Why You Deserve a Customized Approach

Think back to the last time you or someone you know visited the doctor with an ache, pain or some kind of unusual symptom. What did the doctor do to determine the cause and treatment of the problem?

Just like doctors who administer several tests, make many observations and take typical vitals before determining a prognosis, we too must remember that there is not just one assessment that will work for every situation and reveal all the details you need to know. Instead, we need to be able to choose from a variety of assessments to find the best combination. Let’s face it. Not every development, selection or team-building situation is alike. You need different solutions for hiring an executive than you do a receptionist, and you need something different for leadership development than you do for sales development. Each specific situation deserves a customized approach to assessment solutions – one where you can choose which assessments to administer before determining a prognosis.

How Awareness and Communication Improve Team Dynamics

In Patrick Lencioni’s best-selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he tells a tale of a firm’s executive team struggling with utter dysfunction. Ineffective communication, multiple egos, fear, office politics and judgmental attitudes were all contributing to the absence of dynamics and poor performance.

Does this sound familiar to you?
Have you experienced a dysfunctional team in your career?

If yes, you are not alone. Most everyone has either been a part of, observed or even faced the challenge of leading a dysfunctional team like the one Lencioni describes. In fact, he says, “Teams, because they are made up of imperfect human beings, are inherently dysfunctional.”

Lencioni’s interrelated model of team dysfunction outlines five areas that prevent success in every team:
• Absence of trust
• Fear of conflict
• Lack of commitment
• Avoidance of accountability
• Inattention to results

But don’t be discouraged. There is hope for all of us experiencing a dysfunctional team. As Lencioni states, “In fact, team building is both possible and remarkably simple. But is also painful.” TTI strongly believes in two fundamental team building basics that help teams overcome each of these dysfunctions: awareness and communication. [Read More]

How It Heightens Disengagement and Costs You Millions

Dysfunction in a team will usually result in poor performance and inadequate productivity, but the effects of team dysfunctions on the employees themselves just might be far more serious and much more costly.

When a team becomes dysfunctional you can expect disengagement to follow as individuals may lose sight of team goals, not understand their role in the team and wait for direction to make any progress. Statistics say that the average employee is disengaged two hours each day. Could dysfunctional teams be contributing to disengagement in your organization? If so, just how does it affect your bottom-line? [Read More]

How We Either Survive or Succeed with Adaptive Behavior

Like President Obama, most of us have various roles in our lives in which we do have a public image. At the current moment, you may be in any combination of roles, such as a spouse, parent, executive, volunteer, student or mentor. In each role your adaptive behavioral style will likely change to fit the situation and its demands. Still, you will consistently maintain the same natural behavioral style, or the real you.

Adapting to Survive or Succeed?

While your natural behavioral style is your true identity, it is not always the behavior we create for others to see. In fact, our adaptive behavior is more observable because we will often make changes to either survive or succeed. [ Read More ]

“Everything, then, must be assessed in money; for this enables men always to exchange their services, and so makes society possible.”
– Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Even though Aristotle made this point over 2000 years ago, it couldn’t ring more true today. Almost everything involved in transactions today are based on a price and assessed in money.

What about Talent Management?
Beyond salary and sales, there are many important aspects of talent management that are often not tied to the bottom line. Yet, “dollarizing” the value of talent management initiatives is vital to bottom-line analysis. Whether you are placing a value or cost on your current status, or calculating the ROI of your next talent management strategy, metrics that assess the monetary value will help you see the true effect on the bottom-line.

Bottom Line Statistics
Knowing the bottom line results of talent challenges will help you implement strategies with a proven ROI that you can see on your balance sheet. Find out how much you already know by asking yourself questions like:
• What is disengagement costing the bottom line?
• What was the ROI on your last training? What can be expected of future training?
• How are your team-building initiatives impacting your bottom line?
• What was the cost of your last bad hire?
• What is your overall turnover percentage? How is it related to tenure?

In a study on over three million employees, Gallup found that over 70% of Americans who go to work are not engaged. [Read More]

The job market is a place of constant change and understanding this vital market is important to effective recruitment and selection. It is in every company’s best interest to know what today’s job seekers are looking for, who they are and why they are looking for that next big move.
Are job seekers looking for long-term careers, or another job experience?
Are job seekers motivated by money or opportunity?
Do job seekers want a job quickly, or are they only looking for the right job?
[ Read More ]

In today’s economy, every business executive, owner, CEO and president should be asking themselves one important question: “Do I have the talent to take this business to the next level?”

If the answer is no, you probably want to begin looking, but if the answer is yes, then employee retention should be at the top of your list. With employee retention statistics that prove your best employees may be sitting on your payroll while patiently waiting for the “right” job, you need to be sure that you are managing employee retention with specific individuals in mind and long-term goals in place.

Employees Are Not All Alike
A good manager knows the strengths and weaknesses of their employees, but do they know what motivates them? In employee retention studies, TTI has found that money is NOT the reason most employees leave a job, which seems contrary to popular belief. In our latest study of over 19,000 job seekers, only 19% said money was the reason they were looking for a new job. Instead, more popular reasons included stress, mismanagement, lack of room for advancement and lack of employee development. [ Read More ]

If performance management sounds complicated, you’re right. It is complicated because it plays a big part in the success of an organization, and anything with a high value isn’t easy. It requires focus and commitment, and it isn’t the same for every employee. So what is the good news? Take a look at the things you can do to make the role of performance management more effective and less complicated: [ Read More ]

For different organizations, performance management can mean different things. It can relate to a process, a system, an organization or a department. For many companies, the role of performance management is associated with an employee and is a responsibility of anyone who is in a management position. However, for many managers, performance management may not be given the attention it deserves.

First, what exactly is performance management? [ Read More ]

It has been said that 360 degree feedback assessments, also known as multi-rater evaluations, are the most widely recognized assessments in the business industry. The purpose of any 360 degree feedback assessment is to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of an individual by considering the input of several individuals who have a relationship with the subject. Yet the most crucial component to 360 feedback success is not in the responses, but in the questions themselves. [Read Full Article]