On a basic level, executives, like most people, are motivated by the desire to succeed, to be financially rewarded, to be safe from peril, etc.  On a secondary level most executives are motivated by a desire to direct and influence people.  Frequently, the desire to direct and influence people is in competition with the desire to successfully complete tasks (achieve) and the desire to be respected and appreciated by peers and subordinates (affiliate) .

How an executive negotiates the competition between the needs to direct, achieve, or affiliate is often a greater predictor of success than any other measure of skill or talent.  While it is true that most business leaders have exceptional competence in one or more areas, only individuals who are able to successfully direct and influence others become exceptional leaders. 

The key is understanding the role of a leader.  Contrary to popular opinion, success in a leadership position is not about technical competence or even something like emotional intelligence–both help but are not sufficient to deliver success.  Success in a leadership position is about understanding one’s own motivational priorities, adjusting them to fit the role one is in, and understanding the motivational priorities of peers and subordinates.

Think of a successful executive you know.  How much of his/her success is due to technical expertise, including the technical expertise to understand emotions?  How much success is due to being able to get people to line up and pull toward a common goal?

Andrew Carnegie reportedly wanted to put on his gravestone, “Here lies a man who knew how to put into his service more able men than he was himself.”  He was a tremendous leader.

Intellectus Business Assessments has the tools and the ability to identify the potential of business leaders and help potential leaders resolve the competition between motivational priorities that stand in the way of exceptional performance.

There are thousands of (psychological) assessment tools used in business. Benefiting from the full power of an assessment tool is as crucial to the bottom line as getting the most out of any other tool. It takes as much expertise and care as selecting the right software, fork lift, or ad campaign. This article will discuss the most widely used assessment tools and their intended use in business.

The overwhelming majority of business assessment tools are designed to measure either personality, motivation (attitudes, values), or competence (skill). The first of these, personality assessment, has a long tradition in the field of psychology. Despite this tradition, there is little consensus about how exactly to measure or, in fact, define personality. Two widely used assessment tools illustrate the range of approaches to assessing personality.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is based on a theory of personality developed by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. In brief, Jung asserted that all people can be categorized by where they fall along each of four scales: attitude , perception, judgment, and style of dealing with the world.

While there are many ways the MBTI has been used in companies around the world, its authors clearly intended to help identify “fit” between an individual and a specific career or role. Determining fit has the potential to increase job satisfaction, improve job performance, and improve employee retention.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) is based on observations of how people behave and how these behaviors differ among individuals. In other words, the HPI focuses less on what personality characteristics determine or drive behavior (a theory of personality) and more on what behavior is observable to self and others.

The HPI has seven scales: adjustment, ambition, sociability, interpersonal sensitivity, prudence, inquisitiveness, and learning approach. Individuals who score high on the ambition scale, for example, tend to be leader-like, energetic, driven, etc. while individuals who score low tend to prefer tasks assigned to them and following rather than leading.

The HPI is intended to be used for personnel selection, individualized assessment, and career-related decision making. It is designed to predict suitability for a particular role, satisfaction of a particular career, and leadership potential.

Other widely used measures of personality include the Dominance Influence Steadiness Submission (DiSC) assessment and the Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory – Revised (NEO-PI-R).

At this point, an analogy might be helpful. If personality is the APPROACH we use to get to where we are going, then motivation is the goal of our journey-WHERE we want to go. So, if you really want to understand someone, it is important to know both their APPROACH to getting there (their personality) and WHERE they want to go (their motivation).

Motivation assessment includes measures of attitudes, values, needs, interests, goals, and, of course, motivation. Like personality assessment, motivation assessment includes a broad variety of techniques for measuring “motivation”. Most of the measure are based on one or more theories of motivation.

In general, theories of motivation propose explanations of behavior based on individuals trying to avoid something or, alternatively, individuals trying to achieve something. In other words, motivation is seen as inspiring activity toward some end that is not yet realized (including “ends” that are never achievable like absolute power, perfection, and universal harmony).

One widely used measure of motivation is the Motivation Insights Assessment® (MIA). The MIA is based on the writings and research of Eduard Spranger, a German psychologist, as well on as contributions to the study of values by Gordon Allport, Philip Vernon, and Gardner Lindzey.

The MIA has six scales: theoretical, utilitarian/economic, aesthetic, social/altruistic, individualistic/political, and traditional/regulatory. It is designed to be used for employee selection and feedback. The feedback includes a description of what “drives” the person and how an individual’s drives compare to the drives of others in business settings.

Another approach to assessing motivation is based on the projective technique popularized in the business world by the American psychologist, David McClelland. Projective techniques require that the examinee tell a story about an ambiguous stimulus like a picture or an inkblot. McClelland used the Thematic Apperception Test as his source for pictures. He then coded examinee responses to discern and identify motivational themes.

The advantage of a projective test is that it is harder to “fake” or deceive because the potential answers are unlimited. The disadvantage of the technique is that its scoring is more subjective than a test with a limited answer set.

The projective technique is probably most powerful when used in conjunction with another motivation assessment tool-significantly enhancing the understanding of an individual’s motivation based on his or her combined results. The IBA Motivation Assessment (IBA-MA) tool is an example of a readily available projective measure of motivation.

Another widely used measures of motivation is the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI).

To continue with the analogy started above, if you know WHERE someone wants to go and their APPROACH to getting there, it is also helpful to know HOW SKILLED they are at implementing their approach. HOW SKILLED they are is, of course, about competence.

Assessing competence has many meanings because there are numerous types of competence. For example, there are assessments for competence in math, writing, sales, foreign languages, emotional intelligence, and thinking ability. The focus here is on assessments geared toward executives-assessments that attempt to quantify the intellectual ability and leadership skills needed to succeed as an executive.

One of the most widely used competence assessment tools is the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal® (WGCTA). The WGCTA is designed to assess examinee’s ability to use inference, deduction, and judgment when making decisions.

The WGCTA is intend to help with hiring, promotion, development, and succession planning decisions. It identifies competence in using business information to answer questions, determine strategy, reduce risk, and maximize organizational performance.

Other competence measures that assess thinking ability include the Core Abilities Assessment (CAA), the Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory (HBRI), and Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM). All of these assessment tools correlate positively with success in business settings.

The goal of any assessment tool is to accurately measure the ability or characteristics it is designed to measure. If a particular attribute is accurately measured it is possible to predict future performance with reasonable confidence.

We provide expert help at selecting and implementing psychological assessment tools. We help you put the full power of assessment tools to work for you.

Please use the contact page to ask questions about our services or to comment on the use of assessment tools in business.

If you are able, please send along information about your use of assessment tools and whether or not you are satisfied with their usefulness and ability to predict success.

If your goal is to influence others, the best possible strategy is to understand and then tailor your message to the motivational priorities of your audience.  This is true whether you are trying to close a deal with one person or to increase performance and productivity across an organization.

For example, to increase performance a company might set up competition between its sales men and women and attempt to tap into these individual’s need for achievement.  Or an executive might emphasize internal cooperation to tap into employees’ need for affiliation or positive reciprocal relationships.

In each case, it is advantageous to know the motivation of the audience.  Individuals who prioritize achievement will respond to competition while individuals who prioritize affiliation will not.

Two factors complicate the formula of matching a message to an audience’s motivational priorities.  The first is that motivational priorities are almost always multi-determined.  This means that it is rare for a single motivational factor to be at work.  Usually there is a blend of motivational factors and the more that you can address in your message, the greater your influence.  For example, in addition to frank competition, a sales director might include bonuses for peer-to-peer cooperation to tap into his sales staff’s need for both competition and cooperation.  He or she might also announce enhanced sales training to emphasize tuning into customer’s motivational priorities (for achievement, power, affiliation, consistency, reciprocity, etc.)–giving the staff better tools to achieve.

The second complicating factor is that motivational priorities will typically change over time.  What motivates a 24 year-old may not be motivating when the same individual is 34 or 54. The change in motivational priorities must also be accounted for to maximize influence.

We offer a broad range of assessment tools to help identify motivational priorities among employees and throughout an organization.  We help you identify, tailor, and present a motivational scheme that makes sense for your organization and employees.

We help accomplish the goal of increased influence in a conscious and thoughtful way.  Please contact us for more information.

Motivation and talent predict success in every human endeavor. It does not matter if you are in business or on the field as a professional athlete, your potential for success is ultimately determined by a combination of your motivation to succeed and your talent.

There are four potential classifications:

There are four potential classifications:

• talented and motivated
• talented and unmotivated
• untalented and motivated
• untalented and unmotivated

Although “good fortune” or “luck” can contribute to success, the predictable determining factors are motivation and talent.

When setting out to promote or hire someone, it is beneficial to consider their motivation and talent. Is he or she motivated by a desire to achieve, to exercise power, or to affiliate with others? Does his pattern of motivation predict success in a particular role? Does she have the experience, training, and talent to do the job? Is he manageable and does he have the ability to manage others?

Answering these questions is critical to making successful human resource decisions. It is easy to make the mistake of only exploring a candidate’s experience and training. Not scrutinizing the candidate’s motivation and ability to interact with others in a business environment, to the same degree, can lead to poor decisions with the direct and indirect costs associated with any poor business decision.

In addition, when setting out to guide a promising employee’s development, it is helpful to know his or her pattern of motivation. Is his primary motivation to direct or influence others, to achieve, or to be liked by others? Is her pattern of motivation workable–can it be modified to enhance the her effectiveness in the work setting? Knowing an employee’s pattern of motivation can help direct his individual development as well as serve as a basis for assessing progress.

Getting a clear picture of a candidate’s motivation and talent can help with any human resource decision.