Do you ever feel like you don’t fit? You don’t fit this job, or this work assignment, or this shirt? The feeling is pretty common. Over time you have developed coping skills to get through those moments (and you put on a different shirt). Being uncomfortable challenges you to reassess and to grow. Over the last few weeks I discussed the work of Brandon Burchard on High Performing Habits. He filtered our experience of discomfort through the lens of “how do I serve in this situation?”
I got another take from my Vistage Speaker this week, Chas Moscarino. Chas looked at our inherent traits and how they position us to be excited or distressed by the stretch. His talk, titled Right People in the Right Seats, uses a survey from Imprint Analytics to assess personality traits on a different set of parameters than other assessments. The assessments of the Member and multiple direct reports showed patterns of success. And, who could soar in the next promotion or not.
It put words and data around the behaviors we note but don’t know how to describe or what to do about them. We saw how much our folks are stretching to do what the job takes. If they are really stretching hard, they tend to burn out. If they just don’t fit, they disengage. Why does this matter? Look at how low the engagement is among workers in the US. We now have language to use as we look at the data with our current team.
Then Chas asked us why don’t we know all this before we even interview? If we change the way we hire and give them the survey first, we start with the applicants who have the personality traits desired for the job. Doesn’t that make sense?
This week, take a look at how you are hiring and assessing your team. Are you giving them a role they soar in? Or holding them and the organization back.
If you don’t think Vistage peer groups get value at every meeting-from the speakers, the conversations and the input from your peers, don’t click here.