People Strategy Archives - The Human Shift

August 21, 2020August 29, 2020

Leadership Teams Must Do This Now

This is part three of a four-part series on Predictive Index (PI) drives.

Leaders possess competencies that include both skills and behaviors that result in superior performance. For many organizations there is a suite of leadership competencies that, when deployed effectively, delivers the desired results. In recent months, organizations have been required to pivot quickly and to navigate numerous shifting regimes. Leadership teams must do this now:

Acknowledge leadership strengths and blind spots
Analyze and position to optimize success SWOT
Gain leadership alignment to strategy
Identify operational, procedural, or people refinements
Map success in people-centric terms

August 6, 2020August 13, 2020

Introverts, Ambiverts, Extraverts and Everyone in Between

This is part two of a four-part series on Predictive Index (PI) drives.

Extraversion is defined by Predictive Index as the drive for social interaction with other people and it is one of four drives mapped by way of a scientifically-valid, six decade old algorithm known as the PI Behavioral Assessment. Understanding drives is the direct path to understanding the needs of people. When employers understand what drives, or motivates, the people who comprise their organizations, the possibilities are endless.

Why does PI measure only four drives? While humans have many drives, these four—Dominance, Extraversion, Patience and Formality—are the most influential drivers of workplace performance.

July 30, 2020July 30, 2020

The Skinny on Average Expression

My kids and I were driving home from a weekend getaway, when Scotty McCreery’s song “In Between” came on the radio. My older daughter asked me what the song meant. I explained that the song was about knowing who you are, and that the artist was describing himself as “in between/Friday night wild/And quiet Sunday morning.” In other words, he is highly adaptable to diverse circumstances.

Knowing yourself, or more specifically self-awareness, is critical in life and especially in the workplace. And although McCreery was describing himself to a woman who was sizing him up from across the room, it’s possible that if he were to take a Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment, he might fall into the reference profile known as an Adapter,

in Leadership Development / People Strategy / Self-Awareness / Talent Optimization 0 comments

July 15, 2020March 1, 2021

Predictive Index: Hiring Known

I recently finished the great memoir, Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain, in which he described – in hilarious detail – the personality traits he expects in a sous chef.

“Like the Capo of a crime family or the director of the CIA, I could look across the room at [my sous chef], raise an eyebrow, maybe make an imperceptible move with my chin and the thing – whatever the thing was at the time – would be done.”

Bourdain said a sous chef in his kitchen needed to have mastery of cooking skills,

in Employee Engagement / High Performing Teams / People Management / People Strategy / Talent Optimization 0 comments

a team at work figuring out how to keep employees engaged

May 28, 2020May 29, 2020

How to Keep your Employees Engaged

According to talentoptimization.org, there are four primary forces that impact employee engagement: job, manager, team, and culture. Fifty-one percent of employees today are not engaged, while 16 percent are actively disengaged. But why does employee engagement matter anyway?

Disengagement is a widespread issue that causes organizations to lose billions of dollars to poor productivity, absenteeism, poor client service, safety issues, and toxic workplace cultures. Disengaged employees do just enough work to keep their job, while engaged employees are more likely to stay at your organization longer, become a top performer, and potentially recruit your next great hire.

Patience is the drive to have consistency and stability

May 14, 2020May 14, 2020

Ready, Fire, Aim

This is part one of a four-part series on Predictive Index (PI) drives.

Patience is defined by Predictive Index as the drive to have consistency and stability in your environment. While consistency and stability bring success in some situations, I would argue that’s not always the case. Sometimes a sense of urgency, the ability to multi-task, and outside pressure are critical to achieving the desired outcome.

Each of us is unique and possesses varying levels of patience. Some express high levels of the patience drive while others have a low expression of the patience drive. There is no right or wrong expression, or amount of, patience. Everyone has some drive for consistency and stability. Those who have a low expression of the patience drive must self-regulate, or adapt, in situations that may benefit from patience.

in People Management / People Strategy / Self-Awareness / Talent Optimization 0 comments

May 5, 2020June 8, 2020

Five Mandates of Highly-Effective Teams

My family owns a lake house in a gated golf community. For the first 20 years the resort existed, it thrived. Most of the owners had primary residences elsewhere and used their lake homes or condominiums at the resort for weekend golf outings or boating on the lake. The resort had golf and tennis professionals, who organized tournaments and gave lessons. The restaurant had fine dining and a pub, and they catered weddings and events.

The resort’s next 20 years were tumultuous. It underwent several management changes and the community’s population shifted to working class homeowners and renters.

pasta corbonara like a good team is hard to get right but worth the effort

April 23, 2020June 8, 2020

Cooking Up a People Management Strategy

I’ll bet no one has ever told you that effective leading is like making a good carbonara? You don’t believe me? Let’s step into the kitchen to learn more about leadership and managing people.

To create a silky carbonara sauce, you combine egg whites and pasta water in the correct proportion to egg yolks, pork fat and cheese. The egg yolks act as an emulsifier to bond the pork fat and cheese into the pasta water and egg white sauce. When done with the right timing, the proper heat, and quick whisking, you produce a creamy, flavorful sauce that perfectly coats the pasta and pancetta. If, however, you misstep on any one of these factors, you get pasta with scrambled eggs. Yuck.