Approach any group of sales leaders and this debate is likely to come up in their sales strategy conversation: Which is the better sales-type — Hunter or Farmer? And can a person be both? Most often, there are true distinctions and objectives for each role. And there are nuances in terms of the personality traits that are similar and different between them. Both personalities have definite strengths, and just like anything else, they both also come with some challenges. Many people feel that the Hunter is the most lucrative sales persona, but is that truly the case? In reality, both are valuable for different reasons. The key is determining which sales type you need for the various functions of your business so you can keep them inspired and successful.
Hunters are ambitious, challenge-driven go-getters. They are competitors who strive to beat their own (and everyone else’s) record because of their innate need to achieve. At the risk of sounding like Captain Kirk, Hunters like to boldly go where no one has gone before (emphasis on boldly.) Taking a prospect who has never even heard of your company — or, better yet, one who is not at all interested in doing business with you — and transforming them into a client is exhilarating to them.
In terms of the Omnia assessment, Hunters often have extremely tall columns 1-3-5-7 – assertive, social, fast-paced, decisive, and independent. This means they are focused on the win and proactive enough to make it happen. Hunters are outgoing communicators who enjoy initiating contact with new leads, adaptable multitaskers who want to secure deals quickly, and self-directed decision-makers who focus on closing sales.
Farmers are also goal focused and enjoy taking on new challenges, but rather than seeking out new sales, they are often most effective at working with existing customers to retain and grow their business with your organization. Farmers want to see your customers succeed, which will help your company succeed too. They proactively investigate and inquire about your customers’ needs and readily recommend the specific product or service that can thoroughly meet those needs. Farmers often position themselves as subject matter experts who provide informative, consultative guidance to your customers. Clients may view them as knowledgeable, trusted points of contact for your organization.
Omnia assessment graphs for Farmers often show a moderately tall column 1, equal columns 3 and 4 or a tall column 4, tall column 5, and a moderately tall column 7 or equal columns 7 and 8 — goal-oriented, professionally personable, adaptable, and self-directed within the parameters of the position. Farmers are ambitious yet willing to work with others to reach desired objectives. They are more concise in their speaking style, time-sensitive for responding to customers’ requests, and they make decisions using company protocols and industry best practices to guide them.
At first glance, it might appear that the Hunter is the most valuable personality for many sales positions because they can forge new paths and seemingly make sales materialize out of thin air. It’s true that Hunters make a huge direct impact on a company’s bottom line. The new clients that Hunters bring in equal more revenue coming into your organization. Hunters can show impressive dollar signs on a sales leaderboard, making it easy to visualize exactly how they help grow the company.
Farmers also make strong positive contributions to an organization, even if those contributions aren’t as splashy or easy to quantify. Farmers have the tenacity to ensure that your customers stay loyal to your brand rather than seeing if the grass is greener with your competitors. They have the initiative to seek out areas where they can grow accounts as well as determine how to make your company’s products and services such an integral part of a customer’s business that they wouldn’t dream of leaving. It’s hard to fully quantify the impact that customers who stop doing business with your organization would have, but the effects are felt significantly, which shows just how vital Farmers are.
First, we need to reframe the question. Rather than asking Hunter OR Farmer, let’s look at sales from the perspective of Hunter AND Farmer. Working together, Hunters and Farmers can have great synergy, with one sales type bringing in their strengths to mitigate the other’s weaknesses and vice versa.
Hunters are invigorated by drawing in new customers, and they are inspired by closing deals. However, they aren’t often interested in managing the account after the close; they have already targeted their sights on the next prospect. Conversely, Farmers typically don’t want to turn a cold call into a buying customer, but they can ensure a current customer stays with your company by adding value and managing the account after the customer has e-signed on the virtual dotted line.
Both Hunters and Farmers bring value to an organization, but they require different management approaches, incentives, and job functions to reach optimal capacity. A client recently asked The Omnia Group to assess their sales team to determine who were Hunters and who were Farmers, understanding that each group is uniquely motivated and needs different things from the job and management to thrive.
Hunters work best in a sales position that allows them to shine and prove themselves through their individual successes. They want to be out in front, meeting with prospects, and having the chance to reach ambitious targets. Earning commissions based on their performance is motivating to Hunters, as is participating in sales contests and earning public accolades and awards. They want to work in a rapidly paced environment and favor handling multiple sales at once; they need a quick sales cycle so they can experience a frequent sense of achievement. Hunters also need ample freedom to determine how to handle each situation as it arises. They do not like feeling confined by strict processes that leave no room for interpretation.
Farmers often have similar needs and wants, though in a more tempered way. They enjoy working toward enterprising objectives and proving themselves, but they understand how managing client accounts can move them toward those objectives. Rather than straight commissions, they may want to earn bonuses or a combination of salary and commissions. Farmers can be inspired by opportunities to continually increase their expertise so they can offer insightful recommendations to customers. They also appreciate recognition for their contributions. Like Hunters, Farmers enjoy working in a bustling atmosphere where they can feel ongoing progress and work on several tasks at once. They can also work autonomously, though they are most confident when they have some structure around their role.
Whether you’re looking to hire Hunters or Farmers or identify them on your existing team, Omnia is here to help. It begins with assessing the key sales personality traits. Omnia’s personality assessment is quick, easy, and accurate. Our selection reports allow you to compare candidates against a Hunter and Farmer profile to make sure you’re hiring for the right job fit. Our sales style reports are ideal for identifying the Hunter and Farmer traits on your current sales team. You can fine-tune your coaching and development strategies specific to each individual and your company objectives.
Using the Omnia Assessment will unlock the answers you need to find, select, and manage great salespeople of all types. Contact us to get started.
Co-authored by Alaina Sims and Keather Snyder.
Trying to build a cohesive team can feel like a puzzle sometimes. You have the pieces – a goal, the time frame, the people, and maybe even the idea of a plan. But how do you, as a leader, put them all together to create the whole picture: a group that works effectively together to achieve objectives?
According to Bruce Tuckman’s initial model of group development, teams become cohesive in four stages:
This is the ideal progress of a small group, leading to the successful achievement of a goal, but it doesn’t happen on its own. Without strong leadership, a team could get stuck in the early phases and never make it to Performing. There can be imbalances, inefficiencies, setbacks, and derailments. You, the leader, are vital to facilitating your small group through the phases – without taking over – and helping them become a cohesive, self-sufficient team.
Steps to helping your team succeed:
In the earliest phases of team development, you need people to understand their purpose and mission. What are they doing here and what do you expect from them? While the plan might not be specific in the beginning, the goal needs to be. Make sure you are clear from the start about expectations, timelines, and what’s at stake – the benefits of success to the individual/team.
Your team is going to need your time and resources the most in the beginning stages. They need to know you’ll be there, you’ll follow through on your promises, and their concerns are a priority to you. Not following through here not only hampers trust, but it models untrustworthiness. What they see is what you’ll get.
Being clear, listening, and responding with specific information is key during all phases of team building. Say it out loud, and back it up in writing. Make sure they understand what you’re saying. Make sure you understand what they’re saying. You’re busy, for sure, but being available to hear people’s questions and concerns is critical. Most problems are caused by a lack of communication.
Effective collaboration doesn’t really start until the Norming and Performing stages. Individual group members are focused on themselves in the beginning – making sure they’re treated fairly, not being expected to do more than others, or not being relegated to the background. Each team member needs to understand the importance of all the roles, not just their own. Your own role at this point is to help everyone shine, to help build trust among the team members.
Once people are collaborating (Norming and Performing), you need to step back. Consider yourself a resource to the team. Each member should now be able to solve problems and work through conflicts and challenges on their own. Be available to offer information but avoid stepping in to fix things. Encourage self-sufficiency.
It’s important to have a plan when undertaking any new project, team initiative or goal; otherwise, you’re just going to be spinning your wheels. The plans need to be flexible, though. Resources, guidelines, liabilities, and abilities are going to change as the team starts performing. Everyone will need to accept that adjustments are going to be needed. Knowing what is critical to complete as you go along will help your team regroup when plans change. Make a priority checklist, and follow up on it.
The larger the team or the longer term the goal, the more likely it is for some people to take on too much and others to fade into the background. You might have team members who notice when someone else has dropped the ball and pick it up. Some of that is great, especially if it’s reciprocated. If it happens too often, though, and it’s always the same one or two people picking up the ball, resentment can build, and performance can stall.
There needs to be accountability both for individual and team accomplishments. At meetings, confirm the promised steps were taken. If not, find out why not. Keep an ear out for discussions that need to be held one on one with the team member. Calling someone out in public is not the same as accountability. Get an agreement to make up the lost time or missing part. Accountability helps everyone.
No one leader is going to be comfortable with each of these stages. If you’re the type of person who excels at building consensus and creating team harmony, you might not love dealing with accountability and conflict. If you’re great at seeing the big picture, you might not always consider all the necessary details to get started. If you are a detailed planner, letting go so the team can perform independently might make you nervous. You’re human; some things are going to be harder than others. If they weren’t, you wouldn’t need a team – you’d need clones!
Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses can help you move through these team building steps. Just because something isn’t easy for you, doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Omnia can help! We have Leadership Reports designed specifically for helping you leverage your strengths and minimize challenge areas for you personally. We can help you understand the specific needs of each of your team members, with the (professional development reports? Or is there a better option?) If you want to take a deeper dive into how your team can excel in the long run, we offer Team Development Reports. These reports analyze the behavioral traits of each team member and compare how they communicate and work together as well as how you, as a leader, can leverage strengths and mitigate difficulties.
When you put all these pieces together, you will build a successfully performing team. You can do it, and your Omnia Client Success team is on hand to help!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone on your team got along all of the time? Unfortunately, that’s not reality. When you bring people with diverse perspectives together (which is an overall positive thing), conflict is inevitable.
Differences of opinion and personality clashes can quickly escalate, disrupting productivity and eroding morale. That means you need to restore harmony fast to minimize the damage. To help you do that, we’ll share nine tips to manage conflict on your team.
When conflict arises, you need to address it immediately. Don’t let the problem fester because it will deepen and become harder to resolve if you do. So, call out problem behavior when you see it (in a private conversation, of course) and encourage your employees to remain calm even if they feel triggered.
If you manage each challenge informally in the moment, you may be able to avoid going through a longer, more complex resolution process later. But, if a simple redirection cue or coaching conversation doesn’t do the trick, you’ll need to take further action.
When you need to work through conflict in a formal manner, start by meeting with each person involved one-on-one. Let them share their side of the story and ask each party a similar set of questions. Remember, your job here is to remain neutral, gather the facts of the situation, and identify the root cause of the problem.
Once you’ve spoken with each team member, bring them together for a group discussion. Since tensions are high, you need to step in and moderate the conversation. At the start of the meeting, set a clear goal of resolving the conflict respectfully and professionally so that everyone can move forward.
Then, help your employees find common ground. Remind them that they’ve worked together successfully in the past and that they need each other to fulfill the company’s mission.
Give each team member the floor to speak, and encourage patience and open-mindedness from listeners. Once everyone has had the opportunity to share their perspective, kick off a brainstorming session, and solicit potential resolutions to the conflict. Write down everything your employees say, reserving judgment or commentary for later.
After compiling several potential solutions, help your team members achieve consensus on the best option. You can whittle down the list before any back-and-forth dialogue occurs by explaining which choices wouldn’t work and why. For example, your company may not have the budget to implement a particular solution.
Then, jot down the pros and cons of the remaining alternatives to illustrate their strengths and weaknesses. You could even develop a ranking system to highlight the best choice. If there are more than two people involved in the conflict, you could have each party vote for one of the two final options — naming the solution with the most votes the winner.
Ultimately, you have to make the final call on what’s best for your team — and the entire firm. But, your employees are more likely to buy into the solution if they choose it or have a say in the decision-making process.
Once the team comes to a decision, you need to document the plan. Capture key details in writing, such as:
After the document is complete, ask for each employee’s commitment and have them sign it.
As the leader, you must hold your team members (and yourself!) accountable to the agreed-upon responsibilities outlined in the plan. Reference the document you created frequently and check in with your employees at the established intervals. If they struggle to complete a task or experience lingering negative emotions post-meeting, offer your support during one-on-one coaching sessions.
Despite your best effort, things could get heated during your team meeting to address the conflict. These hostile exchanges will only worsen the problem and may cause an unclosable divide between your team members. So, if you feel the tension rising, adjourn the meeting temporarily to let your employees cool off and regain their composure. Just remember: regroup at the agreed-upon time. Don’t let the issue remain tabled because it won't resolve itself.
You can handle most of the conflict on your team without asking for outside help. However, if you run into a dangerous issue like harassment, bullying, discrimination, or workplace violence, you should immediately contact your human resources (HR) department. Chances are they will need to involve the legal department, too. Your HR team can also provide guidance if a less urgent employee disagreement persists after you’ve worked the conflict resolution steps.
While you can’t completely prevent conflict on your team, you can take steps to reduce how often (and how severely) it occurs. Encourage your employees to be mindful of their body language, keep their speech at a normal speaking volume, and watch their tone of voice. That way, they’ll be less likely to trigger a negative response from their coworkers. You could also offer regular training to boost emotional intelligence, improve communication skills, and increase acceptance of diverse perspectives and backgrounds.
Leading a team is no easy feat, and your role becomes even more difficult when you throw employee conflict into the mix. Fortunately, we’re here to help.
Managing conflict becomes much easier when you truly know the people involved. You can unlock that necessary insight by having each employee take our quick and painless behavioral assessment — before tensions rise. This assessment dives deep into their personality, communication style, and professional preferences.
Armed with this information, you can facilitate more productive (and calmer!) conversations. That way, your team members can put their hard feelings behind them and get back to business.
While conflict is an expected part of the human experience, you want to mitigate it as soon as possible. Left unchecked, it can destroy a team and set your company back. Hopefully, these tips help you address employee disagreements fast so your organization can continue to thrive.
P.S. Don’t forget —Try a complimentary behavioral assessment today, and see how the results can help you lead your team!
Employees are the key to driving results in any organization. From building revenue, producing the product or service, helping customers with problems, and everything in between, your people are the common denominator. Understanding what engages every member of a team will make it stronger and more productive. An individual’s personality type helps determine whether team members can communicate with each other effectively, work as a unified group, and achieve results.
That’s why hiring leaders need to look beyond skills. They should consider personality tendencies and cognitive aptitude through assessments administered by reliable organizations. By establishing this as a regular part of the hiring and development process, companies can reduce turnover, increase their teams' efficiency, and create an overall friendlier working environment.
The average voluntary turnover rate in the United States is 25%. Therefore, with each batch of new hires, around 25% of the employees won't stay at the firm for long. Considering how much companies usually spend on hiring and training processes, a high turnover rate can seriously impact a firm's bottom line.
Personality assessments minimize this likelihood by quickly eliminating individuals who are not a strong fit and, therefore, might burn out or leave once the novelty wears off. It also helps eliminate applicants who may have a tough time working with the existing team and might quit sooner due to different communication styles or different levels of independence.
Fitness to perform a job is more than just having the skills to do it. Any doctor can diagnose a patient and prescribe medication but not all of them can communicate and foster a strong, trusting relationship with a patient. Personality assessments help increase the likelihood of finding candidates with a personality that matches the unique demands of the job. If you are hiring a salesperson, you want someone who is naturally assertive versus naturally timid. A timid employee may take orders well but struggle to find, develop and close their own leads. Maybe your whole sales team is assertive but also strongly social; they are excellent relational sellers, but they struggle with being consultative. You might want to add an assertive, analytical seller to the group to help round out your team’s selling strengths. Knowing what you need helps you find the right complement to your existing staff.
Personality assessments can quickly eliminate job candidates from contention and narrow down your applications to only those that meet company requirements. While these assessments shouldn't be the sole reason for hiring a person, they're useful indicators of who should make the shortlist for a position. Our industry job models and Target reports produce real-time results so you can quickly move to the second phase of the hiring process. When used as a primary filter, personality assessments can reduce the number of people who need to be interviewed one-on-one.
The primary drawback of personality assessments is when they are used as the sole reason for hiring a person. Hiring is all about consistently selecting the best talent for the job, and that means collecting enough data to build a solid picture of each candidate. The only way to do that is by using a variety of tools that contribute to the whole picture. If all you’re doing is screening resumes followed by an interview, you’re missing out on a wealth of information from other tools. For example, imagine how much more you can glean by using a skills test, a background search, a phone screen, an in-person or video interview, a job simulation exercise, a personality assessment, and a cognitive assessment.
Assessments come in all forms and types. Omnia provides two important assessments for building strong teams: behavioral and cognitive. Here's how each one evaluates the fit of an applicant:
This assessment looks into the motivations and preferences of an applicant and how those factors will translate into the areas that affect their work performance. Each position requires a particular set of characteristics, and you want to find the candidates that embody those characteristics to perform their responsibilities effectively. The behavioral assessment ensures a match between the personality and the role you're trying to fill.
The Omnia Assessment measures four characteristics: assertiveness, communication, pace, and structure. A good personality assessment service provider should be able to deliver on all of this information and give you a comparison based on your own job benchmark or an industry-standard model. For example, what are the ideal characteristics of a marketing lead, according to experts? The person you hire is the one whose personality assessment results come closest to the industry standards of the role.
Cognitive assessments measure the ability of an applicant to think critically. They detail how a person uses logic and reason to solve problems typically encountered in their desired position. They'll tell you if the person can flourish in the workplace or if they'll buckle under pressure.
Cognitive assessments typically give you an idea of a person's abstract thinking skills and ability to adapt to new environments or situations. For example, can they understand new concepts or create solutions to new problems? It also shows you if the individual can learn from experience and utilize their new skills to better the firm.
Understanding how each individual plays into the overall workflow of a team is crucial if you want them to achieve common missions and visions. Our role here at The Omnia Group is to help streamline your hiring and development processes with the goal of building effective, high-functioning teams.
With decades of experience in the field, we take great pride in assisting business owners and companies in finding the right people for their open positions. We welcome any opportunity to talk about our service. Contact us today to optimize your workforce!
A coworker of mine, we’ll call her Tonya (because that’s her name) always says, “Teamwork makes the dream work,” a phrase originally coined by John C. Maxwell in his book by the same name. We all expect her to say it any time one member of our team helps out another. Nothing beats that feeling when someone jumps in, unprompted, to help get things done simply because they had a minute to ease someone else’s burden. It makes everyone feel good and creates that “pay it forward” outlook.
She also says it when one team member agrees to do something they are good at, to the tremendous relief of someone else who either isn’t good at that thing or hates doing it. It’s the perfect example of team synergy — people using their personal strengths to help the group out as a whole. It makes the team stronger.
Another example of great teamwork is simply when everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing and the rest of the team never has to worry if stuff is getting done. Nothing causes instant cringing and eye rolls than when a slacker is assigned a critical activity that impacts other members of the group. The slacker aside, these examples highlight the power of teamwork and are all possible because the team is (mostly) high functioning. Everyone is productive, efficient, and engaged.
That’s a great question with many answers. Teams are made up of people. And people are complicated, messy sometimes, unique. We all march to the beat of our own drummer, and our differences are based upon a multitude of factors. As a manager of said people, you may never uncover them all.
But some, you absolutely can uncover. That’s where a personality assessment comes into play. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could identify the inherent strengths and challenges, the motivators and demotivators of the people on your team? That’s exactly what a personality assessment does. It gives you a map of your people.
Of course, we are all individuals with varying skillsets, interests, backgrounds, talents, tastes, etc. A personality assessment can’t tell you if your team member likes chocolate versus vanilla ice cream, prefers Hulu or Netflix, has a great sense of humor, is musically gifted, or is a workout junkie. It also can’t tell you if one team member is an Excel master who can create pivot tables in their sleep while another has a keen design eye and uses In-Design just for fun. You find these things out over time through observation and conversation.
What a personality assessment can tell you about are the innate traits and motivators of each member of your team. It can tell you who on your team is a risk taker and who needs security; who on your team craves social interaction and who craves solitude; who likes surprises and who prefers predictability; and who needs structure and who requires independence. This type of information is invaluable for understanding the types of tasks each member of your team gravitates towards, what motivates each person, what upsets them, and how to communicate the most effectively with each person as an individual. You get a roadmap for the level of structure to give each person, how much detail to use and ways to recognize achievements. These are all important for optimizing your team and its productivity.
We all have varying degrees of 4 basic personality dimensions: assertiveness, sociability, pace, and structure. Omnia uses its 8-column bar graph to pinpoint those levels in each person on your team. It’s an easy visual aid.
There are 17 Omnia personality groups that fit into four broad categories: The Analytical Supporters, the Social Supporters, the Social Drivers, and the Analytical Drivers. Everyone on your team fits into one of these groups and the dynamic mix of personalities is what contributes to the synergy that drives your team.
Supporters are natural team players. They are the Analytical Supporters and the Social Supporters. Both groups are eager to contribute to the overall success of the team from the sidelines. These two groups prefer to respond to needs and help everyone else get where they need to go. Rather than boldly taking charge or carving the path for everyone else, they provide the support needed to make sure the path is paved and easy for the team to travel on.
Analytical Supporters are socially reserved, so they draw their energy from work that is solitary and mentally engaging. If you need someone to do research or document findings in your database, someone from the Analytical Supporter group is your best fit. The Social Supporters get energy by interacting with people. They want to respond to needs, but they do not want to be in a corner by themselves. They need interaction and excel at cultivating relationships in a low-key, diplomatic way. Need someone to call your client list regarding a new upgrade? A Social Supporter should jump at the chance.
Drivers are natural leaders. They are the Social Drivers and the Analytical Drivers. Both groups are initiative-seizing, risk-takers. They want to take charge and drive results, and they often want to set themselves apart from the team. Rather than waiting to react to needs, these two groups prefer to make things happen and lead the way.
Analytical drivers are competitive and reserved. They focus on the facts and don’t pull any punches. They have a keen interest in gathering information and they rely on the evidence. They approach everything logically. They tend to enjoy controlling processes and are eager to find the problems that need to be fixed. If you need someone to manage a logistically complicated project, an Analytical Driver is your best bet. Social drivers are competitive and extroverted. They focus on people and connect easily with others. They are good at reading the room to nurture relationships. They tend to enjoy leading through other people and are eager to motivate and inspire the team. Need someone to lead cross-functional teams while keeping everyone in touch and engaged? Look for a Social Driver.
Having diverse personalities on your team makes it stronger, but to optimize that potential, you need the map of your team. It’s the perfect complement to any team-focused people strategy. To learn more about taking an inventory of your team to leverage their strengths, challenges, and motivators, reach out to us anytime.
I am a natural enthusiast. Anytime I get caught up in something, I go deep and sideways looking for additional information, original context, and fun facts. As Spring rolls around, my enthusiasm for March Madness kicks in. And this got me going down a path of wanting to know the origin of the term “First String.”
The origin of the term “First String” goes back to the time of Medieval archery when a man needed more than one string for his longbow in competition. If his first string broke, he could take out his second, reserve string, and then proceed. Today, when we refer to the first string in sports, we are referring to a top player of the team and distinguished from a substitute. The first string is made up of the “A-Players” who start the game. Second-string players are rotated in strategically and typically not all at once. Depending on the level of competition in the game, a few first-string players may never leave the game. Clearly, picking your first string wisely, and having a strong second-string roster to substitute in, is key to building a winning team.
There is something to be said for putting your top players in your starting lineup, but the true strategy comes in playing the long game. Whether on the court or in the office, it is important to think of both the immediate impact and long-term effects of hiring and retaining the right team members. While filling roles as soon as possible may seem like the best strategy, it is more important to find the right fit. It is estimated that hiring the wrong person for a position costs a company around 30% of the annual salary of that position, so finding the right fit for key roles in your starting lineup is essential.
Your starting lineup cannot only be made up of new hires, nor can it consist solely of seasoned veterans. You must have a healthy mix to ensure diversity in thought. This is where the magic of pre-employment assessments comes into play. When maintaining your team, using assessments like the Omnia Assessment can help to find the right mix of all the desirable traits for your first-string players.
Benchmarking your top and most successful talents within individual positions adds another layer to your pre-employment assessments. Think of it this way: if you were able to hire a second Lebron James, would you do it? In 1992, the US Olympic men’s basketball team was led to victory by Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. They were known as The Dream Team bringing home the gold medal in a stunning upset win against Croatia. Imagine if you could replicate the capabilities of these members over and over again to fulfill their positions? There may be some ethical grey areas when it comes to cloning your team players, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying to find the perfect matches.
One of the greatest women’s college basketball coaches of all time, the legendary Pat Summitt, once said, “Teamwork is what makes common people capable of uncommon results.” She knew how to coach her team to perform uncommon results, and she did it by adapting her coaching style to the individual players on her team. She assessed the strengths and weaknesses of every player on the team and ensured they all received the specific, individualized attention they needed to succeed. The same is true in the workplace.
By identifying the strengths and areas in need of improvement for individual team members (and on a larger scale, teams as a whole), organizations can customize and configure strategies to get the desired results. Leadership that uses a data-driven, analytical approach to relationship management in their team can set expectations more clearly, deliver feedback in a more transparent and direct manner, and set measurable and achievable goals.
In terms of coaching to weaknesses (though we like to call them focus areas), using assessments to learn about the personalities, motivators, and defining characteristics of your talent can aid the customization of improvement plans and setting up milestones for growth. Pat Summitt said it best: “You can’t always be the strongest or most talented or most gifted person in the room, but you can be the most competitive.” Use the assessment results to your advantage and bring out that competitive, can-do attitude in all your team players.
The only way to win a game, truly, is to be prepared to adjust your strategy based on the other team’s defense. You can watch all the game tapes of past performances you want, but that is only going to prepare you for half the battle during the actual game. The same goes for your hiring and retention strategy. Every person is an individual with their own wants, needs, goals, and dreams. So, what worked for one might not work for all.
Having detailed profiles on your team is like having all the components of a playbook. You can change things mid-game with knowledge and insight into the inner workings of your team dynamics. Additionally, being armed with the assessment data and role benchmarking allows you to move players into the right positions on your team as backups and redundancies. Life is inevitable. There is always going to be another curve in the road, so have plans in place for team members that can step up and fill gaps as needed.
If we are trusting the Rule of 10,000 Hours, there is a lot of practice and development before “the big game.” The rule says it takes 10,000 hours of practice, arduous work, and experience to become a professional in anything, and many studies show that is true in basketball as well. While we do not necessarily think it takes as many hours to become an expert in reading and understanding assessment results (especially with how easy The Omnia Group has made it to interpret the data), it requires some skill and experience to build the perfect, high-performing team. Effective leadership takes practice and time.
There is no March Madness to our method — just real, actionable data and results. Are you ready to get started? To learn more about how The Omnia Assessment can help you select top talent, improve your retention rates, and make you a better and more prepared leader, schedule a demo. We look forward to showing you how our solutions provide the right elements for building a winning team.
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