There are various profiling tools that businesses and individuals use to better understand themselves.

These are mostly based on testing personality types, intelligence and skill for the benefit of identifying strengths, weaknesses and preferences in people. 

At Bold Clarity, we understand how important it is to find the right tools to help entrepreneurs and business owners increase their performance. 

Using a profiling tool can help leaders create productive teams, nurture their talent and organise their team in a way to achieve business growth.

We recommend and use Kolbe Indexing.

Kolbe identifies the natural way people take action – left to our own choice, each of us has an instinctive way of problem solving. Research shows that people are more productive when they are free to choose their own method of accomplishing a task or providing a solution. 

This Index was developed by Kathy Kolbe, who is an expert in human instinct as well as being a theorist, business coach and acclaimed thought leader.

Many companies worldwide rely on the Kolbe index to understand their employees’ instincts and enable them to work smarter in playing to their strengths.

Kolbe developed the indexing tool over a period of 10 years, finding that there are four kinds of instincts which are shown through four action modes: Fact Finder, Follow Thru, Quick Start and Implementor. 

The Kolbe Index is aimed at finding which of the ‘Mode of Operations’ a person uses, in order to harness this greater understanding. The idea is to reveal their natural instincts by studying their behaviour and how they operate, which then shows their patterns.

Watch: our video about the benefits of the Kolbe Index

What are the benefits of the Kolbe Index:

1. You’ll be more productive

The Kolbe Index is the only validated test that helps you to understand your own talent as well as that of your team, so you can be your best self. 

Rather than spending too much time trying to force square pegs into round holes in your business, trying to engage people in the wrong ways, and spending time investing in people who are not committed, Kolbe helps ensure that your team works well together and each person is working to their strengths. 

The basis of the test is around what is known as the conative part of our minds. Basically, there are 3 parts of your mind:

• the affective area, which looks after your personality and preferences.
• the cognitive area and this is what controls problem-solving and thinking.
• the conative area, which is responsible for human nature and natural tendencies. This is the only part of the brain which does not change over time. 

Therefore, the Kolbe Index isn’t about skill, intelligence or personality, it is about natural instincts – those will remain true to a person and are proven over time through their actions. 

Once you have identified your employees’ instincts, you will be able to use Kolbe to understand your team better and help them to maximise their productivity. 

And, this is, ultimately, will help you get results quicker. 

2. It help individuals know their strengths

Finding out an employee’s Kolbe will help them, you as a business leader, your HR team and other employees with their developmental process and growth.

It enables a person to develop more confidence in themselves and helps to prevent insecurities from creeping in, once they understand their wiring.

A lot of our time at work is spent trying to meet objectives alongside our colleagues, whose success we may witness and try to emulate.

However, the Kolbe Index helps everyone to recognise their own natural strengths and that we all have different natural abilities, which we should play to, and learn to grow in our own way rather than push against. 

Read more: how does Kolbe help teams work together?

3. You can create the best team 

It is useful for companies and individuals to know their Kolbe Indexes, as unlike an IQ test or Myers Briggs, it is not reflective of a person’s intelligence or personality. This is instead a reflection of their unchanging natural instincts. 

This is the part that is most valuable to business owners, CEOs or MDs, as what is known as the affective and cognitive parts of the brain can change, but the conative parts stay the same. 

Therefore, while a lot of businesses generally hire and promote people based on the affective and cognitive areas – recognising their skill set and then deciding if their personality fits the team – they often miss out on identifying whether their instincts will be suited to the role. 

A business can create more successful teams when they pay attention to the conative skills rather than focusing only on their experience, education or sense of humour. 

This also helps managers to know which person will be best for each task within a project and how they can get the best out of them. 

For example, if you want to get something off the ground quickly, it makes sense to have someone on the team who initiates or is identified as a “Quick Start” rather than getting frustrated with those who simply don’t operate that way.

We have two certified Kolbe consultants at Bold Clarity and offer a range of Kolbe services. If you want to find out you more about the benefits of the Kolbe Index for your team contact us today on +44 (0)7795 667480.