Have you ever noticed some people seek function in their surroundings while others seek to fully experience their surroundings?

What is the HARMONIOUS Driving Force?

People with Harmonious as their primary Driving Force are driven by the the experience, subjective viewpoints and balance in their surroundings. They make up 4% of the population.

These individuals are energized by things like:

• Appreciating beauty and harmony
• Experiencing surroundings
• Expressing imagination

And stressed out by things like:

• Having lackluster surroundings
• Disregarding balance
• Overemphasizing function

Some Words that Work for these individuals are:

• Expression
• Atmosphere
• Balance

And, some Words that Don’t Work for these individuals are:

• Function
• Objective
• Compartmentalize

Is this you? Who do you have on your team who is driven this way? Do you have a clear understanding and appreciation of team members like this? Are these characteristics present or missing from your team?...

Have you ever noticed some people seek function in their surroundings while others seek to fully experience their surroundings?

What is the OBJECTIVE Driving Force?

People with Objective as their primary Driving Force are driven by the functionality and objectivity of their surroundings. They make up 12% of the population.

These individuals are energized by things like:

• Compartmentalizing
• Providing tangible outcomes
• Deciding based on data

And stressed out by things like:

• Being subjective
• Prioritizing appearance over function
• Pursuing intangible ideas

Some Words that Work for these individuals are:

• Detach
• Function
• Reality

And, some Words that Don’t Work for these individuals are:

• Experience
• Harmony
• Subjective

Is this you? Who do you have on your team who is driven this way? Do you have a clear understanding and appreciation of team members like this? Are these characteristics present or missing from your team? Do they or would they benefit the team?...

Have you ever noticed some people tend to be unrestrained in the application of resources while others tend to utilize and apply their resources to maximize return?

What is the RESOURCEFUL Driving Force?

People with Resourceful as their primary Driving Force are driven by practical results, maximizing both efficiency and returns for their investments of time, talent, energy and resources. They make up 6% of the population.

These individuals are energized by things like:

• Obtaining practical results
• Eliminating waste
• Being compensated based on performance

And stressed out by things like:

• Being redundant
• Using resources inefficiently
• Ignoring the return on investment

Some Words that Work for these individuals are:

• Profitable
• Efficient
• Benefit

And, some Words that Don’t Work for these individuals are:

• Endless
• Donate
• Casual

Is this you? Who do you have on your team who is driven this way? Do you have a clear understanding and appreciation of team members...

Have you ever noticed some people tend to be unrestrained in the application of resources while others tend to utilize and apply their resources to maximize return?

What is the SELFLESS Driving Force?

People with Selfless as their primary Driving Force are driven by completing tasks for the sake of completion, with little expectation of personal return. They make up 7% of the population.

These individuals are energized by things like:

• Working on unrestricted projects
• Fully completing tasks
• Acting Spontaneously

And stressed out by things like:

• Focusing on the process
• Measuring success through efficiency
• Assessing practical results

Some Words that Work for these individuals are:

• Accomplish
• Casual
• Complete

And, some Words that Don’t Work for these individuals are:

• Efficient
• Maximize
• Gain

Is this you? Who do you have on your team who is driven this way? Do you have a clear understanding and appreciation of team members like this? Are these characteristics present or...

Have you ever noticed some people seek knowledge relevant and useful to their current situation, while others seek to expand their understanding and knowledge in all endeavors?

What is the INTELLECTUAL Driving Force?

People with Intellectual as their primary Driving Force are driven by opportunities to learn, acquire knowledge and the discovery of truth. They make up 16% of the population.

These individuals are energized by things like:

• Increasing knowledge
• Learning continuously
• Objectively analyzing ideas

And stressed out by things like:

• Rushing through learning
• Restricting knowledge
• Approaching ideas subjectively

Some Words that Work for these individuals are:

• Identify
• Discover
• Learn

And, some Words that Don’t Work for these individuals are:

• Guess
• Relevant
• Intuitive

Is this you? Who do you have on your team who is driven this way? Do you have a clear understanding and appreciation of team members like this? Are these characteristics present or...

Have you ever noticed some people seek knowledge relevant and useful to their current situation, while others seek to expand their understanding and knowledge in all endeavors?

What is the INSTINCTIVE Driving Force?

People with Instinctive as their primary Driving Force are driven by utilizing past experiences, intuition and seeking specific knowledge when necessary. They make up 3% of the population.

These individuals are energized by things like:

• Deciding based on intuition
• Learning on demand
• Applying past knowledge

And stressed out by things like:

• Conducting extensive research
• Discussing hypothetical subjects
• Justifying intuitive decisions

Some Words that Work for these individuals are:

• Relevant
• Specific
• Apply

And, some Words that Don’t Work for these individuals are:

• Comprehensive
• Classify
• Examine

Is this you? Who do you have on your team who is driven this way? Do you have a clear understanding and appreciation of team members like this? Are these characteristics...

Have you ever noticed that different people do the same things but for different reasons? For example, you might observe two people reading a book, but they may have wildly different reasons why. For one, they may love to learn and seek to expand their knowledge in all areas. For the other, there may be a specific purpose, like to pass a test, research how to solve a particular problem, get a raise, or make an important life decision, that is driving that behavior.

It’s difficult to judge the reasons why people do things because they are internal. We can observe what people are doing and even how they are doing it, but understanding a person’s WHY is much more elusive, yet powerful. Once you have an understanding of why people do the things they do, especially people who you lead and are responsible for, aligning them around the objectives of your team will lead to a significant increase in engagement and dramatically improve overall effectiveness!

In our upcoming series...

As a successful leader, you know how frustrating it is when you begin to realize that one of your team members isn’t a good fit. You notice an issue and it begins to gnaw at you and then eventually it keeps you up at night. You hope the problem will go away, but it actually grows worse over time.

The time and financial cost of finding, hiring and training a team member who must ultimately be replaced by someone else who you have to find, hire and train is enormous. The opportunity cost is even greater. But how can you avoid it?

How Do I Avoid Hiring the Wrong Person?

We guide our clients through a patented process called Job Benchmarking in order to avoid making a bad hire. It works like this:

1. Identify a job on the team
2. Identify a small group of people who clearly understand the job
3. Gather these Subject Matter Experts to complete a job assessment
4. Combine the assessment results from the group into a single profile or,...

We hear it over and over again, team meetings can be the worst! On the one hand, they can be a huge time suck and a major drain on creativity and productivity. On the other hand, without them, the members of our team often feel like they are falling out of the loop and overall connectivity declines, which has a negative impact on performance.

How often should I be meeting with my team?

The trick here is to start simple, then make modifications based on the particular needs of your team and the individuals on it. Not all teams are the same, but if you're just getting started or you're implementing a new meeting cadence, this structure is a good place to start. This model comes from the book, Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni, which you should definitely check out if you haven't read it.

Daily Check-in

Share daily schedules and activities

Weekly Tactical

Review weekly activities and metrics, and resolve tactical obstacles and issues

Monthly Strategic (or ad-hoc strategic)

Discuss,...

Recently, I was talking to a friend of mine who shared this story about leading a healthy team, but not the kind of team we typically think of, or who hires Kutsko Consulting. His team is his son's little league team. Check it out:

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My son is playing in an 'instructional' little league and I am the head coach. Instructional means the idea is to focus more on learning than winning. After losing badly in our first two games, however, I've realized that you can't take  winning out of the equation with kids. They know the score...and they want to win. When we won for the first time last night, they raised their arms in celebration, ran to high five one another, and then gathered around me for a post-game talk (and some candy). They were glowing, and my first 'instructional' instinct was to focus on their behaviors, like how hard they played and how they encouraged each other, rather than the...