Assessments Today

Don't Get Caught Naked

By Guest author Mary Jo Asmus, President of Aspire Collaborative Services LLC

A Timeless Leadership Fairy Tale

A favorite childhood fairy tale is Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes." I still chuckle when I think of the emperor being duped into wearing a new suit of invisible cloth in an attempt not to appear stupid.

The emperor's followers went along with the guise during a royal procession to show off his new clothes until a child pointed out that he was, indeed, naked. The audience watching the procession caught on and the emperor was found out. The author of this tale was brilliant. A children's story written in 1837 has become an enduring tale of clueless leadership and less-than-truthful followers.

Just like the emperor, there are leaders who will do everything possible to avoid appearing stupid. The problem is that they are often clueless about themselves. One of the ways leaders can avoid being caught clueless is to obtain pure, unadulterated feedback about how those in their circle of influence perceive them. A 360-degree assessment is the best way I know of to get this kind of feedback.

Getting Honest Feedback

I encourage my clients to continually ask for specific feedback from their peers, their manager or their employees. This kind of feedback can be quite useful. However, like the audience passively viewing the naked emperor, followers will not necessarily provide honest feedback. A leader should not be misled into believing that the feedback he receives is entirely truthful. All kinds of human dynamics in the workplace will prevent others from being completely honest when asked for feedback.

This is where a 360-degree feedback tool is useful. This tool, whether electronic, hand written or an interview, is administered by an outside party on behalf of an individual (generally regarding facets of an individual's leadership). Multiple sources are used: the person's manager; direct reports; peers; and sometimes others such as customers, clients or vendors. The information is gathered in a way that maintains confidentiality. A report is then provided to the leader about her patterns, including areas of strengths and opportunities for growth.

Treating 360 Degree Feedback with Respect

The feedback from this tool is intended to be developmental, not disciplinary. The information gathered is meant only for the eyes of the individual for whom it was gathered.

The information obtained must be treated with great respect. A skilled professional who is familiar with providing this kind of feedback can offer interpretation, put it into perspective, and give support around the results obtained. This support could include assistance in setting goals and developing an action plan, as well as ongoing coaching to achieve the goals.

In my experience, 360s are invaluable tools to provide a reality check and a way to avoid being caught naked. Because your followers, like those watching the emperor's procession, will rarely tell the truth to your face.

Mary Jo Asmus is a credentialed executive coach, speaker, and president of Aspire Collaborative Services, a leadership solutions firm. Her blog, "Intentional Leadership", furthers the dialog of the importance of healthy, sustainable relationships to leadership.

Copyright 2009 Business Review. Reprinted with permission.
For an online version of click here.

Personality Applications on the iPhone

If there is one thing that I love more than assessments at the moment, it is my iPhone.  O.K. call me shallow.  But what could be more exciting than a combination of the two?

The Personality iPhone application

Explore your personality - and the science behind it all with Personality, by Signal Patterns. The Personality iPhone application is the most detailed psychology-based application available on the iPhone

Brought to you by the researchers and psychologists at Signal Patterns, Personality uses a novel algorithm that scores unique personality traits rather than rough "buckets" of personality types. To describe each person, the algorithm uses 45 different personality traits, each scored on a separate scale, resulting in extremely unique depictions of one's personality.

And once you learned about yourself, you can learn about the science behind the application. Watch videos and hear from Science team members themselves discuss the underlying Big 5 Personality theory. Read about the psychological models and the key scientists themselves. Still interested? Check out a number of books from our team members.

Cover via Amazon

Also - they have the Live Happy is a positive psychology iPhone app developed by Signal Patterns' SP Labs research team together with Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of the book  The How of Happiness and professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside.

There is a free "lite" version but if you purchase the full app, a portion of every app sale is donated to the Live Your Life Well program, a public education campaign (launched by the non-profit Mental Health America) dedicated to helping people combat stress and promote well being.

Book Review - Now Discover Your Strengths

 The good thing about book reviews is that they usually stand the test of time . . . as long as the book is popular you can dredge up your review.  I wrote the following in March of 2001. It was this book that lead me to Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman and then on to Authentic Happiness which I blogged about yesterday.

Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Free Press, 2001 ISBN: 0743201140

Cover of Now, Discover Your Strengths

First here is the official review and then my opinions:

Effectively managing personnel--as well as one's own behavior--is an extraordinarily complex task . . . That said, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton's Now, Discover Your Strengths does indeed propose a unique approach: focusing on enhancing people's strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses. Following up on the co-authors' popular previous book, First, Break All the Rules, it fully describes 34 positive personality themes the two have formulated and explains how to build a "strengths-based organization" by capitalizing on the fact that such traits are already present among those within it.

Most original and potentially most revealing, however, is a Web-based interactive component that allows readers to complete a questionnaire developed by the Gallup Organization and instantly discover their own top-five inborn talents.

I liked this book. It is easy to read and is careful about using neutral and positive language. The 34 themes of StrengthsFinders are carefully "labeled". It appears to be a sound model that has good back-up data. It has an interactive piece with the Internet. Half way into the book, I thought, great this is going to get my top rating – four balls. To bad that they didn’t fully leverage what they have here. The cover jacket says "The revolutionary program that shows you how to develop your unique talents and strengths – and those of the people you manage." Unfortunately, that is precisely where the book started to let me down. It is only the last two chapters, 6 and 7, that the authors begin to address how to use and build on the model and information they have provided.

I have taken just about every quiz, personality inventory and assessment around. I love them and I love them even more when they have more than just face validity but good reliability. I also want to see if it fits with the other models and theories as I know them. This one does. So what is the problem. Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton fail to give us a working program. There is no "How To" or "So What". One critic wrote: "What is missing is how to apply this insight...what the particular combination of strengths means, how to communicate with and lead people with differing strengths." I concur.

There is so much more here. Sure, I may not have learnt anything surprisingly new about myself. However, the perspective on how the information was grouped did provide new insights and for that I am grateful. Sure I now that I have a "Strategic" approach to my life and I am clearly a "Learner" who likes "Command" roles. It was the other two themes that put a new twist on things and just fit for me. It has made me realize what is an important value in my life, my friends, and what an important role they play. It also reinforced the strengths that I have in my professions as a business coach and where I can really make a difference.

One more caveat from another critic: "After reading the book, I wanted to take the quiz again (as the book implies you can), but Gallup *refuses* to allow you to take the quiz more than once. This means that your spouse or friend that you loan the book to won't be able to take the test until they fork over money for a new copy of the book. If you get a used or a returned copy, I hope the previous owner didn't take the test and then return the book!"

This is a reasonably priced book when you consider that you get an online assessment. Overall a good investment – either for the fun of it or to ponder it more closely. I wish that additional online inventories could be purchased. There are many ways that I can see how I would use it with clients. I truly hope that the authors do something more with this new tool that they have developed.

RFH (01/03)

Positive Psychology - More than Just the Flavour of the Month

Cover of Authentic Happiness

I first came across Martin E. P. Seligman through his book Learned Optimism.  I liked the assessment and then discovered the whole series of assessments on his website.  Many of these are excellent for personal development and Values in Action Questionnaire  http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/questionnaires.aspx.  created by Chris Peterson and Mary Seligman is particularly helpful for coaches to use.  I get lots of questions about values assessments and there are many but I tend to prefer card sorts.  This one however is an excellent choice.

I have been subscribing to Martin E. P. Seligman's Authentic Happiness Newsletter  since the spring of 2003 but I am not sure that I have written much about he "Positive Psychology Movement" or shared all the great resources out there.  This is a free newsletter sent to everyone who registers at www.authentichappiness.org  On the site are some fantastic resources and free assessments.

There is even a Authentic Happiness Coaching Newsletter. To subscribe, send a blank email to newsletter-subscribe@authentichappinesscoaching.com

A year ago, The International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) was formed with the purpose of this organization is to promote the science and practice of positive psychology and to facilitate communication and collaboration among researchers and practitioners around the world who are interested in this new field. On the website you can find out more about IPPA and where you can join  www.ippanetwork.org 

Seligman is also involved in the newly created Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program at the University of Pennsylvania .

I recently discovered another wonderful resource coming out of the UK surprisingly called:  Positive Psychology Resources 

True Colors - Team Building Workshops

I have decided that it is time to get back into doing more True Color Workshops.  True Colours is a stand alone program or a very effective kick off event for a team building retreat.  The Personality Dimensions (True Colors) workshop is designed to help participants become more effective communicators and enhance team building skills.  

For the past few years, since moving to Europe, I have been promoting and using The Platinum Rule for my team building activities. I still love this tool but I have missed doing the True Colors.  The Personality Dimension assessment could be viewed as a "simplified" Myers Briggs Type Indicator.  It is so much easier to grasp and remember.  More importantly, it doesn't box or label people.  So for those who like Jung and MBTI - this is a fantastic team tool.

 Personality Dimensions (True Colors) Intro 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

What it is?

The Personality Dimensions workshop is a self-awareness program that builds on the foundations established by the work of David Keirsey, Linda Berens and Don Lowry. It helps people become more effective communicators and enhance team-building skills. Through the use of four colours, Resourceful Orange, Organized Gold, Inspiring Green, and Authentic Blue, workshop participants become aware of four basic personality types. Each personality is unique and needs to be differently rewarded. This is often used successfully as a kick off event for a team building retreat. 

How it works? 

In the activity-based presentation, participants learn to appreciate their diversity and improve their self-esteem by being introduced to the Personality Dimensions theory and sorting various four colour-coded cards as well as completing a validated short word sort instrument. Participants are then regrouped according to their ‘personality colour’ and, with the aid of colour coded props, present answers to specific questions. Presentations are analyzed and discussed for similarities and differences. The presentations also allow them to scrutinize the skills they need to strengthen to become even more effective team members.

Programme structure 

A minimum of 2.5 hours deliver time is required to introduce the concepts and complete the activities. Ideal group size is 12 to 20.   Handouts are kept to a minimum but the Participant Package, with a 13-page booklet, is part of the materials required. (Cards must be returned along with the top page of the instrument.) The workshop is delivered in English but materials are provided in either French or English.

This workshop is highly interactive and energetic. I am Level One certified to deliver this material and has personally delivered this workshop to over 600 people.  Please feel free to contact me directly if you need any other information or some references. 

Cyndi Lauper's song and lyrics are wonderful and I sometimes use it to move between activities - enjoy.

 

 

Testimonial

“Colour us THANKFUL!... we found you to be a dynamic, knowledgeable and, certainly an entertaining leader. We talked about it for days and we were all anxious to find out if our hunches about family members were right.  Thank you so very much for an informative, informal, fun evening. It allowed us to better understand the people we work with and to appreciate how vital different colours are to a properly functioning team."

TILT - Pam Boney on Wisdom (audio)

Kay Cannon interviews Pam Boney about Wisdom Quadrant of the Transcendent Leadership Model of Tilt.

What are The Tilt Meta-Factors

If a leader is able to accomplish four key aspects of leadership presence, the potential for performance is exponential instead of incremental. Why? Because a leader that can be trusted to put the objective needs of the enterprise above their own interests are operating on principles that rise above the personal agenda of ego to accomplish the right objectives for everyone. We call this The Transcendent Leader™.

The four must-have Meta-Factors of the future:

* WISDOM: Without balance in this mastery the leader cannot establish sufficient credibility, limiting the ability to gain understanding and support of goals through clear perception of priorities and analysis of the business case. 
* HUMANITY: Without balance in this mastery the leader cannot establish trust with others, limiting the ability to lower defenses and constraints to unleashing support for their cause or objectives. 
* COURAGE: Without balance in this mastery, the leader cannot establish respect and momentum, limiting the ability to create accountability and forward action. 
* RESILIENCE: Without balance in this mastery, the leader cannot establish a basis for change or motivation, limiting the ability to catalyze new outcomes.

The Tilt 360 LP, measures 48 Commendable Traits that are organized into 12 Core Strengths and gauges a leader’s ability to create the conditions for highly effective collaboration.

1-Focus is a Fellow of Tilt. Used with permission of Tilt Inc.

Use an assessment to coach to the whole person

Image via Wikipedia

Assessments by their very nature look at just one aspect of a human being. Even those that are broad based like those that measure emotional intelligence do not take into account values, motives, instincts.  Nor should they.  However, we don't coach parts of individuals; we coach the individual in his or her totality.

Embracing the Whole: The art of creating meaning with assessments.

This is the title of the article published by choice Magazine. You can read the full pdf on my blog by clicking here.  The title is not the one I originally submitted, but I do like it.  I like it because it focuses on the very thing I think we forget - that we are a complete entity as human beings but we are also a part of a greater system.  While each assessment may not be totally holistic, we as coaches must by both systemic and constantly looking at the bigger picture.

In the article I talk about three kinds of responses and experiences that clients will obtain from an assessment.  Each one takes greater competence from the coach.  Still the last one - wisdom is not guaranteed:

• Learning
• Understanding
• Wisdom

I hope you read and enjoy the article and I would appreciate your feedback.

Leadership issues not being addressed by today's 360 assessments.

Here is my latest article from my ezine last month:

There has been a move in the last 10 years to focus on strengths as opposed to working to improve weaknesses.  It makes a lot of sense to try to leverage what is working well rather than trying to "fix" something that really may not need to be fixed. But there comes a point when even this strategy begins to break down.

What do you do when a leader begins to OVERUSE his or her strengths?

Probably the most listed competency for leaders today is the ability to inspire and communicate a clear vision.  The second  competency mentioned today is trust or trustworthiness. Both are very different skill sets.

What about your leaders who have the trust of staff but not the vision?

What about your leaders who are visionary but do not display the wisdom of objective reasoning?

We talk a lot about results based leadership and look where that has got us.  While the bottom line is important so too are other things.  Which brings us to the move towards values-based leadership. This is something that fits for me much better but I also notice the potential for a misalignment in our global and diverse world. To date, Kouze and Posner's Leadership Practices Inventory is the best to address these issues and their research is global. But something was missing - for me it was about the imperative for collaboration.

So at 1-Focus International we embarked on the development of our own Collaborative Leadership 360 model and assessment to meet the needs of globalization and amalgamations.  Then a friend and colleague showed me the research on the Tilt360.  I recommended it to my business partner.  We decided to adopt this new and very exciting character based system. We are convinced that it, along with coaching, is the best and most innovative way to predict and build leadership today.

1-Focus has become a fellow of Tilt Inc and will be the preferred independent consultant in Europe.  This assessment has coach training that is recognized by the ICF for credit.  If you want to take your leadership or your coaching practice to the next level please contact me.

Graphic copyright and used with permission:

Audios: Ed Schein on Career Anchors and Phillip V. Olsen on Proscan

Andrew Neitlich founded The Executive Think Tank in 2008.  So it is a new site but he has loaded up a good starting point for resources.  On of his recent additions is an interview with Ed Schein that I enjoyed.  While it has been about 6 years since I last used Career Anchors, I often recommend it to others.  It was a great refresher for me.

Ed Schein, legendary developer of the extremely popular Career Anchors assessment tool, provides an overview of the anchors that define your unique combination of perceived career competence, motives, and values. He also explains some of the subtleties of when to use this tool, and when not to.

Go here to see Career Anchors Online version.

Proscan is another assessment that has been around for 30 odd years. If you have seen it or as you listen to the recording, you will definitely notice some similarities with various versions of DISC.   I know about this tool as one of the products offered by PDFWorks.

Phil Olsen describes the power of the ProScan Assessment, which is a reputable and statistically validated tool for helping us articulate our strengths, understand where our natural self is having to adapt to the environment, and discover stress points in our work and personal lives.

My published article in choice magazine now available

I very pleased to announce that choice Magazine is now in circulation and this month's theme is on assessments.  Publisher Garry Schleifer asked me to submit an article and it was selected.  

"The assessment package is the coach’s palette and, in skilled hands, the beginning of the magic and mastery of coaching."  

Margie S.Heiler, MS, MCC, CEC

Quote from another colleague's article. You are welcome to read my full article below and I hope you enjoy it.

Another article in this month's magazine is by Phillip Sandahl, CPCC, MCC called  "Assessing the Assessment - Four key questions for coaches"

Phillip does a great job in looking at 4 key points to help you determine what is the "right" assessment for your coaching business.  I have my own 10 Criteria which cover these  issues as well as a few others to consider.  For a list of these along with a teleclass recording, scroll down to the bottom of the right hand column on this page and click the tab "Recordings"