Fact #97

Fact #98

Fact #99

"The Perfect Labor Storm Fact Book: Why Worker Shortages Won't Go Away" is HERE! Order your copy today - $7.95 includes + shipping.

Understanding Business Values and Motivators is an introduction to understanding the six business values and motivators that drives human performance. In this book, Ira Wolfe describes how each of the motivators affects peoples' behavior in the workplace and how managers can tap into those motivators to increase productivity and improve performance.

Order your copy today - only $12.95. Want a copy of all your managers - call us for volume discounts.

Attention Consultants - call us about affiliate and re-seller programs.

The report provides insight into the employee's personality profile and important work related characteristics such as their:

TotalView Corporate Coach is intended to assist the coaching or mentoring relationship by providing a starting point for meaningful discussion about an employee's values, needs and objectives. Further, the report assists the Coach in asking pertinent questions and providing relative feedback and ideas that are tailored for the employee.

The TotalView Corporate Coach Assessment was specifically designed to provide general work related information that will initiate a positive and effective coaching or mentoring experience.

TotalView Corporate Coach produces two unique reports: one for the coach and one for the employee/mentee.

The scales used in the TotalView reports are "scored" from 1 to 10. An individual who scores a "10" on competitiveness means he or she considers winning to more important than nearly 98 percent of the population.

Striving heard to reach goals is a good thing. Isn't winning, coming in first, being number one the motivations that drives super- achievers? They sure sound like the descriptors used to define the top talent that organizations are hunting for. Who wants to be a loser anyway? Not someone who scores a 10 on competitive, that's for sure.

One "10" manager in fact shared this story with me. While coaching his son to hit a baseball, his son just wanted to have fun and play with his friends. His fatherly advice was that "2nd place is just the 1st place for losers."

But don't condemn 10s to the narcissistic, ego- centric corner just yet. Desirable behaviors you might observe with a "10" competitor are that they don't give up, they get things done, and they play hard at any cost (and even harder when they are losing). When the game is on the line, give me a "10" anyday.

What is important to know is that the difference between driven to win and refusing to lose has as much to do with Business Values and Motivators as it does with personality traits alone. For example, a fierce competitor driven by Power and Authority may have a tendency to put their success over the success of the team and the organization, while another individual equally driven by the competition but fueled with a Social value may be fighting for the benefits that winning can bring to the team, organization and community. But make no mistake about it - it is all about competitors winning and someone losing, no matter what the driving value and motivator. Even those driven by the Social value still enjoy the "thrill of victory" and feel "the agony of defeat."

(To learn more about Power and Authority, Social and the other four values and motivators, visit www.businessvaluesandmotivators.com)

One of my favorite stories about competitors gone wild involves Michael Tyson, the former world boxing champion. Sometimes fierce competitors don't stop fighting when the bell rings. As I mentioned earlier, losing is not an option. After the gloves come off, anything goes including biting off your opponent's ear. Tyson lost the bout and his crown but I'm sure he feels he at least got the last punch in - or should I say bite. Only about 16 percent of the population "scores" between 8 and 10 on any personality scale.

Individuals who "score" between 4 and 7 represent nearly 68% of the population. These moderate competitors seem to balance their need to win with the enjoyment of the competition. These more moderate competitors value teamwork over winning and collaboration over individual achievement. They are good at getting things done but respect the needs and wishes of others around them. While their extreme competitor counterparts - the 10s - may believe that the team can't win without them, the more moderate competitors believe that Together Each Achieves More (TEAM).

So does that mean that an individual who scores a 1, 2 or 3 on competitive is a loser. Hardly. Much to the surprise of the 10s, those individuals are great team players. Just tell them what to do and they will do it (assuming of course it is ethical, moral and legal). Individuals who "score" near the "1" end of the scale represent the cooperative individual. They are very, very good at making contributions as members of team and foregoing their own success to help others. They may even bench themselves if they feel another player could benefit or make a greater contribution.

Cooperatives just don't understand why every stroke has to be counted and value good intentions and effort as much as who scores the most points.

As opposed to our first manager who believed losing was not an option, a more cooperative manager shared her philosophy as well. When playing games with her young son, she admitted that she sometimes "threw" the game. She didn't want her son to grow up thinking he wasn't very good at anything and therefore was trying to boost his confidence by saying "you're number one, you even beat Mommy."

Now all this might be nice to know but how does it translate into life at work.

Let's talk teamwork - we hear and read about it all the time. "If you're a team player, we're looking for you" or something similar to that is listed as the job requirement in virtually every employment ad written. Here's the problem with teamwork when you understand how people operate. What's does the organization really mean when it asks for team players - individuals who want to win at all costs or individuals who are willing to forego personal glory and share success with their co-workers, even if they didn't work as hard or have the same abilities?

Second, the level of competitiveness may impact how a manager evaluates and coaches his or her reports. The competitive manager might believe coaching is "showing a young whipper-snapper new employee how it's really done around here while the cooperative manager might attempt to build up the novice employee's confidence by allowing him to succeed, even if he or she doesn't and won't have the ability to ever do the job on their own. The competitive manager might under-rate an employee believing you can always do better and try harder. The cooperative managers might over-rate an under- performing employee believing that everyone deserves another chance.

Understanding personalities is a key component to understanding how employees will or will not perform. As in the case of the Michaels, what part of personalities don't people understand? No manager should ever be surprised again at the behavior of an employee. The combination of technology and advancements in the art of personality assessment removes the guesswork from hiring, developing and coaching employees. Personalities assessments means the difference between hiring and retaining the right people or having to deal with a employee performance situation.