Imagine for a moment that you're a manager and you receive an intelligence report about Paul, an employee on your team, that tells you this about him:

"[Paul] prefers being someone’s partner or teammate. [He] probably has little interest in working alone to coordinate the activities of individuals or groups."

"Instinctively, [he] probably derives far less satisfaction from [his] work or studies when [he] is separated from [his] friends. Partnering with them usually motivates [him] to work very hard to complete tasks and reach goals."

"It’s very likely that [Paul] sometimes enjoys launching new initiatives. Perhaps [he] has a reputation for knowing how to get projects moving forward. Instinctively, [he] probably feels exhilarated when the demands of work keep [him] physically active."

"[Paul] aims for higher levels of excellence. [He] is determined to be more productive than [he] has been in the past. [He] is motivated from within to prove himself to himself each day."

Or how about a report that contains these words about, Jane, another of your employees:

"Chances are good that [Jane] feels most fulfilled when [she is] busy and simply performing routine tasks."

"[Jane] prefers to spend time with individuals who speak as candidly as [she does] about their strengths, shortcomings, hopes, disappointments, failures, or successes."

"[Jane] is fascinated by problems that puzzle, confound, or frustrate most people. Instinctively, [she] can reconfigure factual information or data in ways that reveal trends, raise issues, identify opportunities, or offer solutions."

What could you do with information like that about each one of your employees?

Can you imagine getting such an intelligence report that gave you direct and factual information about what motivates and demotivates each person on your team.

For Paul, you would know that he's not going to thrive in an environment where he works alone. Giving him work from home privileges probably isn't going to be a good thing. And here you were thinking everyone wants that perk.

Not Paul.

What about Jane? Well you know from this intelligence that Jane is going to be happiest performing routine tasks - again, you've been thinking nobody wants to do those.

You also know that Jane is fascinated by solving problems that drive others crazy. How useful would it be to know that, next time there's a problem to be sorted out?

Face it, as a manager of Paul and Jane you'd LOVE to get intel like this.

Yeah, that'd be nice. Maybe someday in the future when we can peer into peoples' brains we'll be able to get that kind of information, but for now, we have to just keep on guessing.

What if I told you those are direct quotes from intel reports that already exist and those are from employees I used to manage?

That's right, you can get this type of intel today on each of your employees and it's cheap and you don't need to tap the NSA database or hire a private investigator.

The report is the output of a talent assessment called CliftonStrengths. Formerly known as the Clifton StrengthsFinder. It's an assessment of talent that will tell an individual their top 5 talent themes from a group of 34 themes found to be universal in all people.

Within these talent theme descriptions are phrases like the ones above. Like I said, these are direct quotes taken from people I used to manage. I just changed the names.

Now imagine if Paul and Jane, who work as members of the same team, could share this intel about each other, with each other. What do you suppose would happen to the quality of their work interactions?

The CliftonStrengths assessment was about 50 years in the making and tested on over 2 million people before it was ever released for general use. It is administered by Gallup - the polling people and the purveyors of the biggest sets of big data on employment and employees in the world. And it's coached by coaches like me. I was one of the early adopters to get certified to coach CliftonStrengths and there are now more than 5,000 in the world.

You can go to GallupStrengthsCenter.com to take the assessment or set it up for your people, but having a coach to help apply it to your team's situation is where the real value comes in.

I coach individuals to help them live a more fulfilled life. I help them find the thing that they really rock and help them do that thing every day.

I also coach managers. Statistically, most managers are not very good at being a manager and it's not their fault. They were placed in their role under poor pretenses, and once in their role very few of them get much training and development.

I can fix that.

Hit me up for coaching or a half-day team builder. I'll come to you anywhere in the world.

Contact me for a free consultation with no obligation.

https://www.ryanhoumand.com/contact