Better character assessment questions or more intuition in business?
The person I was to meet came into reception with a colleague. Their conversation ended in agreement that they needed a new personality analysis tool.
That caught my attention. Why, I wondered.
The question sat in my mind through the welcomes, organising coffee and the small talk that preceded our meeting. Kathy is the operations manager for a significant company so I asked what she meant; 'they need a new personality assessment tool'.
She explained that high-level positions were so much more demanding. People have to cope with a much wider range of issues. They had to be good at systems and people. "It's as if they need to be psychologists and managers," she said. "What we need is a set of character assessment questions for the initial selection."
What's the deeper issue I wondered?
It's true; the skills expected of higher level manager has changed. Today the issues that most effect productivity are emotional rather than logistical or physical issues. Even the cry "we can't find skilled workers" is more of an emotional issue. Why do people not want to up skill? Up skilling has never been easier. Wikipedia is a good start and there have never been more universities and training organisations available for people to up-skill themselves. Why aren't people furiously up-skilling? The answer is simply because we're not motivated. Motivation is an emotional.
Our needs with the rapid technological development over the last few decades have become more emotional and spiritual. Technology has made a plethora of comfort and convenience products and services affordable. In our technological age we want less for material things and more for a sense of belonging, self worth and a connected to a greater cause. The former two needs are of an emotional nature, the latter more spiritual.
Traditionally business has been very good at manufacturing and distributing material products. All the great business empires of the past 100 years were about manufacturing, harvesting and distributing physical goods. In recent years computers, the information age and the internet, has been good at stimulating thinking and distributing intellectual value. In our developed society, we are well catered for on the material and intellectual levels.
Maslow gave us a framework to understand what is happening. At the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs are the basic physical needs and towards the top are esoteric needs, which we aspire for, once we have lower needs, sorted. In business we can simplify Maslow's hierarchy to four levels. The lower level represents the physical things we want from our work. The next level a sense of belonging, then a sense that our contribution is valued and the top level represents a sense that we are part of a larger cause.
In business if we pay people enough to enjoy basic housing, clothing and nutrition their real needs will be in the upper three levels.
But every day we hear people are struggling to make ends meet. If we were to ask the average worker, especially in situations where people are not particularly happy, they'd probably talk about pay and conditions. What else can they say? A credible argument for better rewards has to be logical, measurable and easy to understand when presented in short sound bites. The more esoteric needs often cannot be expressed in words at all, so how can people negotiate for more of a sense of belonging, recognition in their work place.
Despite the stories of poverty and struggle tht we hear every day, the need for emotional and spiritual fulfillment in our work is fast becoming the numer one issue. Business is the most likely vehicle to meet this need in our society, but the delivery of emotional and spiritual solutions cannot be systemised.
The numer one purpose of business has shifted. The real value in business is delivering emotional benefits on the back of physical products and services. When customers experience calmness, joy, an enhanced image, and excitement buying and using a product they become loyal at a visceral level.
The leadership vacuum of today is caused by a failure of leaders to recognise the shift from material needs to emotional needs.
Rather than a personality analysis tool business owners would be better learning how to operate at an emotional and spiritual level. A good start would be for each of us to become more aware of how much intuition already determines the experience we have in our work.
You may find it interesting to stop for a moment ask yourself; of what I said, thought and did in the last 10 minutes; how much was I conscious of?
Also published by Donald Jessep of Profitable Teams.
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Achieving More Doing Less, 31 Prompts and Processes, published 2007
28
Motivate Myself, an audio CD, 9 tracks, 60 min of thought provoking ideas. Published September 2011
18
Contents of Achieving More Doing Less
Simple explanations and large diagrams
Working on myself
I was I am I plan 14
Vision Mission Values 16
Be Do Have 18
The Choice 20
Observing 22
Being Joyful 24
Our Survival Line 26
Core Beliefs 28
The Process of Believing 30
A ≠ A 32
Grey is OK 34
Eyes on the Process 36
Five Intelligences 38
10 : 70 : 20 40
Ascent 42
Decision Making 44
Beyond the Transaction 46
Working with my team
Hierarchy or Team 48
What Inspires 50
Being Deliberate 52
Profitable Meetings 54
Task Role Belief 56
Three Hats of a Leader 58
Solving Problems 60
Detached and Connected 62
Guiding and Praising 64
Integrating a new Idea 66
Leading People to a Better ‘Place’ 68
The Ultimate Measure 70
Success is 72
Done and Dusted 74
The Next Step 77
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The CD Motivate Myself;
9 tracks, 60 minutes of thought provoking ideas. Each starting with an every day story in one person's working day, offering a different perspective of teh bigger picture and finishing a suggestion of some alternative action.
Contents
- The Deeper Cause - ... employee to understand the cause of an issue to a deeper level so they are insired to change
- The Myth of the Night Owl - Early in the morning is when we set decide to be effective and productive
- Powerful Pauses - Questions become powerful if we are relaxed about leaving tension in the silence that follows
- Being and Doing - Completing the 'To Do' list is only fulfilling if we can also place a tick beside the way we intended to 'Be'
- The 10 70 20 Rule - A framework for being inspired, organised, productive, fun, for ever learning and at peace
- Grey is OK - A mind game for accepting so we can maximise our influence towards a better situation
- The Personal Escalation Plan - The process for gaining the attention of influential people to get an idea implimented
- The Goals and Causes - How goals without clarity of a bigger cause is only fleetingly motivating at best. What is a cause?
- Asking for Help - Kevin who wanted to chicken out when an opportunity he's worked on for for many yeasr presents itself
Back to buy Motivate Myself CD