Assessments Today

Case Study - Common Sense Intelligence or EQ

The "Death of Common Sense Obituary" has been circulating quite a bit lately on list serves and through "chain letters", so I thought this would be a good time to:

1. Refer you to the original source
2. Create a little case study that is related

Here is how Lori Bergman describes her work:

"This piece was first published March 15, 1998 in the Indianapolis Star. It has been 'modified' and 'edited' by others and circulated on the Internet, even sent to me several times. Imagine my surprise to see it attributed to some guy named Anonymous. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I take having my work circulated on the web as a compliment."

             The original work can be found here

 

Case Study 7 –   Common Sense Intelligence or EQ

George is a direct, bright entrepreneur.  He has hired a coach recently to help him take his $300k software business to a half million company.  He has 35 people on staff with three managers heading up marketing, engineering and production.  George realizes that his managers may not have the skills needed to take the company to the next level and he is honest enough to wonder what he should be working on as well.   George realizes that he is intense and demanding.  It annoys him that not everyone shares his passion.  Sometimes he looses his temper but is quick to provide perks to all the employees. 

George is a prolific reader all all the latest business and leadership books.  During one of his sessions George asks:  "Hey Coach, what is all this junk I keep hearing about Emotional Intelligence?  Let me tell you, I wouldn't have got to where I am if I didn't have both the Brain Smarts and the Street Smarts.  All this stuff about emotional intelligence just sounds like a lot of old fashion common sense.  Am I wrong?"

Funny that George should ask, because the coach has been wondering if an EQ assessment might be something that would be helpful.

Questions for comments:

1. How would you respond to George's comment?
2. What reservations might you have about using a "Emotional Intelligence" assessment?
3. What EQ or EI instrument would you consider?
   

Best Practices - Leadership and Virgin (no not that kind of virgin)

I was going to start a new category "Best Practices" but I that is a dangerous thing.  The moment some organization is pointed out as a "leader" or "best" it is bound to be the kiss of death.  What happened to all those firms Tom Peter's wrote about in "In Search of Excellence or Jim Collin's "Built to Last"?  Oh Really?

That said, it is interesting to read about what some high profile firms (and those that aren't) are doing to stay competitive, or successful or even change with the times.  Here is one such case that is using 360 feedback processes.

Virgin Atlantic introduced a leadership development programme that was led by business objectives rather than HR processes, and fitted into the organisation's long-term goal of increasing profits by 7%. The leadership team started by identifying the traits it believed had made Virgin successful and followed this with a 360-degree appraisal of the management team's strengths and weaknesses.

 

What I find to be of interest in the article are the 11 steps that they have developed to guide them through the process.  this is a systemic approach and that is how assessments should be used.  Assessments are one tool in an overall program that is dynamic and and interdependent.  I find that I take little exception to what they are doing in principle.  Let's wait and see how successful they are at first the implementation and then the integration into the culture. 

Guide to leadership development in 11 steps

1. Understand the present and future context of the organisation and the sector in which it is operating.
2. Know what you are going to require of your leaders in the future. This mean you need to focus on potential performance.
3. Make sure any programme is tied into other company activities, such as secondments, mentoring, cross-functional working and masterclasses. It should mot be a standalone project or seen as solely an HR initiative.
4. Involve existing leaders by asking them to describe current and future leadership challenges.
5. Use a variety of development mechanisms. These might include group sessions and one-to-one work, experiential and paper-based activities, company projects, feedback and coaching.
6. Develop a framework on which to build the design of the programme, such as leadership competencies or principles.
7. Reflect company culture in the programme design. Make full use of the organisation's values and use the programme to bring them to life.
8. Give participants the opportunity to voice their career aspirations.
9. Wherever possible, involve line managers before, during and after the programme.
10. Build personal development planning into the programme. Individuals rarely complete development plans after the momentum of the programme is lost.
11. Carry out an evaluation of the programme at both a behavioural and results level through 360-degree appraisals (undertaken both before and after), surveys and performance data.

Using Online Assessments for Compliance - White Paper to download

Assessments are vital to a credible compliance strategy. Questionmark’s white paper, 'Using Online Assessments for Compliance', explains how quizzes, tests and surveys can help organisations meet the ever-increasing need to ensure regulatory compliance. This 12-page paper outlines how assessments can help organisations document and improve compliance training and performance.  

The paper discusses compliance-related assessment applications including:

• Measuring knowledge gained from compliance training
• Documenting employees’ mastery of required knowledge
• Creating an effective and accurate audit trail
• Identifying knowledge gaps
• Analysing results in order to improve future training

It is a bit of a company product promotion but no more than TalentSmart's White Papers.  Coming from a UK firm, it reminds us that compliance is not just an American issue but one that is universal.  To receive a complimentary copy of this paper via email, click here.  Available in five languages.

Revisiting Learning Styles

I have mixed feelings about the topic of learning styles.   While I do think in generalities that is useful for us who coach or train to try to "address" the interests and styles of our "learners",  I have never been a great supporter of distributing "Learning Style Assessments" to my clients.  Why?  Well it might be useful to know "how I learn best", most of us have a pretty good idea anyway of what works for us and what doesn't.  Besides, knowing that I am verbal and conceptual isn't immediately practical and applicable.

I posted on Will at Work's Challenge last September because I am always concerned about debunking urban myths.  Well he has posted a  Learning Styles Challenge 1-Year Update (Be sure to read the comments section.)

It has been exactly one year since I offered $1,000 to anyone who could demonstrate that utilizing learning styles improved learning outcomes. Click here for the original challenge.

So far, no one has even come close.

Never the less, most people do find the topic of learning styles very interested and often like to take these "tests".  One of the best overviews that I have found is by Marcia Conner and listed on her site:

This introduction puts learning styles information into easy to understand language and provides sources where you can learn more. I also offer a Learning Style Assessment  that you can use to gauge your dominant learning style and techniques you can use to benefit from your individuality.

Overview of learning styles
Books about different ways people learn
Links to other websites about learning styles

Conner, M. L. "Introduction to Learning Styles." Ageless Learner, 1997-2007. http://agelesslearner.com/intros/lstyleintro.html

What I particularly like is her overview of the various theories and models to learning that include:
 

• Perceptual Modalities
• Multiple Intelligences - Howard Gardner
• Mind Styles - Anthony Gregorc, David Kolb's Learning Style Model
• Myers-Briggs (An interesting choice but I think many others could have been used or included as well.)