1-Focus’ Approach to Assessments

We at 1–Focus International believe that no one tool or process is inherently better or worse than another. Over the years we have used and implemented many change interventions and are fully trained in a number of behavioral assessments. We use assessments for benchmarking and to measure the results of our change interventions. They are a part of the holistic and systemic programs we offer and not meant to be stand alone tools. Even in the individual coaching, assessments are chosen only when it is clear that they can provide key data and information for action plans. When used for team building, they are integrated into the strategies and objectives that the team establishes.While each situation is unique, but we have found that assessments can be useful at various stages of a change process:

1. When the leadership is not clear about the required competencies needed to make them successful or needs to establish a starting point.

2. When some general and common understanding about organizational / cultural / group differences would help open up communications and trust.

3. When members need to measure the overall effectiveness of the team and ensure continuous improvement.

While we are training and licensed in a number of valid and reliable psychometric tools, we tend to suggest those that meet the following criteria:

• Consistency with our models and philosophy
• Ease of implementation and use (due to the increasing virtual demand we tend to favor online tools
• Capacity for multi-language
• Simplicity
• Cost
• Ability for customized and normalized data

1. Leadership Competencies

The literature is pretty clear on the skills needed at the senior level and there are numerous and valid 360 degree feedback assessments on the market. They typically include such areas such as:

• Communicating Effectively
• Demonstrating Business Acumen and Customer Focus
• Making Sound Decisions
• Coaching and Empowering Others
• Promoting Innovation and Change
• Setting a Personal Example and Modeling Behaviors
• Creating Solid Working Relationships and Developing Teams
• Developing and Aligning Strategies with Vision
• Achieving Results

The importance of using a 360 degree mechanism versus a self rating profile is self evident. The 360 combines input from supervisors, peers, direct reports and sometimes external groups to provide a broad perspective on individual strengths and developmental needs. It has also been used extensively as part of an organization’s performance appraisal system. In addition, the aggregate data (cumulative results for a group) provide an organization with crucial information for effective strategic planning, overall training needs, improved team building and effective customer service.

The difference between the various models centers more around which skills or competencies are most critical for success. It is generally acknowledged that while technology will ensure that an organization can remain competitive the only truly differentiation aspect of one business from another is the capacity of the talent. In the past few years with have seen an ever increasing emphasis on the knowledge worker and what talent management really means. At 1–Focus, we have a strong value set that the future will not only be leveraging the individual human potential but how to collectively harness the power and passion in a collective manner. We believe it goes beyond unleashing individual human capabilities but involves the synergistic and exponential capacity of the collective whole. Our five key competencies stress collaboration and thus we call it The Collaborative Leadership Model.

While each of our competencies have their roots in the traditional leadership skills sets and they take the current thinking to the next level. To be a collaborative leader is fundamentally different from past skill sets. The five definitions are:

Creates:
Facilitates an action orientation that produces meaningful standards, synergistic results and outcomes that are iterative (repeatable and improved upon). Brings the shared vision into reality.

Engages:
Facilitates open communication that captures the passion and motivation of others. Empowers others to take clear and focused action.

Strategizes:
Facilitates conceptual, long range, holistic thinking in collaboration. Collectively creates an aligned and challenging vision.

Collaborates:
Facilitates an inclusive, trusting environment that invites collaboration internally and externally while honoring global responsibilities. Displays a “generosity of spirit”.

Resilient:
Demonstrates optimism, courage and adaptability that inspires others to be authentic. Internally well grounded in a strong self knowledge and personal value system.

Our 360 degree feedback assessment is specifically designed with ten questions for each of these competencies and we are continuing to collect normative data over time. Others that are “off the shelf” that we have also used include: The Leadership Practices Inventory, The Denison and Situational Leadership.

In 2009, Roberta and Sandy “discovered” the Tilt 360 Leadership Assessment and were convinced that this new tool was the Leadership Indicator we were looking to find.  It has been researched and validated across industries and cultures and measured character traits not competencies.  The Tilt 360 is also on of the few to assess the impact of overused strengths.

2. Individual Behavioral Awareness

Over the years we have used (and continue to do so when appropriate) many self assessments that measure aspects of personality or behavior preferences. Many of these instruments we use do require some form of certification and / or qualifications:

• MBTI
• DISC
• Firo-B
• Kolbe A

• Strength Deployment Inventory
• Birkman
• Strong Interest Inventory
• Genos EQ
• Hogan Assessments
• True Colors

Roberta owns a private label site, AssessmentsNow to use The Platinum Rule Behavioral Style Assessment created by Tony Alessandra. We chose this tool for its ease of use and team development capacity. AssessmentsNow has invested to make this totally suitable for organizational settings and possesses the only access to the instrument online in four languages (English, French, German and Swedish) In 2007,  a follow-up program to make the learning an ongoing process was introduced.

3. Team Effectiveness

Measuring the progress and effectiveness of the team is not the same as looking at the individual skill sets and / or behaviors of the members that make up the team. We have used a number of different paper instruments including those from Glenn Parker and Human Synergistics. The model and assessment that we currently recommend is based on The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. It best maps to our five collaborative leadership competencies.This in itself represents a separate two day process where we incorporate various tools and systems to ensure that the executive team is onboard and in alignment. From this, we design and plan with the client team a full scale and whole system change process.

Using a designed intervention that is specific to the organization and follows established whole scale change techniques not only communicates to the organization the intent and seriousness of senior management, it ensures that current and future objectives are on track.

Examples but not exclusive include:

THE LEADER OF THE FUTURE Hesselbein, F., Goldsmith, M., Beckhard, R. (eds), (1996).
The Drucker Foundation. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco.
THE LEADERHSIP CHALLENGE (Kouzes and Posner) Jossey-Bass. San Francisco (2004)GOOD TO GREAT: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Other’s Don’t (James C. Collins) NAKED LEADERSHIP: Confronting the Truth about Leadership (Peter Stephenson)
Prentice Hall (2002)“The Five Minds of a Manager” Jonathan Gosling and Henry Mintzberg, 2003 November issue of Harvard Business Review“Crucibles of Leadership Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas 2002 September issue of Harvard Business Review“What do Leader’s Really Do?” by John Kotter, 1990 Harvard Business Review