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In this article you will receive a definition of assessment tools and
examples of assessment tools in action.
First, let’s define assessments, profiles and instruments.
They are personal needs analyses utilizing a questionnaire on a specific
topic. They give feedback, understanding and improvement ideas. They
have been tested to see that they are consistent and accurate. Popular
assessment tools are Situational Leadership, Conflict Mode and
Personality Type.
We all know that people enjoy and learn best when they are actively
involved and the information reveals something about them; when the
content is meaningful and can be utilized quickly. Assessment tools do a
super job of getting people actively involved and helping people learn
and grow. The following are classic examples of how assessments helped
me in tough environments:
The first relates to two Time Management Workshops for Attorneys.
The first group didn’t take the self scoring Time Mastery Profile®
until after lunch. Too much time was spent in the morning with them
telling me what time management experts they were and how they knew more
than I did. After lunch, when they took the Time Management Assessment
Tool, they could clearly see there were areas for improvement and they
were then ready to learn. With the second group, I had them take the
assessment thirty minutes into the program and all went smoothly.
The second example relates to a developmental coaching assignment.
The assignment was to work with a very intelligent, technically sound,
valued employee who was extremely hard on those working with and around
her. When I shared information on her people skills taken from
interviews, she would not believe the results. After she and her manager
took and received feedback on the self scoring Personal Profile System®,
a light went on - Thank heaven. She had answered the assessment
questions and was convinced this information did have validity. We then
worked with her challenge for four months. She is now easier to work
with and understands her impact on others.
The right assessment tool can clarify the complex, help create
meaningful learning and growth. It can also make your work easier, as
well as more fun, and with longer lasting results.
We all know that most of the people that get anywhere in life have
started out with an
ambition and goals. It doesn't matter that perhaps only some of what we
want to do
in life can be accomplished in that time. What does matter is that every
goal has to
have a foundation. It has to have direction and stepping stones. In
essence, you must know what you want and the steps it takes to get there.
Ask yourself: What do I want to accomplish by the time I retire? What do
I want to accomplish in five years? This year? This month? The answers to these
questions are
your goals. Write them down, as well as the activities it will take to
accomplish each.
Then concentrate on one goal and it's activities. When the activities
are completed,
that goal is accomplished. Success!
Priorities should be viewed in terms of:
- What's vital
- What's important
- What's less than important
The A's are vital, the B's are important and the C's are less than
important. The bottom line is that the A's are what you value most and give the biggest
payoff. Don't get caught in the process of cleaning up all the C's before getting to
the higher priority items.
Your to-do list should utilize this method. Jot down your list and then
number them
in the order you want to do them. The objective is to spend more quality
time on the
A's and B's of your list and less time on the others.
Taming your paper jungle is important for time effectiveness and
peace-of-mind. If you tend to retain documents, forms, letters and other materials long after
their usefulness
has faded, it's time to re-examine this habit. Clutter fills available
space, confuses and causes stress when you can't retrieve information quickly. With most
paperwork you
have five options.
- Dump it- Not only is this tremendously satisfying, you can
also improve
your "wastebasket-ball" skills dramatically.
- Don't accept it - If the information can be verbally
summarized by the
sender or another person, and you can remember it, don't accept the
document. Keep the ball in their court.
- Delegate it - If the task should or can be taken care of
by someone else,
have that person deal with it.
- Delay it - Organize a calendar file and put the material
in the appropriate
file for a more convenient date, if it can wait.
- Do it - Now that you've thought of everything else and
reluctantly
dismissed the improvised adage "Never do today what you can put off
until tomorrow," bite the bullet and do it now.
We all procrastinate a little now and then. Too much can ruin our aims
and life. When
you find yourself day-dreaming, thinking about nothing in particular or
just plain being lazy, ask yourself "What is this costing me in time, energy,
relationships, money,
stress, etc.?"
The first thing you should do is decide what you're going to do, then
break the task
into realistic steps and create deadlines for them. Now that you've got
some definite
direction, go ahead, give yourself a pat on the back. Then complete the
project and
celebrate!
We've dealt with a few areas of time management in this article. Now
it's time to put
them into practice. Pick something you want to accomplish, clarify the
goal and the
steps you plan to take to complete. Put these steps down on paper.
Reward yourself
with each step or phase completed. Start these actions within two days
of reading this
article, or you probably won't start them at all.
Remember, Now is the time!
P.S. To focus your Time Management challenges, take the Time Mastery
Profile. It
will give you feedback on 12 key areas with best practices improvement
steps.
Training Examples
The DiSC Assessment Model can be used in any training where participants
need to understand themselves and or others. Training examples include:
communication, delegation, negotiation, coaching, sales, customer
service, leadership, etc. The DiSC Dimensions are Dominance, Influence,
Steadiness and Conscientiousness.
A Coaching Example
I provided the DiSC Classic to an independent coaching consultant. His
practice focuses on law firms and attorneys. He used the DiSC Classic at
the start of all engagements. He had the client take the online version
before the first coaching session or the paper version during the first
session. This lets the consultant know the clients behavioral style up
front and saves time. The consultant shared his own his DiSC Pattern
with the client. The consultant then focuses on relevant topics like,
getting more work done, billable hours, communication, conflict, etc.
This Coaching Consultant is one of the busiest I know. He helped people
get results.
A Team Building & Problem Resolution Example
The firm in this example is one of my clients. It is a small engineering
firm of six people. It consists of the Owner, an Administrator / Office
Manager, a Lead Engineer and three newer and Engineers. The owner knew
there were problems; getting work done on time, quality issues and
conflict between the three new engineers and the owner and
administrator.
The first step was to interview each person individually. I asked what
was working and what wasn’t, etc? This took about an hour including
having each one take the DiSC Classic Assessment. We then set a date for
an all day off site meeting. To start the session the owner made a few
remarks and asked me to take over. I had taken all the data from the
interviews and grouped it into categories. The categories were:
Communication, Conflict, Personal Style, the firms Benefit Plan and
Direction of the Firm.
We then made sure everyone understood the summarized information from
the interviews. The group decided to look at communication first and
relate it to their various DiSC Patterns. They put their DiSC Graphs on
the wall so they could see and discuss the different patterns. There was
one person that was very high in Dominance, one was a very high in
Influence and four were highest in both Steadiness and
Conscientiousness. Then, each person shared two major professional
strengths and one area for improvement.
We then dealt with the Communication and Conflict areas. The Benefit
Plan was a major concern of the three newer engineers. The Benefit Plan
was explained, discussed and clarified. The information had never been
shared with them. The owner then talked about progress on current
projects, new projects and the future of the firm. Most of this
information had never been shared with the three newer engineers.
Action items were assigned to all seven of us. I visited all six
participants within five weeks. The objective was to see to see how
things were going and to see if they were doing their action items. In
general, they were progressing on the action items. I visited all six of
the participants two more times that year. The firm is growing and the
people are content.
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