Why use Kolbe – and what is it?
When it comes to recruiting, hiring, and training a team, many businesses use psychometric tools such as Myers Briggs and DISC profiling to gain insight into the psychological preferences of their potential and existing employees.
The method I have found most useful is the Kolbe A Index™. Kolbe uses the conative method, which looks at what makes people tick and the instinct that drives individual and group behaviour.
Conation, the power behind performance, determines your Modus Operandi (MO) and the true culture of any group: our natural way of taking action to understand a person’s drive, instinct and innate talents.
The advantage of using Kolbe is to understand the likely behaviours and actions of the people they’re hiring.
It taps into the deeply embedded part of the brain that determines how you will make decisions, not what you wish you would do or have been taught to do.
As a manager or leader, you need to understand your individual team members and the entire team’s MO, so you can see how they will work together well.
Kolbe ranges of behaviour
Kolbe analyses people based on four different types of behaviour: Fact Finder, Follow Thru, Quick Start and Implementor.
Each trait is regarded as equally positive and is rated on an inverted scale of 1-10 on what Kolbe terms a Continuum.
Fact Finder: how you gather and share information
Follow Thru: how you arrange and design
Quick Start: how you deal with risk and uncertainty
Implementor: how you handle space and tangibles
To discover where you are on the Continuum for each behaviour type, the Kolbe A Index analyses your answers to 36 questions, based on a validated assessment.
Benefits of Kolbe
For me, one of the most significant benefits of Kolbe is that you can run a team report to show the strengths of the team and any missing methods.
This helps employees to understand themselves and their colleagues better.
In my five person leadership team, I had three people who were strongest on Fact Finder and Follow Thru, with me being the opposite – strongest on Quick Start.
When we added an Integrator to our team, responsible for day to day management and making sure the company runs efficiently, she was strongest on Quick Start and Implementor, which complemented the existing team’s abilities, and helped the whole team function better.
Many advocates of the Kolbe A Index feel the framework highlights people’s natural strengths and abilities and encourages managers to build on these rather than highlighting perceived ‘weaknesses’.
By using Kolbe, you will be working in alignment with your strengths and those of your team, rather than encouraging people to struggle against their natural instincts.
Julia is a Kolbe Certified Consultant and a Professional EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) Implementor. She uses Kolbe with our EOS clients to give them a greater understanding of each person’s individual strengths.
Nearly a million individuals have completed the Kolbe A™ Index on five continents.
If you want to find out more about Kolbe or EOS, contact Julia today on +44 (0)7795 667480 for a complimentary 90 minute meeting to introduce it to you and your leadership team, book today here.
Image credit: brain by DigitalRalph licensed under Creative commons 4