More and more companies are measuring soft skills in their work force and evaluating their impact on performance. Only recently do we have evidence that soft skills may be age- and occupation-related.  This is based on four different studies.  The first two studies were conducted in the fall of 2008.  Nine hundred college freshmen from [...]

First of all, you’re not alone! However, the question remains: Why are we unable to make great hiring decisions? The answer is simple: BIAS. Attracting candidates is easy today. Screening out all of the unqualified to discover a superior performer is the real challenge. This challenge also means we must look at the job objectively [...]

“Commitment” and “accountability” are two words that are sure to pique the interest of anyone in human capital management. But when asked, most managers and employees don’t know for what each position is accountable and therefore lack commitment within the team. Lack of commitment can lead to job confusion, dissatisfaction and eventually, disengagement.

Recent studies [...]

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 Multiple Assessments Add to Success

While DISC is one of the most common assessments used in the workplace, it does not reveal everything you need to know about a person. In fact, DISC only measures behavior style and communication tendencies, or “how” we act in our natural and adapted environments. It doesn’t tell us “why” we act in a certain way, what skills we have, or how well we are aware of our emotions. For almost every situation in training and development, knowing more than one facet of a person will help you provide better, more effective solutions.

Knowing everything about DISC is great, but why stop there? Knowing more about yourself and those around you will even further allow you to leverage your skills and harness your challenges to increase the success you and others bring to an organization. Just imagine how much it would help to know why someone you work with makes the decisions they do or what skills they have that could help you achieve your goals.

TTI – The Assessment Company

Shouldn’t you have the ability to choose from a variety of assessment options to help achieve your specific goals? TTI strongly believes in the very foundation of assessments - empowering you to better understand, appreciate and leverage your unique strengths to succeed in life both on and off the job. [ Read More ]

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]

TTI Conducts Research with Behavioral Assessments

As a loyal subscriber of People Energizing People, you are invited you to take part in TTI’s research on the DISC style of President Obama based on your perception of his public image. The quick, 10-minute assessment will give you the opportunity to choose adjectives that you feel describe Obama the most and those that you feel describe Obama the least.

Participate in the Study Today!

Then, stay tuned for the research results to be released next month after TTI collects and analyzes the data to determine both the natural and adapted behavioral style of the President based on perceived public image. The outcome will be truly interesting! This research study will reveal how diverse or consistent our perceptions are and how well the public identifies observable behavior. It will also identify the public’s consensus of Barak Obama’s perceived behavioral style, a piece of the puzzle that makes us all unique.

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]