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The Total View
Facts, tips, and tools to help you hire, manage, and motivate top-performing employees.
May 5, 2004
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in this issue
-- Can
a musician and magician live happily ever after?
-- Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #146 to #145.
-- Say Goodbye to High-Risk Hourly/Entry-level Employees with
CBI and SELECT.
-- Build A Top Performer Profile On Us.
-- Selecting The Right Test
-- Have Candidates Apply to a Position Anytime and Cut Your
Resume Screening and Interviewing Time in Half.
-- I know you want to know this.
Greetings:
Have you
ever wondered how anyone could spend hours upon hours studying
and admiring the artistic and musical expressions of individuals
who died hundreds of years ago while another describes the
exhibition at the local museum of art as the "pictures of
a bunch of dead guys"? Now imagine that these two people are
married to each other.
Sometimes
the truth is stranger than fiction - read on to learn how
the Aesthetic value makes life interesting for one couple
- and how similar values play out in the workplace.
The
Total View is written and published each Wednesday by Ira
S. Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions. (Yes,
Ira writes every article, every week!) and is distributed
with permission by The Chrysalis Corporation.
Ira
S. Wolfe ©2004 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other
distribution by permission only.
To learn
more about The Chrysalis Corporation or to read back
issues of The Total View, visit our website at www.chrys aliscor poration.com
Can a musician and magician live happily
ever after?
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Sometimes
you have to just step back and laugh. People can be so entertaining.
A very
good friend of mine and his wife recently purchased an entertainment
center for their home. I've never met his wife but knowing
my friend quite well, I knew that this shopping experience
had to earn its place in the Marital Hall of Fame. Beth is
a talented musician, plays in the orchestra and is a professor
at a small university. I also know from our conversations
that she loves to cook and garden. My friend on the other
loves to eat, plant and harvest ideas, and play with gadgets
and technology. In his spare time, he is a entertainer-magician.
We know
that different people value different things in life. In fact,
we can identify six primary values that either positively
or negatively drive all human behaviors. In other words, we
can easily identify that all people are motivated by at least
two of these six values.
One of
these six is called the Aesthetic value. Individuals who value
the Aesthetic things in life strive for activities that bring
form, harmony, or balance to their environment and self. Some
Aesthetics achieve harmony with art, music, design, or writing.
Others have an overriding desire to create an environment
in which they achieve peace and harmony. These individuals
may seek careers in interior design, architecture or pursue
causes that preserve the environment in which they live.
When my
friend Mike heard that Beth finally agreed to purchase the
entertainment unit, Mike jumped at the chance to finally get
a stereo. Up until now, the house stereo is his computer "cranked
up loud enough to hear all over the house".
A stereo
system however was not Beth's idea of what goes into an entertainment
center. To Beth, the purpose of the entertainment center was
to hide the ugly TV, not clutter the room up with junk. "I'm
not getting an entertainment center so I have to look at a
stereo", she said. "Entertaining" to Aesthetic's like Beth
are the knick-knacks, figurines, heirlooms, ceramics and other
decorative items that "camouflage" the ugly presence of a
television.
The good
news for Mike is that their current VCR and DVD is too large
for the shelf provided in the entertainment center. Beth hates
looking at it sitting atop the television. The solution? Purchase
a new unit that fits inside the unit.
Of course,
this brings up another problem - "fit". Fit to one is not
fit to another. To the Economic, another of the six values,
the size, function and cost of the VCR and DVD player will
determine what is the best fit. But to the Aesthetic, the
color, shape and form will be most important.
Aesthetic
conflicts don't just occur at home either.
Have you
ever noticed how some employees personalize their spaces -
hanging plants, decorative picture frames, needlepoints, embroidered
cushions on their chairs? Even their computer monitor has
a cute coat decorating the bare plastic case.
To the
Aesthetic individual, beauty exists for beauty's sake. They
have an intense desire for harmony and balance and will take
great pains to beautify their surroundings. They feel stressed
and even tired in surroundings that "don't feel right". They
may even straighten pictures hanging crookedly in someone
else's house or have the urge to move their furniture around
so the room "flows" better.
Then comes
along the low Aesthetic boss who wants to know "what all this
crap is doing hanging from the walls". In order to maintain
a professional appearance and eliminate any distractions,
the boss orders everything personal be removed from the office,
ccovers up the windows, hangs the cheapest wall coverings
he can find, and paints all the walls off- white.
Unfortunately
a plain vanillla environment to an Aesthetic person is like
demanding that a fish learn to breathe air out of the water.
It's not that a uniform, simple work environment is not right
or wrong - it's just counter-productive if you hired a group
of Aesthetic workers.
If you
want to turn off the productivity of an otherwise motivated
group of employees who just happen to value the Aesthetic
things in life, just impose a "no-personalization of workspace"
policy.
There
is no trick to understanding how to motivate (and de-motivate)
people. Understanding human behavior is not slight of hand
nor is it learning how to pull a rabbit out of a hat.
People
continually show you exactly what you need to know about them.
All you need to do is learn what to look and listen for. The
result will be that you will learn how they will respond in
nearly every situation imaginable.
Understanding
behavioral models like Business Values and Motivators and
DISC will result in beautiful music to the ears and eyes of
the Aesthetic and practical, bottom -line results to the Economically
driven utilitarian.
Learn
what people value and how to motivate employees. Order your
personal copy of Business Values and Motivators today.
Perfect Labor Storm Alerts #146 to #145.
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Fact #146
Of the approximately 12.3 million illicit
drug users in the United States, 77% are employed. Source:
U.S. Department of Labor
Fact #147
