Jason, Freddy, Chucky… from horror movies to ghost stories around a campfire, some people like the thrill of a good fright. A few of us have paid real money to watch a psychopathic, knife-wielding doll terrorize full-sized adult people. I’m not saying who, cough cough, but some of us have. Still, we aren’t so thrilled about being scared at work. Yet, scary things do happen.
Last month, I wrote a blog on horrible management styles. It was mostly tongue-in-cheek. Or so I thought. This month, with Halloween right around the corner, I asked a few people to share some management horror stories. And… wow. It’s enough to send shivers down your spine, especially when we know retention is harder than ever, and turnover costs organizations in big ways.
I once worked for a small office that collected unpaid physical therapy claims from auto insurers. It wasn’t exactly a fun job, but it was super close to home (I had just had my first son), the people in the office were nice, and I had hit it off with one of the other collectors (work friends are great). The claims reps I spoke to every day were professional and helpful, so it wasn’t dreadful to make those calls. Everyone was a joy, except for my boss. She was a nightmare and caused me and others in the office more stress than I care to admit. I honestly don’t remember her name, but I remember the fear that would sweep across the office as she headed to the fax machine; this was the 90s. You could see brows furrow with worry and a sheen of cold sweat on the faces of my office mates.
Why?
Because if a fax came through and it sat unattended for more than 30 seconds, she would literally lose her mind. Someone, anyone, was required to jump up at the sound of the fax and deliver it to the correct person. If she walked by the machine and found a fax sitting there, never mind that it just came through or that people are on the phones nonstop as part of their jobs, she would, and I swear I am not making this up, YELL AT EVERYONE, loudly and rudely. She had no qualms about berating people in front of other people or simply berating the entire office at once, she was efficient that way. I never understood why faxes created such a sense of anger. We were all good about checking the machine and distributing them, and nothing sat there for an unusual amount of time.
I didn’t bother to find out why she hated faxes so much. Or her team. I left that job faster than you can imagine, as did my friend, not on the same day, but neither of us gave notice. We simply reached our limit. I’m not proud of that, but I was young, I was intimidated, and I was miserable. I was also pretty good at that job, having worked on the other side of the insurance equation. I had a knack for getting claims paid. I left the manager and the culture, not the job.
The obvious lesson is, “never scream at people.” Also, don’t get upset about inconsequential stuff; there is plenty of big stuff to worry about.
One of my Omnia colleagues told me she took a job in outside sales where the sales manager would walk around the cubicles and listen to conversations, even between teammates. Worse, and by far creepier, he would track when you went to the bathroom. He would also line people up in his office and scream about sales numbers. Screaming seems popular amongst nightmare managers. He also made negative comments like, “I don’t want to hear any family or kid stories.” I find it unlikely anyone was eager to share anything with him. My colleague said this was the worst leader and most demoralizing job she has ever had. Like me, she quit.
The obvious lesson here again is never scream at people, and don’t follow them to the bathroom.
The less obvious problem is that my colleague and I liked the jobs. We might have even liked the companies if we were able to see past the toxic boss. So it begs the question: How many employees does an organization lose because of a nightmare leader? The longer the horror draws out, the more people lost and the more expensive the cost to what could otherwise be a great organization.
These were actual horror stories that drove good employees away. Someone who could have stopped the bleeding definitely noticed. It’s hard to say what not taking action cost them. But more often than not, the issue isn’t a nightmare leader at all, it’s just a leader who has not had the opportunity to hone their leadership soft skills or learn how to manage at an individual versus a one-size-fits-all level. When a leader is interested in learning as they grow and making adjustments to keep getting better, along with treating people with respect and fairness, companies can retain top performers and reduce unwanted turnover.
Omnia can help in two ways using the power of behavioral insight. First, understanding the personality tendencies and personal motivators of your team is a way to personalize each manager-employee relationship and connect with team members in a way that will resonate with them. Second, taking the time to learn about our own tendencies as a leadership self-awareness exercise improves our ability to relate to other people, appreciate their differences, and work to meet their personal motivators.
For example, knowing that you are highly social but one of your employees is reserved will help you approach that person differently and communicate with them differently. You might like to pop in and start brainstorming while this particular employee finds that frustrating. Instead, you could provide some initial information, ask them to think it over, and then set a time to go over ideas. Someone else on your team might love when someone pops by to hash over a problem. Neither is wrong or bad, but a leader who can appeal to both by taking the time to uncover preferences will be a hero.
Screaming, tracking people’s bathroom breaks, eavesdropping on conversations, and other scary management behaviors go beyond normal misalignment of behavioral preferences. They tend to indicate a concern with a manager’s ability to think through consequences using basic empathy and professional judgment. This could show as low Perspective on an Omnia Assessment. Even if you aren’t near enough to hear the screaming, you can tell a manager with low Perspective by their pale, sweaty, angry employees, and by the high turnover rate.
Of course, regardless of personality type, communication style, or perspective rating, screaming is never going to motivate anyone. The only time we should be screaming is if we are being chased by a demented 2-foot tall, red-headed, knife-wielding doll.
It’s tough out there. People are reprioritizing what they want at work and leaving jobs that aren’t meeting those needs. We’ve talked a lot about ways to increase engagement and improve retention, but none of that matters if you aren’t taking a close look at your own leadership strengths and weaknesses. We hear, more often than not, that people leave managers not jobs. So even if an employee likes their job and feels a sense of purpose at work, they are likely to look elsewhere if they do not connect well with their boss and will most certainly leave if they don’t like their boss.
Even if you’re an awesome manager and your people adore you, there’s always room for improvement! Acknowledging what you struggle with can be just as useful as being aware of what you do well.
Below is a ridiculous list of some extreme leadership styles. Be honest, can you spot hints of yourself in there?
There is NO doubt you are the boss. You make the rules, and everyone falls in line…or else. The job is your life. You demand perfection and there is no such thing as work/life balance for you or anyone else. You enjoy setting ridiculous goals that you know will be close to impossible to achieve and you provide little to no direction. It makes people better and stronger! Of course, when people achieve your goals, you do not offer a hint of gratitude. It’s their job after all, why congratulate them?
Sure, you know your stuff and you want things right. There is no goal you can’t achieve, and you command results from others. But fear only works as a motivator for so long. If you aren’t providing any real support, motivation, empathy, direction, or recognition, you are inviting any sane employee to look for another job. Even if they don’t leave, having such a fierce personality will inhibit others, instead of inspiring them. Your team likely has some great ideas that they are too scared to express.
You just want to be liked, accepted, popular. You would rather do almost anything else than upset your team, especially the ones you like. Sharing bad news, making unpopular decisions, stepping up to quickly stop performance problems from getting out of control… you don’t like it, so you don’t do it. You see it as being supportive and empathetic, and you don’t want to lose people. But your team, at least the A-players, don’t see it that way at all.
Sure, you keep staff happy(ish); they know you care about them. You create a fun work environment and foster a sense of team; you value culture, as we all should. But, as awful as it is to admit, some people will take advantage of a nice guy. Someone is always going to test boundaries or sink to your lowest level of acceptance. If you aren’t ready to hold everyone accountable, you will have some people working hard and others coasting along collecting paychecks. Which group do you think is looking elsewhere?
You love procedures and you don’t miss a trick. You have your eye on everything and have an uncanny ability to detect when a mistake has been made...or maybe it's the constant monitoring of everyone, every day. There is no room for ambiguity or experimentation. Sadly, life doesn’t always work the way we expect and a good leader needs to be ready to roll with the punches while encouraging their team to do the same.
Sure, your team follows the rules and rarely makes mistakes. Of course, when they do, you are right on hand to correct them. You have a great idea of people’s strengths and weaknesses. But, people are demoralized by micromanagement and need to be comfortable solving their own problems. If they know what they are doing, they need to be trusted to do it. Give your team the chance to try their own methods and express ideas.
Then there’s the manager who wants everything yesterday and changes deadlines, plans, and procedures with every exhale, leaving people confused and gasping for air. Or the logic-driven leader who considers every factor in the management equation, except the human one; and the social butterfly who wants to have a “quick” meeting about every situation resulting in very little time spent working.
Of course, these are just caricatures of traits most of us have to some extent but seeing them in ourselves and acknowledging them is the first step towards leveraging our strengths and working on our weaknesses so we are better equipped to lead and retain a strong, productive and engaged team.
Better yet, take it a step further and learn the traits of the individuals on your team. The more you manage to their needs, the more successful you’ll be at keeping people. We all want to be understood and treated as individuals.
To quote Sir Richard Branson, “Businesses are nothing more than a group of people, and they are by far and away your biggest assets.” Are you doing everything you can to bring out the best in your people?
If you want a more detailed (and more serious) exploration of your management assets and growth opportunities, contact us today and ask about our Leadership Style Reports.
Do you remember that scene in Jurassic Park, the original (and best) of course, when Dr. Ian Malcolm played by the talented Jeff Goldblum was explaining chaos theory using drops of water dripping down Dr. Sattler’s hand? Despite dropping the water in the same place each time, subtle, unseen variables shifted the way each drop would travel down the hand. Chaos theory shows how complex systems are extremely sensitive to slight changes that can have potentially significant consequences. Some clever foreshadowing of how the park creators were playing with fire.
After all, who knew amphibian DNA would contribute to uncontrolled dinosaur population growth? Who predicted that the annoying Seinfeld neighbor would double-cross everyone, turn the power off of the electric fences, and let the carnivores loose on the unsuspecting visitors? Who remembers that Samuel L. Jackson was in that movie? And who knew 29 years later we would still be watching new Jurassic Park movies?
Well, that’s just it, isn’t it? It’s not possible to predict everything, especially in a wonderfully diverse, complex, and often confusing world.
People, like drops of water and artificially created dinosaurs, can be driven by subtle, unseen variables on any given day. People are complicated, we are complex systems. We have emotions, pressures, joys, ambitions, fears, and even everyday trivial details or mishaps that might shift how we react to or perceive a situation. It can be overwhelming, especially if you are leading those people. That’s why it’s important to use all the tools and information at our disposal. Some behaviors and motivations are predictable, maybe not 100% of the time, but close enough that tapping into that knowledge will give you a competitive edge and a leadership advantage. And I predict we all want that.
The best place to start is by understanding ourselves as leaders. If we only go so far as to understand our people, we are missing a key piece of the puzzle. Granted, we should not be leading strictly by how we would want to be led, but recognizing our own personal motivators and drivers can help us pivot more easily to meet the needs of our teams.
The Omnia Assessment is a short, yet powerful tool that allows people to freely describe their most comfortable personality traits. We use an 8-column bar graph to visually show an individual’s personality traits in 4 areas – Assertiveness, Sociability, Pace, and Structure. The odd-numbered columns represent active traits while the even-numbered columns represent passive traits. And the combinations contribute to Omnia’s 17 personality groups.
Here’s a look at our data behind leadership.
Assertiveness: Columns 1 and 2 measure level of assertiveness. Many successful leaders, especially if they are directly overseeing a large group of people, have a tall column 1, representing a high degree of assertiveness and leadership drive. Individuals with a tall column 1 are assertive, action-oriented, ambitious, and take charge. They are comfortable driving results, managing conflict, promoting resourcefulness, and implementing goal-oriented solutions as they coach/mentor a team. Through their assertiveness, they show a high level of ownership by taking command of activities.
Sociability: Columns 3 and 4 measure sociability which points to communication and problem-solving style. Some leaders have a tall column 3 representing a naturally outgoing communication style and an intuitive problem-solving style. They are motivational leaders who are highly sociable and verbally engaging. They have strong networking aptitude for building and sustaining strong relationships.
Though many leaders exhibit a high level of gregariousness, they also have a high level of assertiveness, which prevents them from having an overly friendly leadership approach. As long as their level of assertiveness is taller than or equal to their level of gregariousness, the leader can effectively establish an authoritative role instead of always needing to be popular with the team. When those traits are not in alignment, individuals can place a greater value on maintaining their friendships than on getting results; a debilitating problem in many leadership and sales roles.
Some leaders have a tall column 4 representing a naturally analytical problem-solving style and a direct, fact-focused communication style. They are resourceful, often serious leaders who get to the point and are always looking for problems to solve. As a result, they don’t always focus on the motivational needs of the team, not because they don’t care, but because they are searching for practical ways to improve.
Pace: Columns 5 and 6 measure pace. Often, we see leaders with a tall column 5. Column 5 individuals are fast-paced and multitasking; they have a strong sense of urgency and tend to be effective pacesetters for their team or department. They make the most efficient use of time and maximize productivity. They thrive in a deadline-driven environment and can handle the interruptions and shifting priorities of a busy corporate environment and large reporting staff.
Structure: Columns 7 and 8 measure structure. Overall, leaders have a tall column 7, which represents a low need for structure. Individuals with a tall column 7 are independent, innovative, and unruffled by setbacks. They have a natural aptitude for thinking outside the box. Column 7 leaders take criticism and rejection in stride (they have a lack of discouragement/strong resilience). They can manage around ambiguity with ease and tend to focus on the big picture versus the details.
While perhaps not as exciting as mapping dinosaur DNA, knowing the data behind successful leadership is a key to goal achievement, increased productivity, and better engagement with your team (as opposed to a recipe for destruction and mayhem). You can use this information to assess your personal leadership style, as well as your team’s tendencies, strengths, and challenges.
For the month of July, our Omnia team is putting attention on the traits of leadership in honor of the celebration of the birth of our American nation. Our first blog covered the personality traits of our founding fathers. Now we cast our eyes on current times and what revolutionary leadership looks like in today’s context.
This is a bit of a tough topic today in a world that seems more divided than ever, where leaders are shouting over each other and appear more focused on alienating ideals instead of pursuing common ground to address the core problems at hand.
Revolutionary is defined as involving or causing a complete or dramatic change. When we think about revolutionary leadership the first thing that comes to mind besides our founding fathers are the high profile leaders we see in the daily news headlines or being lauded (or condemned) across social media. Today’s revolutionary context conjures up images of courageousness, boldness, a lot of publicity and — let’s face it — sometimes the loudest voice.
When I asked my network to weigh in on this, the most popular response was Volodymyr Zelenskyy. No matter your political views, I don’t think anyone can argue that he has been the most visible demonstration of courage, fortitude and commitment to his people and cause. I admire his boldness, steadfastness, brave leadership and commitment to the people of Ukraine.
Other high-profile people who come to mind are those who have been personally impacted and are fighting a system that did them wrong with a focus on helping the next generation. I admire Aly Raisman who was willing to share her grueling and personal story of abuse and manipulation to change the tide for future women athletes. Not to mention her continued work with fellow victims to take on a behemoth like the FBI. And Megan Rapinoe fighting for salary transparency and against a culture of systemic bias that leads to unequal pay.
These are all high-profile revolutions happening in today’s time. But what about revolution at the ground level? What does it take to be a revolutionary leader wherever you are with whatever cause that means something personally to you? The good news is we can all be revolutionary in our own right if we embrace the unique and common traits of a revolutionary leader.
First let’s start with basic personality traits of all leaders and the way we define it at Omnia with science. The Omnia Leadership Profile is derived from a short yet powerful assessment instrument that allows people to freely describe their personality traits. We use an 8-column bar graph to visually show an individual’s personality traits in 4 areas – Assertiveness, Sociability, Pace, and Structure. The odd-numbered columns represent active traits while the even-numbered columns represent passive traits. All of these combinations contribute to Omnia’s 17 personality groups, a few of which are most common among leaders.
Some of the most common traits of leaders are:
All of these traits can be found in the examples of our founding fathers and in leaders we see in the headlines today. One can also argue that there can be a downside to some of these traits. When we are so assertive, so hard charging and driven to win our cause or our argument we can create an unintended consequence of turning people away. No leader has ever achieved a revolution by themselves. Every leader in our history — good or bad — has done so with a group of people who helped create the change. The best leaders bring people together and find common ground — they don’t break them down.
Revolutionary leadership doesn’t have to be headline making either. I believe some of the most impactful and dramatic changes being made today are happening at the ground level and often out of the news. One of the best examples I can think of is in my own community by my friend Mindi Vaughn. Mindi has overcome her own personal battle with addiction and is now a community leader supporting initiatives to fight addiction, help former incarcerated persons find gainful employment and end homelessness. You can learn more about Mindi’s story here. She’s come a long way even since this was filmed in 2018 and is now the manager of The Portico Café. To me, that’s revolutionary.
Mindi Vaughn with Keather Snyder at a recent workday for Mindi’s house currently under construction by Habitat for Humanity. The Omnia Group is a proud financial supporter of Habitat and our team volunteers at local builds.
So I’m going to take a bold step here and make an appeal to all leaders reading this article. Let’s use our traits for good. Let’s get involved at the ground level volunteering and actively supporting causes we care deeply about. Let’s bring people together, and work together to solve the problems. Let’s listen to and engage the people whose column heights are opposite of ours. We need everyone to solve the big problems. Nobody can do it alone.
It begins with understanding ourselves and where we need support. I’d suggest you begin with taking stock of your own leadership traits. You can do so by completing the Omnia assessment, and we will provide you with a complimentary report.
One of the many cool things about personality assessments is that they are a springboard for any human resource initiative, problem, or interaction. Filling an open position? Assess your top performers to build a job benchmark. Having conflict on a team? Use the Omnia assessment to understand the communication style of the parties involved. Getting ready to facilitate a training class? Start with the assessment to determine the learning preferences of the participants. Ready to promote employee well-being? Our assessment can even help with that.
How?
Certain kinds of stress can be good, like the stress that accompanies reaching for goals or going through positive life changes, even the stress we feel exercising. But when we think of stress normally, especially at work, it’s not in a good way. Bad stress can be quite insidious and unhealthy.
Picture this:
A manager, we’ll call her Joan, sends an email first thing Monday morning to her employee; we’ll call her Maeve. Joan writes, “I’d like to see you in my office at 2 pm” and immediately sends out a calendar invite. Location: Joan’s office. Joan just wants to check in, see how Maeve is doing, and thank her for always doing such a great job. Joan respects Maeve, enjoys working with her, and feels confident Maeve’s assignments will get done right without any intervention from her… she wishes more employees were just like her. She also wants to ask for Maeve’s opinion on a project that the product team will be working on. She knows Maeve is an expert with terrific insights. Joan just has to draw those insights out sometimes.
Sounds great, right?
Not so much. At least not for Maeve.
That email created a high-anxiety, stressful, worry-filled day.
Crazy?
Well, not if you understand Maeve’s personality type. Maeve is a supporter. She’s naturally cautious, reserved, and analytical. It’s what makes her so great at her client service job. She falls into the Administrator personality group (one of Omnia’s 17 personality groups). She is naturally accommodating and always wants to be counted on to get things right. She has natural attention to detail and works hard to avoid criticism. She is conscious of people’s feelings; she never wants to be perceived as pushy or demanding though she demands excellence from herself. Individuals in this personality group can dwell on mistakes, analyze conversations a bit unproductively, and operate within a fairly constant state of tension…and that’s on a regular, stress-free day!
As a result, Maeve worried about the conversation with Joan. Did she do something wrong? Did she make a mistake in her documentation? Did she say the wrong thing to a customer or to Joan? Maybe she forgot to log off her computer and run the required updates? Was Joan upset that she needed to leave a little early last Tuesday? Was the company downsizing? Was she going to get fired? She’s seen people get terminated in that office -- why does it have to be in Joan’s office?! And as she spiraled just a little bit more and more between Joan’s email and the meeting at 2 pm, the stress in her was, of course, building.
That kind of stress is, simply put, bad for our health and our emotional well-being. The last thing you want is for your employees to get heart palpitations from a meeting request or feel any unnecessary stress at work. We all have plenty of stress as it is without, however unintentionally, creating more.
So, what could Joan have done?
It was all so simple really. Reading Maeve’s Omnia report, Joan would have had the answers. Most analytical supporters, like Maeve, need information and time to process their thoughts. The meeting request simply needed details or at the very least a reassuring word that the meeting was going to be a positive one.
Here is an example of various ways to avoid the stress-spiral day.
Email 2 (we know how email 1 turned out): Good morning, Maeve. I’d like to meet with you at 2 pm. All good stuff, need to talk about a project. Invite to follow.
Maeve has an okay day, though she worries that she should have something prepared for the meeting. What project? Her hands are so full right now, what if she can’t do the project. At least she’s not getting fired.
Email 3: Good morning, Maeve. I’d like to meet with you at 2 pm. All good stuff, you’re doing a great job. Would also like to talk about a project that the product team is working on. Invite to follow.
Maeve feels good, but insecure because she hates being put on the spot. She wishes she knew more about the product project so she can think it over and come to the meeting prepared. Being put on the spot is the worst!
Email 4: Good morning, Maeve. You’re doing such a great job! I’d like to meet with you at 2 pm and just touch base on how things are going for you. We haven’t connected one on one in a while. Is there anything you need? Also, the product team is working on a new usage-trend report for clients and is looking for some advice on what should be included. Since you talk to our clients every day, I’d really like to hear your thoughts.
Eureka! Maeve is excited. How nice to hear that Joan thinks she is doing a great job and just wants to see how she’s doing. That’s so thoughtful. And, YES, she does have ideas about usage trend reports. A client was just asking about something like that the other day. She’s glad she has most of the day to get her speaking points together. Joan is the best manager ever!
Joan, feeling confident now, sends a similarly detailed message to Jared, a top sales rep and a member of Omnia’s Visionary personality group. He’s assertive, talkative, fast-paced, and big-picture-focused. Jared doesn’t read the whole email, wishes Joan would just send a calendar invite and save the info for the meeting. Jared is briefly annoyed he had to open an email in the first place. “It’s such a waste of my time, I need to be selling!”
Joan decides to take a nice, long vacation.
Want to know the communication preferences of your team? Omnia can help. Our quick, accurate personality assessment is ideal for selection, retention, engagement, and yes, even employee well-being. Stop the stress spirals today!
Which is better, chocolate or vanilla? It’s a question that sparks hearty debate. Just like, which is more important, sales or service? In truth, every department is vital to the running of an organization, but sales feed the organization (and everyone in it)! That’s why finding great salespeople is so important. But not everyone is a natural fit for sales, which makes selecting great salespeople a challenge. And that’s only half the battle because then you have to motivate them to stay — competitive personalities are always looking for the next great opportunity. That makes keeping great salespeople another challenge. If you are a sales manager, you know it’s anything but easy, yet it’s also all worth it when you find great talent.
When dealing with the complexities of human nature, nothing is foolproof. A personality assessment, like The Omnia Assessment, makes it easier. Assessments also increase the reliability of your selection and retention efforts, meaning you’ll have more hits than misses. Hiring the right or wrong person, especially for a sales position, has an immediate effect on your bottom line. It’s too expensive to leave it to chance and gut instinct. There is a science for determining the most successful personality traits of a successful salesperson.
It’s all about the right mix of traits.
There’s nothing worse than interviewing someone who appears articulate, confident, and motivated in the interview but just can’t close sales consistently once you hire them. It’s not normally possible to teach the art of sales to someone who isn’t naturally competitive. You can coach them on all the right techniques, sure, but if they don’t have the intrinsic drive to negotiate and win deals, it just doesn’t matter. They will not be successful salespeople.
Sustainable sales success requires certain natural behaviors. Based on Omnia’s research, assertiveness and resilience are the key traits most successful salespeople have in common.
It’s commonly accepted that naturally assertive people will close the most business. On the Omnia assessment, most successful salespeople have a tall column 1, which represents a high level of assertiveness. These individuals are innately driven, competitive, and ambitious. They are motivated by an incentive-based salary structure, e.g., commission. They want to control their own earning destiny and make more based on their individual effort. They are natural risk-takers who can firmly control the sales cycle and ask for the close.
Top salespeople are confident communicators, but the nuances of their communication style can vary. There is no one perfect sales style, provided the individual has assertiveness and resilience.
I often use a cake-baking analogy when describing the best traits for sales. There are certain ingredients you need to bake a cake worth eating, like flour and sugar. Traits are like the ingredients for finding top producers. Assertiveness is a necessary ingredient, but whether your salesperson is social versus analytical is more like a flavor additive.
Communication style certainly impacts the sales style, but it doesn’t typically inhibit someone from closing sales unless they are more social than assertive, but more on that in a minute. Social sellers (a tall column 3 on the Omnia assessment) excel at getting their foot in the door, building rapport, sustaining relationships, and connecting with prospects on a personal or emotional level. Analytical sellers (a tall column 4 on the Omnia assessment) excel at solving problems, creating value, and connecting with prospects using logic and facts. Both styles can be valuable to your sales team, and both will appeal to certain types of prospects. Plus, knowing this about your sales reps will help you effectively motivate, develop and coach to each individual’s strengths and challenges.
Pace is also typically a flavor additive. It’s not a critical trait for sales but is important depending on the pace of your organization and the length of the sales cycle. Most sales reps are naturally fast paced (tall column 5). They work with urgency and take immediate action when things shift. Sales reps with a taller column 6 are patient and systematic. They have tolerance for slower processes and longer cycles. They demonstrate strong persistence and follow-through.
Structure is the trait where resilience resides, so it is a critical ingredient. Resilience is found in column 7, and it is the ability to brush off rejection and move on to the next sales call with confidence intact. No one likes rejection, but moving past it, rather than dwelling on it, is vital to sustaining success in sales. Ideally, column 7 should be taller than column 8, though a column 7 and 8 that are balanced also works. Another benefit of column 7 in sales is the aptitude for making decisions in unclear situations and dealing boldly with ambiguity.
Everyone falls into a personality group, which is a recipe of an individual’s four characteristics (Assertiveness – Sociability – Pace – Structure). Omnia has 17 different personality groups divided into two main categories – Drivers and Supporters. Most successful sales reps fall into the Driver (versus Supporter) category, though some Drivers might not have the right mix of traits to close consistently. One such group are the Networkers. Networkers have all the “right” proactive traits (column 1-3-5-7), but their column 3 is always taller than their column 1, which means they have a stronger need to be liked than to push for the sales. Networkers are great at building an impressive list of leads and contacts; their pipeline is always full. But they rarely close business proactively because they don’t want to appear pushy or risk losing the relationships they have built. They tend to avoid closing if it requires activity on their part, so they might only close when the prospect comes to them. They will look impressive at first, but you’ll see the negative impact through their weak closing ratio before too long.
Visionaries also have a 1-3-5-7, but they have a taller column 1 than 3, and that makes them ideally suited for sales. They are naturally assertive, engaging, fast-paced, and resilient. Other Driver personality groups are also well suited for sales, such as the Logistical Drivers. Like the Visionaries, they are assertive, fast-paced, and resilient, but they are analytical versus social and their balance of columns 7 and 8 gives them a dash of procedural compliance and attention to detail.
Omnia’s personality assessment is quick, easy, and accurate. Our selection reports allow you to compare candidates to your top sales recipe, while our development reports are ideal for coaching and professional growth. Information, like chocolate and vanilla, never goes out of style, and the more you and your team have, the better off you will be. I personally think the same can be said for chocolate.
Using the Omnia Assessment will unlock the answers you need to find, select, and manage great salespeople. Get baking!
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