen years with outstanding results for our clients.

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Posted by Voss Graham on November 21, 2008 at 6:15 am under Team Building, Using Assessments.
Tags: DISC, effectiveness, Team Building, Using Assessments, Workplace Motivators
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DISC tells us about Team Effectiveness

The key to understanding the makeup of your team and each member’s unique strength is a common format for identifying and understanding each person’s work habits, strengths and communication preferences. Using this information allows for a clear understanding of who is capable of delivering upon the expectations of the team.

There are many ways you can classify people through observation and identify what “type” of person they
are. One of the most common theories addressing styles of communicating is the theory of DISC. Derived
from the early work of William M. Marston, the theory has since been applied to the world of business and
used in a number of different ways to better understand, appreciate work with and manage people.

In team building, utilizing the theory of DISC helps team members truly understand why everyone is
different, what each individual’s strengths are, and how each person contributes to the team. Remember,
communication is more than what someone says. In fact, communication is more about what people do, or
how they act. DISC considers all aspects of communication, from the words we use to how body language
affects communication. By providing a common language with which to speak about our differences, DISC
allows us to recognize other “types” of people, understand them better and leverage their strengths. With
DISC, the team can be more cohesive, more productive and more efficient.

DISC also allows us to look at team dynamics in a whole new light, making sure that a well-rounded group
provides all the strengths needed for success, and each member is in a role that suits them best. Which
person is best to lead? Who should handle the details? What is the best combination for small work groups
within the team?

With DISC, it is easy to identify team dynamics to begin strengthening your company’s biggest asset. Even
if you have a team of star performers, they are only reaching half of their potential if they don’t work well
together. Imagine the possibilities if everyone came together to work effectively as a team.

Contact us about how to implement DISC within your organization. Call us at 901-757-4434.

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Posted by Voss Graham on November 19, 2008 at 6:50 am under Team Building, Using Assessments.
Tags: DISC, Effective Communication, Team Building, Using Assessments
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How to Uncover Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Most people cannot openly tell you what their natural strengths and weaknesses are regarding their personal performance. Sure they have some thoughts about themselves based upon certain assumptions and concepts – but do they truly know for certain?

Enter assessments! Good assessments can put objectivity into knowing what makes a person tick. Assessments can uncover traits about a person like how they communicate, what personal preferences they have, what motivates them, what influences decisions and choices, how much of their potential are they using, and do they have balance for improved decision making?

Assessments can answer all these questions and give more valuable insight into your preferences for life. When a person understands the natural traits they possess – they can then make choices leading to more success in their lives. The unfortunate truth is many individuals have no clue regarding their natural strengths and weaknesses. Then they take jobs whereby they are attempting to be successful – USING THEIR WEAKNESSES! This is the major reason for poor performance, burn out and depression.

Using several key assessments can undercover the natural strengths and weaknesses of an individual. We refer to these as the “how, why, will and can” a person perform in a certain position. This insight has opened the eyes of individuals and their managers as to what was wrong and could it be repaired? Insight is the term I prefer to use in describing the benefits of personal assessments. If a person is lacking this insight into what makes them go everyday, then how will they accurately make decisions and choices to improve their results and performance. Chance or Certainty? Which would you want to use everyday?

If you would like to discuss the value and how-to’s of using assessments both for your organization or for youself, just pick up the phone and call us at 901-757-4434. We have been assisting our clients for 20 years in understanding how to use assessments and the advantages gained using assessments for insights.

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Posted by Voss Graham on November 12, 2008 at 6:28 am under Using Assessments.
Tags: high performance, identifying strengths, natural strengths and weaknesses, personal develop, Personal Development, Using Assessments
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Objectivity in a Subjective World

In this subjective world where everyone has an opinion or position, how do you capture the consensus of the group? Most organizations use the subjective methods of “gut feel” or the SWAG method of determining what is going in within the organization. However, I believe there is another way that is more meaningful. Use assessments to bring objectivity to our world view.

Assessments can bring an objectivity factor to the discussions of what is making this group function? What are the Strengths and what are the shortcomings? Again, assessments to the rescue. This process can bring clear and accurate trends to the table for discussion and action commitments.

I have seen the results of an organizational survey open the eyes of key executives who had different and subjective opinions about the quality of their leadership – and get a good dose of reality. They were able to take this information and use it to communicate actions that were meaningful to their people – who in turn responded with positive actions that lead to positive results.

I have seen executives get feedback from their teams regarding specific performance issues using 360′s or specialty reports regarding the team dynamics. This feedback is used in an objective manner to influence the quality of future decisions and actions.

Assessments work for the good of an organization or group. Get an advantage through the use of assessments that give insight and understanding into what makes an organization work well. What strengths are we using well and what areas need to have a reality check regarding performance.

Performance Management needs objectivity to work properly. Assessments is one tool that should be used to uncover performance matrix and standards. Assessments can also tell us if our strategy is working for our team members. Again, objectivity is needed in a world full of opinions, ideas and assumptions. Clear the air and get the facts.

If you have any questions regarding the proper use of assessments in your organization, please contact us at 901-757-4434. We have over 20 years of experience in assisting organizations and individuals in the use of assessments and how to use the data to improve the quality of performance.

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Posted by Voss Graham on November 11, 2008 at 6:05 am under Using Assessments.
Tags: high performance, Objectivity of information, OD, Performance management, productivity, strengths and weaknesses, Using Assessments
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DISC patterns are more important

Keep hearing people who teach the DISC material talk about the high this or the low that – well, this is close to the truth. It is the patterns and combinations that a more important than just a high factor. Yet, everyday people get labeled as a high D, high I, high S or a High C. It then appears that the other factors or elements have no effect upon a person’s behavior.

Let me be perfectly clear on this point – due to the intensity levels and the combinations of highs and lows – a person’s behavior will change when compared to others. Now this is not even taking into consideration the effect of personal motivators or the levels of personal skills that can impact a person’s performance and results.

Let’s get back to the subject of patterns – a presenter or facilitator of DISC needs to understand how the patterns of the DISC work and influence a person’s “unique behavioral traits.” If you can not do this, then you really need to learn more about the DISC elements. There are self-study manuals and CD’s available to learn more about the combination effect. There is a Great reference book – “The Universal Language of DISC” which is a must read for instructors and managers. Or attend a Train the Trainer session and study to get certification on DISC – you will learn about the patterns.

If you want to learn more about the patterns of DISC, contact our offices at 901-757-4434. We offer the tools for you to learn just how important and useful the DISC assessments are and how to use them. If you don’t know about DISC – well, it is time to learn and know. It is a proven and trusted tool for personal behavior.

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Posted by Voss Graham on November 6, 2008 at 6:30 am under Using Assessments.
Tags: DISC, patterns of DISC, personal behavior, Train the Trainer
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What is Human Potential?

A few years a good client and friend posed an interesting question to me – What is Human Potential? He stated that he had been hearing this term for years and was truly troubled by his lack of a good answer. We began a dialogue and more questions than answers about the concept of human potential – What does it mean? How do you measure it? How do you know if someone has potential? How can you tell if someone has used up all their potential? What is Maximum Potential? These questions opened our minds to real issues facing managers concerning both hiring/selection of talent and how to develop your existing talent.

So back to the original question – What is Human Potential? I believe that the answer lies within the total capabilities a person possesses and how easy is it for a person to tap into this “reservoir of talent” within. This is both the answer and the problem. How do we know that someone possesses capabilities? And how do we know if they are capable of tapping into their talent potential?

To uncover human talent potential, assessments become a primary tool for tool for showing this information. There are several tools or assessments on the market that show a person’s behavior, personality and motivators. There is only one to my knowledge that uncovers potential. We use this assessment to uncover the both the potential a person possesses and how well they are using it today.

This tool gives us an accurate idea of the cognitive potential and where the individual places emphasis regarding thought and decisions. It tells us things about an individuals approach to People, Processes and Systems. It farther separate the outward or external thoughts from the inward or internal thoughts.

Using this information we can determine how well a person developed balance of thought – the ultimate good thing regarding leadership. It also covers the source of how an individual receives mental value and what it means to their performance. It has also uncovered situations where a person could be unstable in their thoughts and actions. A disaster waiting to happen if you please! The key is not have the disaster happen on your watch.

Most importantly, this assessment tool uncovers the truly high performer. The one that will take the organization to the next level of performance. When the high performer is identified, you have the ability to insure an environment that releases this energy into the organization. The only limiting factor for these people is an environment that refuses to allow high performers to excel. Micro management or restrictions (usually due to fear) placed upon high performers does not work – unless your goal is to run the high performer away from the organization. True high performers look for organizations that allow them to excel and use their strengths to win the competitive advantages that excellent talent begins to the table.

If you have a question or comment about this article, write a comment for this post. Just click on the Make a Comment button and let us know your thoughts. Also, if you want to learn more about this assessment, call us at 901-757-4434.

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Posted by Voss Graham on November 3, 2008 at 11:52 am under Hiring, Selection and Retention, Using Assessments.
Tags: assessments, hiring and selection, Leadership, Personal Development, Using Assessments
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DISC validity – Do You Know its Importance?

People have a tendency to treat assessments as a commodity item. They feel that all DISC reports are equal and there is no difference between the different vendors of DISC. Well, this is not an accurate statement or belief.

Let me explain the differences based upon validity factors.

Since most DISC assessments come from similar origins of research they appear at first glance to be the same and therefore the results are the same. Yet, when you truly look under the hood of the assessment – you can find major differences.

Our Strategic Partner for assessments (TTI Performance Systems) takes great pride in their commitment to research, study and validate their assessments to a very high standard. Due to their high standards, they continuously update and check their validity of their assessments. Several years ago they discovered that some of the constructive language used in the assessments were no longer valid at their standards.

After two years of hard research and testing, a new standard was placed in effect that actually increased the validity percentages in all elements of DISC. This created a higher acceptance and accuracy level for our clients.

So what is the secret? It’s due to the shift in culture and demographics. The x and y generations have had an effect upon the validity scores. Since the vast majority of DISC assessments are based on older norms (mid to late 20th century) the boomers influenced the validity standards. Therefore, unless your workforce is all boomer aged – there are probabilities that some of the assessments are lacking in accuracy for the younger people in your organization.

What we recommend is to ask about the norms of the assessment. You can even ask for a validity statement or report. When reviewing this information, check the following: Is it from an independent source or inhouse? Do they provide the statistical results of the studies? What year did the studies occur? (Anything before 2000 maybe loaded with Boomer Bias)

Remember that many assessments used in the field have no validation or research to back up their accuracy. Beware of the cheap “knock offs” that have “borrowed” the research of others and have little investment in the accuracy of their assessments. This is a major problem in the world of assessments and many people are fooled or influenced by the low prices offered.

If you would like to see a validation report on our DISC assessment, please contact us at 901-757-4434. We look forward to serving you with up-to-date, state of the art assessment reports.

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Posted by Voss Graham on October 23, 2008 at 11:27 am under Using Assessments.
Tags: DISC, validity of assessments
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Using Assessments in the Hiring and Selection Process

Many people ask me why they should use assessments – primarily in their hiring process. Many believe that the only tool necessary is the behavioral question model and hiring will be great. My response to these people is that the behavioral question model is an excellent tool and I encourage its use in the selection process.

However, just as assessments are not the only tool you should or can use in the selection process, behavioral questions are not the only tool to use either. Why? Because one tool will only give you one part of the result – not necessarily the right result.

Okay, let me explain why only using the behavioral questioning model is a possible mistake. There are three primary reasons for caution if only using behavioral questions. Continue reading ‘Using Assessments in the Hiring and Selection Process’ »

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Posted by Voss Graham on October 9, 2008 at 8:28 am under Hiring, Selection and Retention, Using Assessments.
Tags: assessment process, assessments, behavioral questions, hiring, hiring people, selection process
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Archive for the ‘Using Assessments’ Category

How do You Select Members of a Team?

DISC tells us about Team Effectiveness

How to Uncover Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Objectivity in a Subjective World

DISC patterns are more important

What is Human Potential?

DISC validity – Do You Know its Importance?

Using Assessments in the Hiring and Selection Process

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