Development Coaching Report

Transcription

1 Development Coaching Report Joanne Edwards Reference: G413RS Prepared by: Compass Motivational Solutions Pty Ltd January 18, 2013

2 Purpose The purpose of the Birkman Coaching Report is to provide you and your nominated coach with a comprehensive assessment for self-management and developmental purposes. This report focuses on behaviour within the range of normal human functioning and does not address clinical issues. This information is based on your responses to questions contained in the Birkman questionnaire and generated from The Birkman Method. This report should not be depended upon as the only means of evaluating your attributes and areas for development. The Coaching Report is designed to: Provide a means to increase personal and professional self-awareness. Provide information to complement other processes important to coaching, such as the coaching interview process. Describe your specific tendencies relative to important interpersonal and task-related activities. Provide information to help pinpoint areas that may be current or future liabilities. Provide areas to be explored within the coaching process that can be translated into specific coaching goals for you. Specific Profile Profiles are valuable because they give us a general sense of who we are and how we behave. They are helpful because we can learn how, with our particular profile; we can interact more effectively with people who have profiles different from us. We have aspects to our personality that are unique to us as individuals, based upon the distinctive environment in which we were raised and aspects of our personality that are present at birth. In the sections that follow, we will define your specific personality in terms of the following areas: How You Communicate With Others How You Relate to People Socially How You Respond to Structure and Change How You Interact with Teams How You Make Decisions Creating Your Ideal Work Environment Work-Life Balance Potential Issues Areas to Explore Copyright 2013, Powered by The Birkman Method, Birkman International Inc. USA P a g e 2

3 Communicating With Others Communicating with others involves the sensitivity with which we deliver messages to others (and conversely the degree of sensitivity we want in return) and the level of assertiveness we exhibit in challenging others and defending our points of view. You view your usual behaviour as being more straightforward and direct than most people. You have minimal self-conscious feelings about the effects your behaviour is having on the other person, even though you may be fully aware of its impact. Status, titles and position will not interfere with your ability to deliver the message that you believe needs to be sent, even if it is something the other person may not want to hear. Your communication style will be unemotional, candid, and matter-of-fact. Your responses in this area imply that you prefer others to behave toward you in ways that are somewhat different from how you generally behave toward others. Your responses here, which are in the average range, indicate that you prefer an environment where people show sensitivity toward one another, yet still allow for frank and direct communication - especially if the conversations involve difficult subjects or are somewhat adversarial. Such an environment would include the expectation that there is respect, not just for the person, but for the position or title that the person may hold. However, title and position should not interfere with the straightforward conversations that must occur for people to work together. During times of stress or pressure, your usual behaviour is likely to shift and you may express your opinions in a more direct and possibly even blunt fashion. In the process, you may downplay the importance of sensitivity in your communication and come across as more inconsiderate than what people are used to from you. Given the balance in your responses, however, your behaviour when under stress, may mean that you also become somewhat less direct, as your sensitivity toward the reactions of the other person increases. If this occurs, you might become evasive when having to confront others around uncomfortable issues. However, with your overall profile in mind, it would not be surprising that, when you are under constant pressure, you would tend toward becoming too direct and even harsh in your communication style. Be aware that, under stress, your behaviour could go in either direction. You describe yourself as no more assertive or controlling than the average person. When communicating from a position of authority, you will tend to exercise that authority in an atmosphere of generally pleasant and controlled relationships with only a moderate amount of confrontation. Your style is to combine persuasiveness with a reasonable amount of assertiveness. You can be comfortable whether suggesting people do things, or, when necessary, issuing orders. Your personal needs generally reflect your usual behaviour. You function best in an environment that supports the forthright discussion of ideas, policies and decisions among individuals without encouraging excessive argument or aggressive debate. You prefer supervision from someone who is fairly direct and honest with you, who is clear on what the boundaries are and where you stand, but who is not overly authoritarian in style. You expect those in positions of authority to be Copyright 2013, Powered by The Birkman Method, Birkman International Inc. USA P a g e 3

4 comfortable when you push back with your own ideas and opinions. You also welcome opportunities to discuss, even debate, matters of personal or professional importance with your peers and direct-reports. During times of stress or pressure, your behaviour may become an exaggerated version of your day-to-day behaviour. Specifically, you may air your opinions too freely. In the process, you can come across as bossy and domineering. As you become more confrontational, you will tend to resist direction from others and could be inclined to engage in an argumentative style of communication. The frustration of dealing with non-confrontational people or a "wishy-washy" boss will generally bring out the authoritarian side of your personality. Relating to People Socially Relating to others from a social perspective is determined by how much we like group interaction, how much interpersonal contact we need and to what extent we see emotion or feelings as a significant factor in our relationships. You describe yourself as someone who is more sociable, outgoing, and friendly than most people. Your responses to the questionnaire indicate that you are socially adaptive. You enjoy meeting people and get along well with a wide variety of people. Your usual strength is to seek out, participate in and enjoy social activities where you can relate to others in an affilitive manner. You communicate easily with others, are more verbally expressive than the average person and can take a prominent role in group discussions. However, your personal needs in this area are not as strong as your self-described behaviour might suggest. Your responses fall within the average range and imply that you prefer an environment where there are some opportunities for interacting with others, but one that does not demand constant social interaction. You enjoy having a variety of acquaintances, but this tendency alone is not likely to translate into a need for constant social activities. Having others around will energize you, but your need for social interaction is only in the moderate range. Therefore, you will also want to balance social interaction with time alone to recharge your batteries. When under pressure, you might vacillate between socially dominating a situation by doing too much talking and too little listening or you may become quiet and withdrawn. If you feel that the genuine support of friends or those in your social circle is lacking, you may respond by striving too hard to please them. But you may just as easily appear unfriendly and aloof. Given your usual behaviour, you may, when in stress, lean toward exaggerating your social behaviour by either socially dominating the situation or sometimes bowing to group pressure and becoming too compliant. You describe your normal behaviour as much more detached and objective in your relationships than most people. You do not allow emotions to cloud issues, particularly in your dealings with others. Instead, you are logical and practical, even if it means downplaying important emotional Copyright 2013, Powered by The Birkman Method, Birkman International Inc. USA P a g e 4

5 elements that affect relationships. You will avoid discussions about feelings and focus instead on problem solving and task-related issues. People are likely to describe you as cool and detached. Your needs mirror your usual behaviour with a distinct need for situations in which there are a minimum number of interactions that require the demonstration of warmth and caring or a high degree of personal disclosure. You prefer to be treated in a matter-of-fact manner and will want to treat others the same way. Your environment should offer detached supervision and straightforward discussions about things of a logical nature. Such interactions will fit your nonemotional style. During times of stress or pressure, your usual behaviour is likely to become exaggerated. Specifically, you will be prone to lose sensitivity to the feelings and problems of others. You will most likely become more impersonal and demanding. You may also tend to become quite concrete and unreflective, and in the process, minimize emotional problems. You may place undue emphasis on immediate results in your dealings with others. Interacting within Teams How we interact with teams is determined by our level of competitiveness. It is how we channel our competitiveness and how we like to be incentivized. It addresses whether we prefer to be rewarded for our individual effort or for our teamwork. Additionally, our desire for personal independence is also a factor, as it determines how easily we conform to the social constraints required by the process of teamwork. On the surface, your self-described behaviour indicates that you are about average in your desire to balance personal gain and opportunism with a concern for cooperation and for behaving in a win win manner with others. While you certainly can be opportunity-minded and resourceful with an outward interest in promotional and money-making ventures, it appears that this is a moderate need and not a behaviour that you would take to an extreme. Your needs appear to align with your self-described behaviour. Namely, you show a desire to work as part of a closely knit team where the purpose of work goes beyond tangible gain, and where cooperation - not competition - is the norm. However, you are not so idealistic as to ignore circumstances where you're not receiving the rewards that are due given your personal effort. Furthermore, while you enjoy an environment that accentuates the value of your work and encourages teamwork and loyalty, you are perfectly capable of operating in a more competitive setting. During times of stress or pressure, you may vacillate between underestimating other people's self serving traits and, perhaps, being taken advantage of at times or being too self-serving and cynical of the motives of others. Those that are too openly competitive or oriented toward individual reward may be a source of irritation for you and could arouse your own competitive juices. Your self-described behaviour indicates that you place about the same emphasis on individuality as most people. You view your general behaviour as no more individualistic than the average Copyright 2013, Powered by The Birkman Method, Birkman International Inc. USA P a g e 5

6 person and therefore, you do not need a high degree of approval from others to justify your thoughts and actions. To the extent that this is the case, you will adapt to the constraints required by most team situations and will not be overly disruptive in an attempt to express your own individuality. Your stated needs indicate the same moderate desire for a team environment that offers the reassurance of consistency and predictability and at the same time, an opportunity for some degree of individuality. You have an average need for personal expression and self determination; however, you tend toward more individualistic behaviour. So while it can be expected that you will enjoy the stability that a well-functioning group can provide, you will need the opportunity to express your own individuality. During times of stress or pressure, you may vacillate between individualistic behaviour and a desire to conform. Your stress behaviour will either become too individualistic or overly conforming. When the latter is true, you may feel compelled to agree with the group and may succumb to social pressure to conform or to the phenomenon of "group think". Given your overall profile, however you will likely tend toward becoming more individualistic. Response to Structure and Change Our response to structure and change is determined by our levels of comfort with order and systematic detail. It is also determined by the extent to which we prefer variety in our own schedules or want to introduce change into our environment. You have a moderate level of concern for the ability to impose structure and order on your activities. Your self-described approach to tasks is fairly organized, detailed and systematic, but not overly so. You can plan and follow a set of well-defined steps in the execution of any task or project, and you prefer stability and predictability more often than not. As such, you may find some difficulty in shifting your position or departing from the "status quo", yet will do so if it is proven that such a change is warranted. This behaviour appears to be learned since your personal needs are somewhat different from your usual behaviour. That is, your responses indicate that you have a distinct need for situations in which there is a minimum of routine. Since you also prefer opportunities for personal initiative, you will not tend to do as well under closely supervised conditions. Your daily activities should allow you to organize and plan on a broad scale with minimal requirements for routine detail. During times of stress or pressure, you may be prone to leave things until the last minute and might begin to neglect important details. As stress increases, you may find that you are becoming rebellious toward systematic approaches and that detailed planning feels confining and restrictive, leaving you to rush into things without a clear plan. You describe yourself as having about the same desire for change and variety in your life as most people. You welcome a certain amount of interruption and novelty into your daily activities, but not to the point that it disrupts your ability to concentrate. While you appreciate some variety, Copyright 2013, Powered by The Birkman Method, Birkman International Inc. USA P a g e 6

7 you will not necessarily enjoy a new schedule every day or constant unplanned changes to your routine. You can be responsive to starting new things, but will want to be able to take them through to completion before having too many different projects thrust upon you. In terms of what you need from your environment, your responses here indicate that you have a distinct need to have a minimum of change imposed upon you. You prefer a work situation that favours concentration and allows you time to consider new ways before changing methods along with an opportunity to give input before changes are initiated. According to your responses to the questionnaire, you need protection from constant interruptions. During times of stress or pressure, you may have difficulty concentrating, become restless and easily distracted. When this happens, you could become anxious for quick results and easily annoyed by delays. In short, your patience will be reduced drastically. During this time, self discipline will not come easily and you will tend to start many projects, but have trouble finishing them. The difference between your needs and your stress behaviour should be explored. Making Decisions Our decisions are influenced by many elements. But the core of our decision making is determined by just a few essentials. Our natural pace influences decision making because it determines our self-generated time pressure. The degree to which we rely totally on objective logic or bring in our intuitive side also affects our decisions. And finally, the amount of information we need to have before making a decision and the amount of time to process that information is critical. Your decision-making can be categorized as idea oriented and creative. You are able to think about the future as well as the present, build on the ideas of others and generate many alternatives before deciding. You will use your intuition and reflective capabilities to consider new ideas, strategies, theories and plans. Your internal reactions are important as part of your decision criteria. Your decision-making will have a synergistic orientation since you will put forth "trial balloons" and gauge the reactions of others, using this information to help shape your decisions. When compared to the average person, you will generally appear quite decisive, given your ability to quickly formulate answers and make decisions without undue delay. Your ability to grasp relevant issues, weigh competing factors quickly and form quick judgments is an asset which aids your effectiveness, even when situations are vague and uncertain. It also allows you to be direct and to the point in your communications. However, at times, you may come across as impetuous. Your rapid and matter-of-fact manner will be most apparent when you're dealing with matters in which you have a great deal of experience, have pre-processed the information or in areas that are routine and inconsequential. Although the amount of time you need to make a decision increases as problems become complicated or unusual, you require no more information or time to make a decision than the average person. Additionally, compared to most people, you have a moderate need for an environment that requires rapid decision making. In other words, your need for reflective thought is about average. Copyright 2013, Powered by The Birkman Method, Birkman International Inc. USA P a g e 7

8 Under pressure and stress, you may vacillate between procrastinating on decisions, so that you can collect more information and decrease uncertainty, or in situations that are more familiar, you may become frustrated with ambiguity and decide impulsively. Creating Your Ideal Work Environment Effective careers are built on a combination of three factors: 1. An intrinsic interest in what you are doing 2. Knowledge and competencies necessary to perform effectively 3. Taking advantage of opportunities that are presented to you One way that you can create proper alignment within your job/career comes through understanding how similar you are to people that have found work satisfaction in specific job categories. Your information suggests that the following environmental components are very important to your success and satisfaction within your career. You will align best in environments that are characterized by: predictable and stable work setting that follows consistent approach to work objectives general procedural standards following carefully defined office systems and procedures tangible results are obtained and operational procedures are emphasized urgency and action are stressed in the scope of projects various functions that allow for interaction with stakeholders opportunities to work as a part of larger team driven initiatives high levels of energy and enthusiasm are encouraged high degree of autonomy in job functions consideration for people and individual development functions that include brainstorming and development ideas and innovative problem solving is promoted and emphasized emphasis on strategy and the creation of production concepts Work/Life Balance Your personal profile indicates that you are at risk for work/life balance issues. Your answers to the questionnaire indicate the following: You have a physically active nature and an above average amount of restless energy combined with a strong psychological need to stay busy with a variety of activities. Under stress you are prone to become impatient and edgy, and therefore want to act on impulses and may waste energy. Copyright 2013, Powered by The Birkman Method, Birkman International Inc. USA P a g e 8

9 Your tendency is to spend a majority of your time and energy in pursuit of work or taskrelated goals, objectives and activities - even if they are not a good fit for you or do not make sense to you personally. Your drive for self-improvement causes you to be attracted to formal training or self-improvement opportunities that may place further demands on an already busy schedule. However, to determine whether or not they are adversely impacting your life, answer the following questions. The more affirmative answers there are, the more likely it is that work/life balance issues are becoming a problem. 1. I find myself spending more and more time on work-related projects. 2. I often feel I don't have any time for myself - or for my family and friends. 3. No matter what I do, it seems that often every minute of every day is always scheduled for something. 4. Sometimes I feel as if I've lost sight of who I am and why I choose this job/career. 5. I can't remember the last time I was able to find the time to take a day off to do something fun - something just for me. 6. I feel stressed out most of the time. 7. I can't even remember the last time I used all my allotted vacation and personal days. 8. It sometimes feels as though I never even have a chance to catch my breath before I have to move on to the next project/crisis. 9. I can't remember the last time I read - and finished - a book that I was reading purely for pleasure. 10. I wish I had more time for some outside interests and hobbies, but I simply don't. 11. I often feel exhausted - even early in the week. 12. I can't remember the last time I went to the movies, enjoyed a hobby, or attended some cultural event. 13. I mostly do what I do because so many people (children, partners, parents) depend on me for support. 14. I've missed many of my family's important events because of work-related time pressure and responsibilities. 15. I almost always bring work home with me. Potential Issues Strong needs and expectations can be a motivator and can direct our behaviour. When we deal with those who have similar needs or expectations, we are more likely to operate easily and in harmony. However, when we must interact on a regular basis with those whose worldview and personal needs are quite different from ours, it will take understanding and patience to be effective. At the same time, it is these people that can best bring balance to what we do and help us become well Copyright 2013, Powered by The Birkman Method, Birkman International Inc. USA P a g e 9

10 rounded human beings. Based upon your responses, the issues listed below may present challenges to you because of the specific nature of your needs. Dealing with those who value system and order, who are detail-minded and meticulous in their planning. You value a broad overall approach to planning, relish the freedom that comes with minimal structure and are stimulated by frequent change. When you interact with those whom you see as overly cautious and too dependent on structure, you may perceive them as over-controlling and inflexible. You should realize that your style may come across as underestimating the importance of necessary detail and follow-through, and could seem disorganized to others. To increase your own effectiveness, give others adequate time to adjust to changes and leverage their focused attention to detail to complement your broad-brush approach. It will often prove helpful for you to be aware of instances when you should devote more attention to detail and planning. Those who contrast with your needs in this area can bring significant value for you. Dealing with those who are sensitive, imaginative and creative and who allow their subjective nature to guide their reactions and decisions. You are, by nature, objective, think in concrete terms and focus on practical results. You prefer endeavours that require logic and objectivity and discussions that are focused on practical matters. When working with those who are at the opposite end of the spectrum, you may be more effective if you can occasionally show respect for their personal reactions to situations or events. Additionally, their creativity and imagination can complement your practical, down-to-earth thinking and approach to problems. Dealing with those who welcome change, take a very "flexible" approach to planning and execution and who thrive on environments with change and spontaneity. You are focused, resist distractions and want a minimum of abruptly imposed changes. For maximum effectiveness, remember that those who have the opposite style do not share your preference for consistency and certainty. They work most productively in a rapidly changing environment where variety and the unexpected are commonplace. In response, they are likely to take a spontaneous approach to projects and tasks. When working with people who have this style, you will benefit by remembering that, assuming competence, they can often reach the same goal as you - except by a different approach. Their approach can be valuable in situations where your concentrative style may be less effective. Areas to Explore Our "usual" behaviour is the behaviour we exhibit when we are not in stress and when we do not have to respond to environmental demands that require specific behaviours which differ from our natural style. Our usual style has been learned over time and represents our perception of what it Copyright 2013, Powered by The Birkman Method, Birkman International Inc. USA P a g e 10

11 takes to be productive or effective in our interpersonal interactions and in meeting task requirements. In a very real sense, these behaviours represent our behavioural strengths. While we can be effective when operating from our strengths, it is these same strengths that can be potential weaknesses when we are under pressure or in stress. Given your stress scores, the following areas should be explored to determine whether they have, or could, create problems for you: Stress of Interpersonal Relations Stress of Dealing with Schedules or Details Stress of Handling Conflict Stress of Making Decisions Stress of Interpersonal Relations Your responses do not suggest that this is an area of significant concern for you. Stress of Dealing with Schedules or Details Based upon your responses in this area, when under stress or pressure you may begin to: Have difficulty concentrating, become restless and easily distracted. Start things but not finish them, have trouble exercising self-discipline. Become annoyed by delays or roadblocks. Stress of Handling Conflict Based upon your responses in this area, when under stress or pressure you may begin to: Become bossy, domineering, or demand special attention. Feel so impatient to say what you are thinking that you do not listen to what the other person is saying. Take a stand and get overly intense with others over small or rather insignificant issues. Stress of Making Decisions Based upon your responses in this area, when under stress or pressure you may begin to: Take on too much pressure to do things and get too involved with multiple projects or activities. Feel impatient and act without thinking just to get things moving. Waste energy and become edgy when pressure Copyright 2013, Powered by The Birkman Method, Birkman International Inc. USA P a g e 11

12 Compass Motivational Solutions Pty Ltd ABN PO Box Collins Street East Melbourne Victoria Telephone: birkman@cmspl.com.au