Psychological assessment gives individuals the insight they need to contribute more effectively to the team.
Conventional teambuilding, done in groups, assumes common issues that are best dealt with by the group as a whole. However, those issues contribute only partially to the overall set of issues that can limit the effectiveness of the team. Few issues, in fact, involve every member of the team in a way that lend themselves to group solutions.
Instead, most conflict has its origins in individual differences in values, motivation, and temperament. "Personality conflicts" are real.
An understanding of the group is an understanding of individual identities, reputations, relationships, rivalries, and formal and informal roles.
Our group assessment process builds an understanding of dynamics from the bottom up.
To gain an understanding of the group, we develop a picture of each person's style, approach, and preferences. In addition, part of the assessment is focused on each person's perceptions of and reactions to the other members of the team.
We collect specific information about their view of the overall functioning of the team—how things are done, patterns of communication, norms for behavior, what’s going well, what could be changed or improved.
We use a variety of assessment tools to thoroughly understand an individual's distinctive approach to work and how he/she is likely to be perceived by others.
- Comprehensive, in-depth biographical interview: We review the candidate’s education and work history with a particular focus on career decisions and transitions, accomplishments, challenges, satisfactions, and frustrations.
- Standardized inventories: These inventories measure aspects of each candidate’s personality, motivation, temperament, and cognitive abilities.
- Work simulation: For management roles, we ask the candidate to assume the role of a senior manager in a fictitious organization and respond to a series of realistic issues that represent a day in the life of the manager.
Our assessments are conducted jointly by two psychologists. One psychologist conducts the interview. The other independently reviews all other results. This approach keeps the assessment results from being unduly influenced by the candidate’s performance in the interview and helps ensure our accuracy and objectivity.
Subsequent feedback and coaching focus on the individuals and their unique contribution to the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of the team.
Our feedback includes how other group members perceive the individual. Subsequent sessions may involve coaching individuals, facilitating conversations between team members, or working behind the scenes to help the leader work more effectively with the team.