IQ vs EQ

IQ- Intelligence Quotient- is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as a number that measures apparent relative intelligence.

Described by Psychology Today, Emotional Intelligence refers to the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.

Both IQ and EQ influence success in relationships, health and overall happiness.  Read about the four building blocks of emotional intelligence in this Readitfor.me review of Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves’s Emotional Intelligence 2.0 .

Emotional Intelligence 2.0

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Each month I share a favorite book review from Readitfor.me.

Built To Last

by Jim Collins

Some companies are built to be very successful for a very long time. Jim Collins and Jerry Porras teach us how to do it.

In Built To Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras research and explain the characteristics of companies that have massive success over a long period of time.

These companies are:

• Premier institutions in their industry
• Widely admired by knowledgable businesspeople
• Made an significant impact in the world
• Had multiple generations of CEOs
• Been through multiple product (or service) life cycles
• Were founded before 1950

How do we know that these companies are so valuable? They compared these visionary companies with a comparison company that were founded at a similar time and in a similar industry. Think Ford vs GM, or HP vs Texas Instruments. In other words, other solid companies that were better than the general market.

They found that $1 invested in the comparison companies would have returned two times what the general market would have returned. But the visionary companies would have returned fifteen times the general market.

In essence, these companies have something to teach us about what it takes to be very good, for a very long time.

How did they do it? Let’s find out.

Clock Building, Not Time Telling

The authors use the metaphor of building a clock versus telling the time to make the first important distinction between the visionary companies and the comparison companies.

When you are merely telling the time, you are focussed on having a great idea or being a charismatic company leader.

Instead, a clock builder focusses on building a great company that can thrive beyond any product cycle or leader.

Interestingly, few of the great companies in their study can trace their roots back to a great idea or excellent initial product. Some of them began as outright failures.

When Masaru Ibuka founded Sony in 1945, he had no initial product idea. After considering bean-paste soup and miniature golf equipment as two potential first products, they settled on their first product – a rice cooker. It’s first significant product – a tape recorder – failed in the marketplace.

For the visionary companies, a runaway hit product was never the ultimate goal. Creating an enduring company was. As the authors describe it, the shift was in seeing the products as a vehicle to create the company instead of the company as a vehicle to create products.

The builders of the visionary companies were ready to kill or revise a failing product, but were never willing to give up on the company.

Something very interesting happens when you focus on creating an enduring company instead of great products – you realize that you don’t need a high-profile charismatic leader to succeed.

“Tyranny of the OR”

Another interesting thing the authors found was that the visionary companies didn’t seem to make the trade-offs that most companies would make.

Where most companies would make a choice – you can have change OR stability, or low cost OR high quality – the visionary companies would find ways to have both at the same time.

More Than Profits

Visionary companies exist to do more than just make money, where the comparison companies typically don’t.

If you go to business school they’ll teach you that the core purpose of a company is to make money for it’s shareholders. Making money is obviously necessary for a company to survive. Only in Silicon Valley can companies go on for years burning through mountains of cash and still stay in business.

But the visionary companies don’t put profit first – their put their hopes and dreams for what the company can do beyond creating a profit first.

This is what the authors call the core ideology of the company. It is a set of basic precepts that say this is who we are, this is what we stand for, and this is what we are all about.

The core ideology is a combination of core values and purpose.

The core values of a company are the essential and enduring principles that drive all decision making at the company. The Johnson and Johnson Credo is an often cited example (go look it up if you have some time). They remain fixed over time, the bedrock on which the entire company is built.

The purpose of a company is the set of fundamental reasons for the company’s existence beyond just making money. The purpose should be broad, fundamental and enduring. It is something to continuously pursue, not to achieve.

As Walt Disney once said:

Disneyland will never be completed, as long as there is imagination left in the world.

Preserve the Core/Stimulate Progress

Thomas J. Watson, Jr., the son of IBM’s founder and the 2nd president of the company, sums up what the authors are getting at in this section of the book when we says:

“If an organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself except its basic beliefs as it moves through corporate life…The only sacred cow in an organization should be its basic philosophy of doing business.”

Preserving the core while stimulating progress is the central concept of this book.

Stimulating progress in the visionary companies is an internal drive, not an external one. They don’t wait for the market to tell them it’s time to improve. They feel compelled to do it on their own – like a great artist feels compelled to create.

The trick is to have a firm understanding of what your core actually is. Most companies in the comparison group mistake strategies and tactics for their core, and thus don’t change their strategies and tactics readily enough.

Unfortunately, that also allows them to drift from their core purpose, leading to the double whammy of a rudderless company fixated on tactics and strategies that will eventually stop working.

Now that we’ve got the core idea of the book nailed down, it’s time to move onto the five categories of preserving the core and stimulating progress you can use to become a visionary company.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs)

Although I have a natural fear of things that are big and hairy, I’m willing to make an exception here.

BHAGs are commitments to challenging and often risky goals toward which a visionary company channels its efforts.

It’s the difference between having a good old regular goal, to becoming committed to a huge and daunting challenge. The most often quoted BHAG of all-time is when Kennedy told the world the US would land a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s were up.

In order to work, the BHAG needs to be clear and compelling. Your people need to “get it” right away – it should take little or no explanation.

GEs goal in the 1980s fit the bill. Their goal was to “Become #1 or #2 in every market we serve and revolutionize this company to have the speed and agility of a small enterprise.”

When you read your BHAG, there should be some part of you that tells you that you’ve set yourself an unreasonable goal. But there should be another part of you that tells you that you can do it anyways.

People outside your organization will think (and sometimes tell you right to your face) that you are crazy.

But when you set it right, it will galvanize the energy of your entire company towards achieving it.

Cult-like Cultures

The visionary companies build a culture that is a great place to work only for those who buy in to the core ideology. Those who don’t fit in with it are ejected like a virus, which helps to preserve the core.

That’s because when you are very clear about what you stand for, and very clear about where you are heading (someplace amazing and scary at the same time), you tend to be more demanding of your people.

This causes some people to compare these types of companies to cults. In fact, as the authors point out, they do share at least four characteristics with them.

• a fervently held ideology
• indoctrination
• tightness of fit
• elitism

When you show up to a visionary company, you are going to be reminded of your purpose and BHAG on a regular basis. You’ll be rewarded in many ways if you become a permanent part of the team. And you’ll feel a sense of elitism because out of all of your friends, you’ll be the only one working on a mission greater than earning a paycheque.

To make the comparison complete, the people around you will probably accuse you of “drinking the Cool-Aid.”

But that’s ok – that’s what it takes to become a visionary company.

One last point on this topic – this is NOT about creating a cult of personality – this is about creating a cult of purpose and mission.

Try a Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works

To me, this sounds an awful lot like what people today would call the Lean Startup method. Or at least the beginnings of it.

In visionary companies we see high levels of action and experimentation – often planned and undirected – that produce new and unexpected paths of progress that enable visionary companies to mimic the biological evolution of species.

As Richard Carlton, the former CEO of 3M once said:

“Our company has, indeed, stumbled onto some of its new products. But never forget that you can only stumble if you are moving.”

Many of the visionary companies made transitions from one market to another not because of detailed strategic planning, but by experimentation, opportunism, and sometimes by accident.

American Express started off as a freight business in 1850. One of the things they originally shipped was cold hard cash (think of a Brinks truck today and you get the idea). The creation of money orders forced a decline in demand for their cash shipping service, so they created their own money order, which they called the “Express Money Order.” That started their transformation into the financial juggernaut we know today.

Each of the visionary companies exhibited this kind of behaviour. 3M famously created the Post-It note as a failed experiment into a permanent adhesive, which one of their engineers used to mark pages in his church hymnal. The rest, as they say, is history.

If you want to create a culture where evolutionary progress takes hold, start with these five principles.

1. Give it a try—and quick!. Try new things, adjust to what you find, and for heaven’s sake, keep moving.
2. Accept that mistakes will be made. The nature of experimentation is that you don’t know what you’ll find. So some things will work, and others won’t. Accept that mistakes will be part of the process.
3. Take small steps. Small steps serve two purposes. First, any small mistake won’t sink the company. Second, many small steps put together are what it takes to make real progress.
4. Give people the room they need. Give your people the latitude to try new things.
5. Build the clock. Turn the previous four steps into something that becomes part of your culture.

Home-grown Management

In visionary companies we see a lot more promotion from within the company, which means that the senior management is always filled with people who’ve spend a significant amount of time immersed in the core ideology of the company.

This one is pretty straight-forward and doesn’t require much more explanation.

Just remember that you need to have a management development process and long-term succession planning in place to ensure a smooth transition from one generation to the next.

If you are doing a good job of developing talent internally and keeping them indoctrinated in your core purpose, you should have no problem finding your next great executive from your ranks.

Good Enough Never Is

In the visionary companies, we see a “continual process of relentless self-improvement with the aim of doing better and better, forever into the future.”

The critical question for each of the visionary companies is not “how are we doing compared to our competition?”, it is “how can we do better tomorrow than we did today.”

In fact, visionary companies will go to great lengths to ensure that they create discomfort so that they can create change before the external world demands it.

As an example, in the early 1930s, P&G already had the best products, the best people, and the best marketing. So they designed a brand management structure that allowed P&G brands to compete directly with other P&G brands.

In each of the visionary companies the authors found some sort of discomfort mechanisms to combat complacency – which is something that the best in any field have to combat.

Boeing had a practice they called “eyes of the enemy”, where they assigned managers the tasks of coming up with business plans with the sole purpose of destroying Boeing. Then they would come up with plans to respond to those (imagined, but very real) threats.

The goal for the visionary companies is to ensure the long-term health of the company, which requires constant investment into the future. This includes when times are good, and when times are bad. Long-term health is never sacrificed in the name of short-term profits.

Conclusion

Interestingly, much of what was written about these Built To Last companies is coming back into fashion about 35 years later.

What I want to suggest is that these principles were once required if you wanted to build a great and enduring company. These days, it seems as though you need to follow these principles if you merely want to survive.

Companies with long term success have strong teams.

Our Team Strength tools help companies maintain the focus on developing the most successful teams. When there is a need for an infusion of talent we use a Team approach in the selection process for those new employees.

By enlisting the help of existing team members, we efficiently identify qualified candidates while also determining their values and fit to the culture of the organization.  As a result, in 60% of our engagements our clients have identified and hired two candidates for each available position.

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Each month I share a favorite book review from Readitfor.me.

Do we really know what our goals are and are they set properly?

Read on.

Succeed   
by Heidi Grant Halvorson

I’m sure like me you’ve probably set many goals, in business and in personal life and, unfortunately not quite achieved them.  Well, in her book, “Succeed: How We Can Reach our Goals”, Dr Heidi Grant Halvorson tells us anyone can be more successful in reaching their goals. Based on the findings of several years of research into goal setting she clears the mist and shows us paths we can take to finally reach these goals.

It all starts with Self Control.

Halvorson asks us to think back to the achievements in our own life—the ones we are most proud of.   In all cases she claims – quite rightly – that we will have worked hard, persisted despite difficulty, and stayed focused, when it would have been much easier to just relax and not bother.

What we used was self-control –  the ability to guide our actions in pursuit of our goal and to avoid temptation, distraction and other demands.  Halvorson suggests self-control is much like a muscle. We need to work it, train it and not strain it.

Self-control is learned and developed and made stronger or weaker over time. If you want more self-control, you can get more. And you get more self-control the same way you get bigger muscles—you’ve got to give it regular workouts.

Why or What?

Do we really know what our goals are and are they set properly?  Halverson suggests not. She suggests we are often not specific enough – and in the absence of a specific goal and in the wrong context we are doomed to fail.

Halvorson suggests when actions are difficult to accomplish, we will find it is easier and much more helpful to think in simple, concrete ”WHAT” terms rather than lofty, more abstract “WHY” ones.  What we want to achieve rather than why we want to achieve it.  We should forget about the bigger picture and focus on the task at hand.

However, when we think “WHY” rather than “WHAT” we are less vulnerable to temptation and more likely to take better control. So, since both the “big picture” WHY and “nitty-gritty” WHAT modes of thinking have their advantages and disadvantages, Halvorson suggests the best strategy is to shift our thinking style to match the goal we want to achieve.

She suggests for long term high level goals we should think “WHY” and for short term objectives we need to be more concrete and think “WHAT”. WHY thinking leads us to pay more attention to what Halvorson and her fellow psychologists call desirability information. In other words, how fun, pleasant, or rewarding will it be?

More concrete, WHAT thinking leads us to place more weight on feasibility information—whether or not we can actually do whatever needs to be done. How likely are we to succeed? Halvorson declares people who think achieving their goal will be hard plan more, put in more effort, and take more action in pursuit of their goals.

On the other hand she suggests people who think that reaching their goal will be easy aren’t prepared for what lies ahead of them, and can be devastated when their dreams don’t actually come true.

Consequently, she suggests the optimal strategy to use when setting a goal seems to be to think positively about how things will feel when you achieve your goal, while thinking realistically about what it will take to get there.

When we are thinking about taking on a new goal, we must also think about the obstacles that stand in our way.

The Wonderful Thing about Triggers

Halvorson asks: What aspects of our environment can trigger the unconscious pursuit of a goal?

In short she tells us that just about anything can unconsciously affect our commitment to a goal: works, images, sounds, anything related to the goal can act as a trigger. Maybe now those “motivational” posters you see everywhere seem a little less silly, right?

Halvorson discloses that studies have shown that the mere presence of something that can help you achieve your goal can trigger it. Walking past the gym can trigger the goal of wanting to work out in it. So how can we influence our unconscious?

Halvorson gives us the following tips:

Align the cues you create to your own lens

Know what is influencing you.

Know what you believe about your abilities.

Set up the right environment.

Good or Better?

Halvorson and her psychologist colleagues refer to the desire to show that we are smart or talented or capable as having a performance goal. When we pursue performance goals, our energy is directed at achieving a particular outcome—like getting an A on a test or reaching a sales target. We choose these goals because we think reaching them will give us a sense of validation and then we judge ourselves according to whether or not we are successful.

On the other hand, the to the desire to get better and enhance our skills is a mastery goal. When people pursue mastery goals, they don’t judge themselves as much by whether they achieve a particular outcome. Instead, they judge themselves in terms of the progress they are making. These goals are about self-improvement rather than self-validation about becoming the best you can be rather than proving you are.

So which is best?

Halvorson says when we are focused on getting better, rather than on being good, we benefit in two very important ways.

First, when things get tough we don’t get so discouraged.

Second, when we start to have doubts about how well we are doing, we are more likely to stay motivated because we can still learn. So if we choose get-better goals, we have greater success because we enjoy the process of getting better.

If we focus on growth instead of validation, we are less likely to get depressed because we won’t see setbacks and failures as reflecting our own self-worth and we are less likely to stay depressed, because feeling bad makes us want to work harder and keep striving.

Promotion or Prevention?

Halvorson tells us of another complementary pair of goal definitions.

When we pursue a promotion goal we are trying to gain something. When it’s about gain, we are going to be motivated both by high value and a high likelihood of success. In fact, the more valuable the goal, the more we care about our chances of success.

But when we are pursuing a prevention goal, we are trying to avoid a loss. It’s about being safe and avoiding danger. A high-value prevention goal is one where safety really matters and where failure is particularly dangerous. So the more valuable the goal, the more we see reaching it as a necessity.

Halvorson states to be optimistic is valuable, particularly in pursuit of achievements – promotion goals. Realism, on the other hand, is invaluable in pursuit of security or avoiding disastrous losses – prevention goals.

Making goals our own.

The greatest motivation and most personal satisfaction we achieve are from those goals that we choose for ourselves. Research has shown that when people feel they have choices, and that they are an integral part of creating their own destiny, they are more motivated and successful.

Providing a feeling of choice and acknowledging people’s inner experience shifts their sense of control back to them and makes them feel like they are in charge of their own actions. From her research, Halvorson states that it isn’t so much actual freedom of choice that matters but the feeling of choice. Choice provides a sense of self-determination, even when choice is inconsequential or imagined.

if a goal is internalized, we get increased motivation, better performance, enjoyment and an increased desire to work. We also avoid the hassle of having to provide controls or incentives to bring about the behaviour we are after.

Bringing it all together.

Here are a few strategies the author suggests we follow when we have established the lens of our goal.

Halvorson advises us when achieving our goal means doing something easy, straightforward, or familiar, we are probably better off focusing on a be good, performance goal.

But what if they are not so easy?

Halvorson says we can benefit from changing our thinking from why to what. Literal what-do-I-need-to-do-to-reach-this-goal thinking is enormously helpful when we are pursuing challenging goals.

What about the distraction of doing something else?  Overcoming temptation is hard. It usually requires a lot of self-control. Halvorson advises this is another situation where it pays to think of our goals in terms of why rather than what. Giving our goal a prevention focus is also an excellent way to beef up our resistance.

What if we need to get something done quickly?

Halvorson’s answer is a simple one although the task may not be—give our goal a promotion focus.

Which kinds of goals work best when we want to be inspired?

Halvorson suggests giving our goal a promotion focus can heighten our creative powers. So, too, can goals that are of our own making—goals that fulfil our basic need for autonomy. In general, goals that are autonomously chosen are much more interesting and enjoyable to pursue than those that are chosen for us.

What if we want to have fun along the way?

Halvorson tells us to try focusing on getting better, rather than on being good.

Be Prepared Redux

Ok, so now we know how to identify and set our goals appropriately.  But beware, it’s still not smooth sailing.  There are still barriers to overcome.

Halvorson suggests there are plenty of different mistakes we can make, but the one most frequently responsible for our troubles is that we miss opportunities to act in a timely manner.  We are regularly given, whether we notice or not, opportunities to act on our goals. But in most cases when one arises, we chose to do something else.

Halvorson makes it clear that there is no strategy more effective for fighting off these goal blocking situations than making an If-Then plan.

Simply put when you find yourself in a situation (IF) then you carry out a goal attaining action (THEN).

For example: If I’m watching TV then I’ll sit up straight to help my posture. If it’s Monday morning, I’ll go to the gym before work to get fitter. If I’ve had a large lunch, I’ll have salad for dinner.

So it’s back to self-control.

Halvorson suggests we use the acronym H.A.L.T. to remind ourselves of circumstances where our self-control may drop: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.  In each of these situations self-control is threatened so what do we do?

Halvorson tells us to resist. If we reach for the comfort food or activity it’s hard to get back on the wagon.  Stopping before we start is an excellent strategy to keep our need for self-control to a minimum.

Secondly, she tells us to focus on how well we’ve been doing and to consider just how much an effect on that progress, falling off the wagon would be.

Thirdly, she says, whatever we do, don’t try to pursue two goals at once that both require a lot of self-control. In these situations it’s hard to decide which to do and consequently we are likely not to do either.

Finally, here’s her one last strategy for overcoming a total loss of willpower: we should reward ourselves for being good. After all, a reward celebrates success and success is a goal we are after, isn’t it?

Do we really know what our goals are and are they set properly?  What goals have you set for yourself, your company, your team?

Tim Kinane

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Sydney Finkelstein wrote an interesting article for the Wall Street Journal about hiring teams instead of individuals.

While hiring teams is not always possible or appropriate – the importance of the teams within an organization can directly affect the success of that organization.

Our Team Strength tools help companies maintain the focus on developing the most successful teams. When there is a need for an infusion of talent we use a Team approach in the selection process for those new employees.

By enlisting the help of existing team members, we efficiently identify qualified candidates while also determining their values and fit to the culture of the organization.  As a result, in 60% of our engagements our clients have identified and hired two candidates for each available position.

 
Here’s some highlights from the article that you may find useful to building your Team Strength.

Why Companies Should Hire Teams, Not Individuals

Existing groups work well together, they contribute more quickly, and they are more likely to shake things up (in a good way)

By  Sydney Finkelstein
Oct. 29, 2017 10:13 p.m. ET

Illustration: Shout For the Wall Street Journal

Team Players

• Complex problem solving
• Critical thinking
• Creativity
• People management
• Coordinating with others
• Emotional intelligence
• Judgment/decision making
• Service orientation
• Negotiation
• Cognitive flexibility

Team Skills

Elite Teams

“As my research has shown, the world’s most effective leaders know that members of a cohort typically support one another, while also pushing one another to grow and perform. These leaders explicitly encourage collegiality among colleagues to take root, while also fostering healthy competition between teammates. That unusual combination gives rise to intense team environments, which lead in turn to extremely high performance, high engagement and rapid development on the part of team members.”

From:
Why Companies Should Hire Teams, Not Individuals
By Sydney Finkelstein Oct. 29, 2017 10:13 p.m. ET

The importance of the teams within an organization can directly affect the success of that organization.

Build your Team Strength with our Team approach in the selection process for new employees.

Get started now on your Team Strength- call 772-210-4499 or email for more information or to set up and an account.

Congratulation to Dr. Jack Mitchell who has received two new awards from his involvement in the community. One of the awards is Volunteer of the Year Award from an organization that focuses on providing safe space and assistance primarily to women and children involved in domestic violence. The second new award is from the local Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Jack received the prestigious President’s Award for “dedication, hard-work and commitment”.

There are great reasons and benefits to volunteering:

• Good for your health
• Learn new skills
• Gain professional experience
• Make a difference/improve lives
• Get to know your community
• Challenge yourself
• Connect with others

Strengthen your Team by Connecting your WHY with volunteering in your community.

Tracy Levy, SafeSpace director of Development; Dr. Jack Mitchell, St. Lucie Volunteer of the Year; Janet Farnan-Dyer, SafeSpace Resource & Volunteer Coordinator

We are proud to present our St. Lucie County Volunteer of the Year, Dr. Jack Mitchell. Dr. Jack’s contribution as a Board Member and Advocate in the community creates future financial sustainability to help us save and change lives of victims and their families. Thank you Dr. Jack for your endless dedication to SafeSpace and our mission. We appreciate all that you do!!

Why Community Service

A conversation with Dr. Jack Mitchell

Dr. Jack, congratulation on your two new community service awards.

I feel such gratitude, and simply want to give back. I have a strong awareness of how fortunate and how blessed I am in life, an awareness of “why” I am here on earth. Volunteerism simply flows as a result of this gratefulness.

I like the quote by the famous lecturer and writer, Jim Rohm:

“It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.”

I draw from this: Know your personal “why” ; set your sail accordingly because the winds of life will challenge all of us;   be grateful for your blessings; and be generous with your time, talent and treasure.

The Why is about how you feel – and we are inspired by that which moves us and connects us to other people. Dr. Jack Mitchell shares his why:

As a volunteer, I am impressed with the dedication and love of so many staff employees.  They give of their time and talent so very generously to their organizations and the people they serve.

My Why is to help people grow personally and professionally.
I have been blessed with exceptional education, corporate and entrepreneurial experiences. I am passionate to use all these to help people. It feels great to give back.

Communication starts by understanding yourself and then listening to others.  How have you used your understanding of Team Strength DISC to help you to be a better volunteer?

The Team Strength DISC profiles and chart, are tools that I can use in every aspect of my life: work, volunteering and personal interactions.  I have been involved with this process and system for more than 30 years. Using these tools has helped me to develop the sensitivity to assess and communicate effectively. This was not always the case, years ago, I would make assumptions, mis-read people and miss opportunities.

I still do day, but hopefully nowhere near what I did years ago. What a powerful tool for all of us today. The more you practice, the better you get. Whether in business, in family matters, or in general communication, the Team Strength DISC Profiles are marvelous help to better communication.

Communication is life’s most important skill- better communication make for a better life.

Set your organizations sails by improving the quality of your teams’s communication. Get started now on your Team Strength- call 772-210-4499 or email for more information or to set up and an account.

The emergence of .com job-search resources has helped create a fluid workforce capable of constantly searching for that next perfect opportunity.  According to the International Management Association, average churn rates have jumped by more than 14 percent in just the last decade– and that number continues to climb.  Employers can combat this trend– while saving both time and money– enlisting online assessments to accurately pre-qualify new job applicants.

Simply put, quality, science-supported online assessments can ensure that a company minimizes employee related expenses while optimizing its greatest potential resource– human performance.

Want to improve your hiring numbers and reduce the cost? Get started now on your Team Strength- call 772-210-4499 or email for more information or to set up and an account.

Click here to view Hiring and Selection Data and source information.

Optimizing your business’s greatest potential resource– human performance.

A success story by Dr. Jack Mitchell

Mike K was spending thousands and thousands of dollars in his Call- Center business due to turnover. It seemed that as soon as he hired someone, someone else left. The cost of recruiting, spending time reading resumes, interviewing, plus the loss of someone actually “in the seat” making calls was costing him a small fortune.

After a consultation with Mike, together we put into place a custom process using assessments and our Team Strength Chart. These tools helped Mike to identify the “ideal” Profile for him to use when hiring. The next step in the process was to train his managers and supervisors how best to supervise their staff.

The Call-center business usually requires someone who can do repetitive work day in and day out. It takes a special personality to perform in such a manner. With the new custom assessment program, Mike and his team were able to stop the turnover rate caused by hiring people who needed a different type of job. Now they can identity the correct applicants, minimizing employee related expenses while optimizing the company’s greatest potential resource– human performance.

Mike’s new plan included the next critical step of training management personnel. Getting the most out of these types of associates requires a different management style than other types of personality styles. (In our language, for example, managing a High S is quite different from managing a Low S.) This plan puts in place the most effective training customized to the correct audience.

Mike’s turnover cost significantly decreased, and his bottom-line significantly improved having the right people in the right job with the right management style being employed.

“Working with PPI and their Team Strength Chart and assessment tools have definitely helped me understand the value of personality assessments, and know how best to manage different personality styles within my company.”
Thank you 
Mike K. West Palm Beach, Fl

Today, we have the scientific tools and experience to really help business owners succeed.

Contact us to learn how you can minimizes employee related expenses while optimizing your company’s greatest potential resource.

If you are having any turnover issue, contact PPI at 772 210 4499, www.ppidisc.com or email for more information or to set up an account.