Training Magazine - July 2008 - (Page 40)

5TALENT MANAGEMENT ISSUE5 Personalities & Performance with 360-degree feedback from peers within the branch gives the company an idea of who might have what it takes to assume a leadership role at headquarters. “We’re able to understand their behaviors and some of their strengths, and whether those will fit into the home office environment,” Dude explains. Following the personality assessment, employees under consideration for a home office position, as well as their supervisors, are debriefed about the results by a consultant from the vendor Edward Jones purchased the development assessment from. If, for example, the results indicate the employee thrives on collaboration, he or she may do even better in the team-oriented home office since work as a financial advisor in the field is a more self-contained endeavor. Psychological assessment can give you insights into the types of job roles employees will excel at, but it isn’t nearly the whole story, says Stuart Crandell, vice president of global assessment solutions for human resources firm Personnel Decisions International. “I think one of the mistakes is overinterpreting the personality assessment, and assuming that what you see is your destiny,” he says. “There are things people learn to do to compensate for what they know are maybe not their natural preferences.” If you decide on a categorical tool, meaning an assessment such as the one SeaChange uses, that organizes employees into personality categories based on preferences, two to think about are the DiSC and the MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment. DiSC is the four-quadrant behavioral model in which assessments classify four aspects of behavior by testing a person’s preferences in word associations. DiSC is an acronym for: Dominance: relating to control, power, and assertiveness “Our 30-minute Influence: relating to social situations and online communication Steadiness: relating to patience, persistpsychometric tool ence, and thoughtfulness for recruitment asks Conscientiousness: relating to structure similar questions and organization A DiSC assessment can help people better repeatedly, so you understand their tendencies, needs, precan’t really fake your ferred environment, and strategies for way through the effectiveness, plus how they interact with people in the other dimensions. system.” MBTI (which is published by CPP, Inc.) —Dan Timm, principal, financial likewise can be used to enhance interperadvisor training and development, branch administration, recruiting sonal relations, says Michael Anderson, and hiring, Edward Jones Ph.D., a CPP research scientist. A group of employees a supervisor believes could be working better together could take the assessment, with a CPP consultant delivering accompanying Once you’ve recruited your workforce, and determined what customized training to boost teambuilding. One of the preferences the assessment determines is whether roles fit which workers, your next question is how to help employees work together efficiently. Teambuilding is anoth- the employee is an introvert or extrovert, and what that means er task psychological assessment can support. For SeaChange to his or her work style. Before going through the MBTI proInternational, a streaming video company, personality gram, in which the differences in work styles between assessment strengthened understanding of peers and cus- extroverts and introverts is explained, an extrovert might tomers. By learning about their own personality, and those of assume his or her introverted co-worker is just being unfriendother people, employees in SeaChange’s call center are better ly and difficult. But once you understand that person just needs able to handle challenging customers, and interact more time to reflect on the project, Anderson points out, you can use smoothly with co-workers, says Judy Gustafason, the knowledge to work more effectively with him or her. SeaChange’s psychological assessment classifies personalities SeaChange’s director of HR. The assessment and accompanying curriculum developed into four major types: Thinker, Intuitor, Sensor, and Feeler. by training and consulting firm Loyalty Factor, LLC, informs “Thinkers,” for instance, are analytical, deliberative, and detailworkers of their own tendencies while educating them about oriented. Their biggest fear, says Gustafason, is being proven other personality types, and how best to interact with them. wrong, so if call center employees identify their customer as a Delivered in half-day sessions over a few weeks, the course “thinker” by the words he or she uses, they know to show they design enabled employees to immediately apply what they respect the caller’s expertise before doing anything else. Just as learned. “You first have to understand your own style,” says understanding the personalities of others helps employees interGustafason. “What are your personality characteristics that act better with customers, so, too, does it enable them to better are demonstrated by the way you learn, listen, think, and empathize with co-workers. “It helps them manage their relawork? If you understand your own style, and can apply those tionship with peers and,” Gustafason says, “it helps their assessment techniques to the caller, then you can understand management team better manage them.” t how they prefer to learn, hear, or work, and you get a better opportunity to try to match.” For an article on skills assessment, go to www.trainingmag.com/assess. Relationship Retooler 40 | J U LY / AUGUST 2008 t r a i n i n g w w w. t r a i n i n g m a g . c o m http://www.trainingmag.com/assess http://www.trainingmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Training Magazine - July 2008

Training Magazine - July 2008 Contents Online TOC Editor’s Note Training Today Soapbox How-To World View Managing the Magic Keys to the Kingdom Good Job! Personalities & Performance Hidden Potential The Executive Entrance Live & Online No More Revolving Door Questions for Covey TMI Brochure

Training Magazine - July 2008

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