It’s the end of the year…the Holiday season, a time when stress is at its peak. It reminds me of the button about Stress – “the confusion created when one’s mind overrides the body’s basic desire…” Working AGAINST your Predictive Index® profile can cause stress. For example, as a high C, I prefer to do one thing at a time, usually first in/first out. Also, contrary to what I used to think about myself, I do not work best under pressure. In a previous worklife I was constantly given short deadlines and multiple projects. During that phase I could actually feel my blood pressure rise and a feeling like my body was going to explode.

As stress increases I exponentially lose my ability to “soften” my directness. Each interruption to my process adds a little more stress. My ADVISA co-workers will tell you it is plain on my face and in the tone of my voice when I might otherwise be able to hide my frustration.

This is why the more your work fits your PI® profile, the easier it is to minimize stress and  end the vicious cycle. And reducing stress goes a long way to improving employee morale.

For more information on how you can use our pre-employment assessment to get the right people in the right job, contact us at sales@advisausa.com.

Driving to the post office this morning, I saw the first snowflakes of the season. They say each snowflake is unique. This got me thinking about PI® profiles. Although people can have the same profile, each person is unique, made up of life experiences and values along with their genetics, needs, and drives. So where people of the same profile may react to a situation in similar ways, the reaction likely will not be exactly the same.

The PI® as a behavioral assessment goes a long way towards team building skills by making it easier to understand why someone does what they do. But we need to be careful to not forget to take everything into the equation. Sometimes we expect a profile reaction rather than a human reaction. When a persuasive reacts to a situation they think isn’t right, we often think “it’s just the persuasive being overly emotional again” rather than thinking that maybe they have a point or a valid reason to be upset. Or if a scholar is clipped in the response they give you, it’s just the “lowest b” again, rather than thinking, perhaps, that something else is going on.  Knowing a profile can explain most of why someone reacts the way they do, but it doesn’t always tell the whole story.

I know that I need to do a better job of taking all pieces of the puzzle into consideration. How about you? In an effort to improve my team building skills, I’m going to try to remember those snowflakes.

The war for talent continues even through difficult times and times of high unemployment.  As companies reduce staff and try to do more and more with less and less the importance of top talent has risen to greater heights.

What has changed are the strategies of the war.  Rather than carpet bombing for any talent, companies are now using principles of strategic “smart bombing” for only the very best talent.  While the supply and demand of unskilled talent has risen and fallen, respectively, the supply and cost of top line talent has reduced and risen, respectively.  The best of the best are harder to locate and more expensive to hire.

The ability to attract, hire and retain the very best talent will be the primary competitive differentiator of the post 2008/2009 economic environment.

In order to remain relevant businesses must carefully consider their strategic recruiting strategy and insure it aligns with the overall succession planning process and the strategic planning theory for the organization.  Not only do we aid clients in creating this type of organizational alignment we also employee a core of highly qualified staffing specialists with validated tools to assist you in getting the right fit for your organization and its needs.  Contact us through the information at the top of this blog. 

When I first went through Predictive Index^® training, I participated in a closed training session at one of our client locations. For those of you who remember your training (and I hope you do), the employee personality assessments from the organization being trained are often used as examples. One of the employees was discussed quite frequently because he possessed a drive that no one else in the organization possessed. He was a Low D in a High D world. It got me thinking about my situation, and I realized – I’m a Lowest B in a High B world (with most of my co-workers being Highest B). So, it begged the question: “How does a Lowest B survive in a High B world?”

Over the last few months, I’ve learned two things. First, knowledge of PI^® is very important when you are dealing with a drive you don’t understand (and let’s face it, we never truly understand a drive contradictory to ours). Second, a certain amount of compromise is necessary for survival and happiness.

Regarding knowledge – without knowing about PI^®, it would be easy to become frustrated while interacting with my co-workers. For example, I prefer email to phone conversation. My co-workers prefer the opposite. In fact, if they could face me instead of having to use the phone, that would be even better from their perspective. Therefore, when I send out an email requesting information, I often receive my response via the telephone. It actually prompted me to ask one of my co-workers once if he had ever realized there is a “Reply” button in email correspondence he receives; I had sent three different email requests one day and received three reply phone calls. His contention was that it was easier to call me and tell me the answer rather than type it . In reality, he wanted to talk to someone. Knowing this about the High B drive allowed me to tease him about his phone call and how there is just no training sales people, and we were able to have a good laugh rather than get frustrated. Before PI^®, I would likely have interpreted his phone calls as a lack of respect for my time and another instance of managing difficult people.

From the other side of the coin, I’ve come to realize how it is that I have been called “intense” and “distant” in my previous work-lives. Looking back I realize I was working with High B’s that didn’t understand my “things” orientation and took it as a personal affront. While I was never accused of being unfriendly, I was often accused of being too serious – not really a description I ever found accurate. I consider myself as someone who has a good sense of humor, and I laugh often. However, I was often told to “lighten up”. Knowing the High B’s need for fun in the workplace, I now understand the conclusion that I was too intense. For a High B, the occasional joke I told wasn’t really evidence that I was having fun because when it came down to having work to do, I got serious and did it. And, had I known then what I know now, I would have taken less offense to the statements that I was intense and too serious. And had they known PI^®, they would have realized I wasn’t as serious and intense as they thought. But, as they often say in training, “You didn’t know what you didn’t know.”

And there’s the rub – now I know. Some responsibility comes with knowledge. That leads me to compromise. Now that I know PI^®, I have the responsibility to try to meet the needs of my High B co-workers as a means to improving employee morale. I have learned over the last 6 months that those periodic phone replies are not something about which to get frustrated. In fact, it has become somewhat of an inside joke. And, just as my co-workers have adapted to my Lowest B (I was once told that I was only good for about 2 phone calls per day and after that, emails would be sent to me to accommodate my Lowest B), I have had to occasionally pick up the phone and call someone. It has taken some effort on my part (and energy since fighting your natural drive takes energy), but it has been well worth it. Compromise makes for a happy working relationship! And let’s face it, when you are the only person with a particular drive in your organization, by the sheer numbers of it, you are going to have to cross over to the Dark Side more often than they will be led into the Light (hey, I’m a High A too – my way is the right way!).

One thing I’ve noticed about kids through the years is how they have at least one toy every Christmas that they REALLY want as a gift. When Christmas morning arrives, they are thrilled to have received that toy, and they play with it incessantly – at least for the first hour. After that, not so much. That is, until someone else picks up THEIR toy and starts to play with it. Suddenly, it’s theirs again, and they want it back. You hear cries about “My toy”…followed closely by parents touting the benefits of sharing.

I’ve noticed some of the same behavior with PI®. Soon after being trained, there is excitement about using the new “toy” and taking it back to show it off to everyone – showing how well PI allows you to understand other people and how easy it will be to interact better. Then, once the newness wears off, it settles into the back of the mind, not being practiced as often as perhaps it should. We settle back into our old habits – treating others as WE would want to be treated (not necessarily how THEY would want to be treated). That is, until someone trained in PI® doesn’t meet OUR PI needs. Then, suddenly, it becomes “My PI”. We use “Our PI” to inform that other person about their mistreatment of us. And then it’s supervisors touting the benefits of team building skills and staff motivation.

Practicing PI isn’t easy. It takes work and energy to do something against your nature. It’s easy to provide praise to a high B when you are in the classroom and all you are hearing is PI this and PI that. It’s at the forefront of your brain and you are focused. Implementing it in the “real world” takes conscious effort. If you are a low B, providing that praise to a high B can be a struggle. And if you are a high B/low D, doing your “necessary evil” paperwork for your high D/low B co-worker can be just as difficult. However, making that effort will make it that much easier for your co-workers to meet your needs – in both directions!

As is human nature, a lot of times we look at things from the perspective of how they can benefit us. We sometimes don’t realize that if we benefit others, ultimately, that does benefit us. If we work at meeting needs, even if it goes against OUR nature, then we have engaged employees, and that makes work a better place to be (and increases employee productivity to boot). PI is truly a tool for sharing. It shouldn’t be used like an old toy, only used for your purpose when someone else is using it for theirs. It should be used every day, in every interaction, as if it is a toy you perpetually just opened on Christmas morning.