Growth & Development Through Self-Assessments
Traci and Rob talk about self-assessments and how they springboard us toward personal growth and development. They discuss which assessments are most effective and reliable. Discover why assessments can be a valuable tool for self-discovery and self-actualization and learn how they can enhance team dynamics, strengthen productivity, and boost engagement.
Transcript
Announcer:
Welcome to the Overly Human podcast, where we discuss all things human in the workplace. Because it's not just business—it's personal too.
Rob:
Hey, Traci! How are you?
Traci:
I'm good. How are you doing?
Rob:
I'm doing pretty well. Doing pretty well.
Traci:
Good to hear.
Rob:
Yeah. So today we're going to talk about assessments.
Traci:
Yes.
Rob:
How we can use them in the workplace and in our businesses, and what they mean, and why we would do them, and how to get them done, and some of your favorites. I know this is a topic that you're pretty knowledgeable on, and I'm really excited to even probably learn a couple things today. So why don't you go ahead and give a good introduction of just what they are and why we would use them?
Traci:
Sure. Yeah, I love assessments. I think if they're used right, and if you're using the right ones, I think they can be a great tool to be using in the workplace.
The main reason that you're going to use them is for growth within your team, so individual growth or team growth. So, if you want to get your team to be communicating better, understanding each other better, if you want to heighten your own self-awareness as a leader, and you want to learn more about yourself, how maybe you are being perceived, or how you're coming across, or maybe what your strengths are that you're not really tapping into as much as you should be, maybe what your blind spots are that you just want to be aware of. So, it's just a really good way to just heighten your awareness as a leader. And we see great change from a coaching perspective. We always start our coaching relationships by doing a couple of assessments, just to heighten somebody's awareness of themselves and to have kind of a springboard jumping off of that.
The second reason you can use them is in hiring. So, as you know, you've hired a lot of people, it can be a pretty expensive endeavor, especially if you hired the wrong person.
Rob:
Oh, for sure.
Traci:
You can use assessments to really help figure out how to get the right person in the right seat on the bus. So, there are some key assessments that you can use for that to just round out that interview process, and be sure that you're getting a bigger picture on your candidate, outside of just their skill set or their capabilities. And how they might fit into the team, and what they might bring to the table from a different perspective.
Rob:
Interesting. So I know with Sparkbox, we've done some assessments in the past. Mostly, I think, it's been Myers-Briggs or The Enneagram has made its way around the company a couple of times. That's another popular one, it seems like right now. But I don't know that we've ever considered using it for hiring, like a pre...like the way you're talking about it, almost like a screening mechanism to figure out if they would be a good fit. And maybe that's just because we haven't used the right assessment and maybe, like most of the ones that I've seen, those two, Myers-Briggs and Enneagram, feels like there is no wrong answer, no wrong type.
But it's also helped us a lot to figure out like, "Hey, if you communicate this way and I communicate this way, here are some likely gaps that we need to bridge interpersonally." So, which assessments are you using for that kind of thing, like a pre-screen?
Traci:
Well, we use the same assessments whether we're screening somebody or part of the interview process or we're doing growth and development. So, we use DiSC, which is a personality profile or your behavioral style, which is very similar to Myers-Briggs. So, usually, you'll use either Myers-Briggs or DiSC. DiSC tends to be a little bit more in their validity ratings than Myers-Briggs. I also think that DiSC is much easier to remember. So, with Myers-Briggs, you have to remember four letters of your own, not to mention what you would be remembering about your teammates. With DiSC, you're either a D, an I, an S or a C. So, easy to remember on yourself and easy to remember on your teammates.
You can also use Kolbe as one of the assessments that we use, which is also great for hiring. And we use EQ-i, which is emotional intelligence. We have one other assessment called EMCOR, which is motivational mapping. That also can be used for hiring, but we tend to, we've kind of now shifted to Kolbe. Mainly because Kolbe, legally, you can actually use that to screen candidates. The other assessments, you're not usually saying, "I'm going to hire or fire you because of how you did on an assessment." You're just trying to find out more about the person, just get a bigger picture of them. So, if they're taking the DiSC assessment and say, you are looking for a new head of biz dev, you might be looking for somebody who maybe is a little bit more extroverted, maybe an I, somebody who is really into influencing the conversation, a little more gregarious. That doesn't always have to be the case, but it could be that you're trying to round out your team, too.
If you have a leadership team that's full of Ds, maybe you want to balance that out with a different personality type. With EQ-i, you can find out a lot about what their strengths are that maybe you really need for a particular role, or what their blind spots might be. So, a DiSC, say if you're hiring, we tend to see a lot of devs or designers tend to fall on the same personality category, and that's fine. But with EQ-i, we're going to see different EQ-is across the board. And there's no right or wrong DiSC style. There's no right or wrong EQ-i makeup. There's no right or wrong Kolbe. The purpose of an assessment is not to change what your personality type is. It's just to heighten your awareness, right? Because who you are is who you're meant to be. And we want you to kind of live out of that sort of natural state of who you are. But, just like as we've talked about on so many different podcasts, we want you to understand more deeply who you are, so that you can be more effective in the workplace.
Rob:
Yeah. And I think that's just, I don't have anywhere near the same level of depth on this, but that was one of my favorite things about some of the Enneagram stuff that, when I read that it's like, they give you a core number and then a wing number. Then they give you examples of what a healthy looking your type is and they give you examples of what unhealthy types are, and how those different bits of who you are can manifest themselves in different ways. And that's a pretty interesting way to think about it is, there is no right or wrong, but based on our awareness of who we are, what we can do, what our strengths are, we can either be a really powerful best version of ourselves or self-destructing worst versions of ourselves on the same spectrum.
Traci:
Yeah. And what's helpful about these assessments, if you're doing ones that are the right ones, they're valid, statistically proven. Like the DiSC, you could probably take a free DiSC online, but it might not be the assessment you should be using, right? You want to definitely make sure you're using one that is proper, and that is going to give you the right results back. And if you get, you know. Usually that's something you're going to have to pay for. I think if you're doing something for free, you might be getting what you're paying for. If you are paying for something and also be getting a debrief with that, a professional debrief, you're going to get so much more information.
So, with the DiSC, you get like, “What are your typical stressors?” Which I think is super helpful. These are the things that can kind of set you off or stress you out in your role, so you can make sure that you're kind of keeping your finger on the pulse of that. And then if you become stressed, what are some classic sort of behavioral things that might show up, given your style?
And usually, when I'm debriefing, whether it's somebody I'm interviewing for a job or whether it's a leader that I'm coaching, people have aha moments, but they're also like, "Yep, that's me." They know that about themselves. But these assessments will also give you strategies for action. So, these are ways that you can lean more into that gifting that you have, or these are ways that you can make sure you get your finger on the pulse of that blind spot so it doesn't trip you up, especially if you're stressed. Because we all have that reactionary side of us, that shadow self that shows up when times are tough or when we're stressed or there's an event at home or we're feeling overworked. And so, when we know like, "Oh, this is why I'm being being short with this person" or "this is why I'm being over-demanding" or "this is why I'm micromanaging.” It's because this part of me and I'm recognizing that in myself, so I know to reset.
Rob:
Yeah. That makes sense. So you said something in there that I thought was interesting. You said getting someone to interpret the results for you. Now when you're doing these assessments, is this something that companies can do themselves using tools? I completely hear you. Paying for stuff that's valuable is probably a really good idea. There's very few free things. Maybe just podcasts out there and good information. But do you typically recommend that people work with somebody who can help them interpret the results, or a third-party to come in and help companies do that?
Traci:
Absolutely. I do. I know it sounds a little self-serving because that's what I do for a living. But having been trained and certified, you understand so much more about that instrument. Also, it helps to make sure that it's not misinterpreted or presented to your team in a way that's not appropriate. And then they start using the tool against each other, right? Even subconsciously. So, what you want is somebody who's well-trained and certified that can come and say, "Look, there's no judgment in this, right? We don't apply stereotypes or anything to these instruments. This is really just to help deepen our understanding of ourselves and each other. It's just a tool. We're complex human beings."
So, we're going to see like with a DiSC especially, you'll see yourself in each one of the styles. You'll say, "Oh, well, sometimes I'm more like that than I am like this." And that's true. That's how we are. We're very complex. But it's really the behavioral style that you're most comfortable in, what you most of the time show up like. And it's that understanding and that explanation that really helps a team. So, we take teams through a ton of understanding and teaching, but a ton of exercises that are really fun, and it really helps apply it in the workplace and teach them how to take all of this information, actually apply it to their day-to-day working environment. And I think it's a really powerful experience for teams.
Rob:
Yeah. So, in that kind of case, you would come in, you would help administer the assessment and then unpack this for everybody, which, I think that one of the things that I would think that would be really easy to do is if you are a certain type. A lot of these is, you also are coming at this without training, with your biases and all of that. And probably bringing a third-party in from the outside probably helps eliminate some of that, but even that unconscious bias that we all bring to things.
Traci:
Yeah. And it helps you be a participant. You don't want... You want everybody from the owner all the way down to the person you just hired yesterday to all be participating and all be experiencing it equally. And also, participating in the activities, so they can really just kind of not think about it, but really just experience and learn from it themselves.
Rob:
Yeah. I'd love to hear a little bit more about the experience and the activity. So, let's set this up. All right? Like, I want to do this in my company. We send out the assessment to everybody and say, "Hey, sometime this week, take the 20 or 30 minutes to take these assessments. Your results will go in. This third-party will have access to them, and they'll come in and do something with them," right? What is that something, like what are the activities? What does that look like?
Traci:
So, typically, I'll just use DiSC as an example. We can do it with Kolbe or EQ-i. But using DiSC as an example, we would do exactly what you just said. We'd send an online link to everybody, so they're all taking the same assessment, and all being measured in the same way. And then it automatically generates a report. We wouldn't give that report to everybody at that time. We wait until we're all together, and going through the experience of learning together. And so, what we typically do is teach the entire team about what DiSC is, and what each style is, so they have a full understanding before they know what their own style is. So, they're really listening to all the styles and really learning about each style and in their mind, they're always guessing which one they probably are.
And we will actually do the fun exercise of like, "Okay, now that you've learned about every style, if you think you're a D, we want you to go to that corner of the room. If you think you're an I, over here. If you think you're S, here. C, here." You see people come, and then we'll say, "Okay, this is great. Why do you think this? What do you feel?" Then we will give everybody the report, give them time to kind of sit down and read through it. And then we'll do a Q&A, and a sharing time. Then we'll start to break them up into their types together.
And we'll start to do some exercises to dig deep. Like, "What do you feel how people perceive your type? What are the hardest things for your type to deal with? What are your stressor points?" And then, what's interesting about DiSC is that typically, the styles that are across from each other have the hardest time relating to each other in the workplace. So, the Is have a hard time with the Ss, and the Ds have a hard time with the Ss, and the Is have a hard time with the Cs. And so, we'll have those two groups actually talk to each other, and say, "What's it like working..." And it's really their... You'll see breakthroughs happening where it's like, "This is why Sally and I..." And then a lot of it's like laughing and joking, but some of it's serious. Some of it's breakthroughs of like, "Oh, I see now how we can meet each other halfway." And you'll also see why a lot of people that preside in the same category might have trouble with each other too. There might be power struggles.
And so, it's just great for a team to learn how to communicate better with each other, but also how to have more grace with each other, to understand that we all process information differently. We all are... Some of us are extroverts, some of us are introverts and that really affects how we might show up at work. Some of us are good with change, some of us aren't. Some of us are action-oriented. Some of us want to go slower. And so, when we're actually saying that out loud to each other, we're learning how to really meet each other halfway instead of saying, "It's my way or the highway" or "I do this best versus you."
Rob:
Yeah. It's that empathetic piece of it, is being able to understand where everybody else is and put yourself where they are, and the times we've done things like this. It's also this moment where it's permission to say things about how you perceive the world that are way out of place in normal conversations. I think that's really, really important. And I think that's it's pretty cool that when we let down our shields and it can have those vulnerable moments and permission to talk about those things, which isn't real common.
Traci:
Yeah, it's not... You have to provide that space for your team. And you actually have to provide that space for yourself. Sometimes, we're just so in the work mode that we're not providing that space for our own personal growth, and it has to be intentional. And when you, as a leader, provide that space for your team, oh my gosh, it's such a gift. Your team becomes so much more engaged, so much more loyal, so much more bonded. It really, all the research shows that it increases engagement and increases longevity. Any sort of investment in team growth really helps that team. And then, it hits your bottom line. You become more productive, you become more profitable. And so, it's money well spent. It's time well spent to really grow that trust level and to be able to get to a place where you can have healthy conflict with each other and hold each accountable because you know each other better and more deeply.
Rob:
Yeah. I think I'm with you.
So, how do you maintain it? If you're a growing company and you're constantly bringing in new people or like, how do you maintain that? Because the times we've done it, it's been this great snapshot, and there is this moment that the team feels more bonded. And then time goes on, and you can slowly feel that erode a little bit because the people change, things change, distance, all those other fun things that happen, real-world kind of stuff. So, what does maintenance look like for something like that?
Traci:
Well, first, I would say, it's a great question. First, you have to pick your assessments and stick with it. So, if you're going to do DiSC, stick with DiSC. Don't go off a year later and then say, "Oh, we're going to do Myers-Briggs or predictive index" or something like that. Stick with one and then deeply understand it. Then that way, when you add somebody new, especially in the hiring process, you'll start to get used to using it in the hiring process. And then you'll know, they'll know coming in, and they will have learned and then debriefed on what that their style is. Then that can be part of sort of the on-boarding and introduction of that person.
But then you want to along the way have... It's kind of like tuning up a car. Tune up the team, right? So, you want to be reminding... It's the same thing with core values, right? You can do the core values exercise, but if you're not operationalizing it and you're not reminding them of that, then it's not going to stick. So you're going to want to have these, be reminding people of their DiSC style or maybe doing an exercise here or there that reminds the team and is a refresher, so that they know and are remembering.
Rob:
How often? Is there a rule of thumb that you've got on how often that that refresher needs to take place?
Traci:
I think you should be doing something team health-focused at least annually.
Rob:
Okay.
Traci:
So, you know you're probably getting together to do some sort of team retreat or some sort of annual meeting. And I think that's a great time to plug in team health. So, if you've done DiSC once and you might be doing something different or a different exercise or learning about something different, but you could be brushing up on your DiSC styles and your core values. And so, having a section of your annual retreat that is just focused on team health and growth and development, I think it'd be really powerful. So, you're not just focused on bonding and hanging out and doing some fun stuff, or just on strategic planning or goal setting, but you're also doing things that are intentionally growing their intelligence about the team health.
Rob:
Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. Well this has been a lot of fun talking about some of these assessments, and I think that we've got some more fun planned for some later episodes, right?
Traci:
Oh, we do.
Rob:
You've picked out two different assessments for me to take. That's DiSC and the EQ-i.
Traci:
Yes.
Rob:
And I've taken both of those and you're going to professionally give me my results while we record here very soon. Probably the next two episodes, so.
Traci:
Yes. And you've been so gracious to want to do this and to kind of put yourself out there, but I think it's going to be fun.
Rob:
Yeah. Any final thoughts on assessments?
Traci:
Well, I think they can be great tools. I will reiterate, pick the right ones. This isn't a horoscope. This isn't something you want to download offline. Do research and really pick the right assessments and remember that there's no judgment, there's no right or wrong person, that this is just to deepen our awareness, of either ourselves and our existing team or those candidates that we're looking to hire. So, they can be a real asset, and they can actually help you save money in the long run, save money through your hiring process, and save money by increasing your engagement and your retention.
Rob:
That's awesome. Well, thanks, Traci. I appreciate it.
Traci:
You're welcome. It's fun talking about it.
Rob:
All right. See you next time.
Traci:
Till next time.
Announcer:
This podcast would not be possible without the amazing communications team at Sparkbox. If you like what you've heard, please subscribe and tell your friends to listen as well. The Overly Human podcast is brought to you by Navigate the Journey and Sparkbox. For more information on this podcast, or to get in touch with Traci or Rob, go to overlyhuman.com. Thanks for listening.
