“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”
Anna Mason with PI Midwest emphasized this quotation’s
message when she spoke to the Johnston Rotary on July 21,
2020, about team management. In her position, she focuses on
maximizing people and teamwork styles. She helps employers
and teams to find the appropriate employee for a team or
project, as well as helping leaders to see if someone fits in their
team or culture. The goal is to “get the right people in the right
seats.” She also can assist in recognizing the characteristics
that personnel have and how best to use and fit these
characteristics to projects and teams. She emphasized the need
for the proper fit and qualities for employees to their work for
improved success.
Predictive indexing helps in identifying great people
and fitting them to a project or team. She discussed four
factors – dominance, extraversion, patience, and formality.
Dominance is the drive to exert one’s influence on people or
events. Extraversion is the drive for social interaction with
other people. Patience is the drive for consistency and
stability. Formality is the drive to conform to rules and
structure. PI will investigate to measure the four factors and
plot them on a graph to determine which factors motivate the
person and which do not. In the latter case, the opposite of the
factor is what motives the person.
Once behaviors and dominating factors are
recognized, PI matches the behaviors of a candidate or
employee to the behaviors of a job. PI reviews the job
requirements and what types of behavior are involved. For
example, does the job require lots of independent decision
making? Then high dominance is involved. Is lots of
interaction with people and “selling” required? Then high
extraversion is involved. Is a consistent work environment
with low time pressure and variety involved? Then high
patience is involved. Is attention to detail and precise rule
following required? Then high formality is involved.
Characteristics of these factors include: High
Dominance: independent, big vision, able to make calculated
risky decisions without a lot of input from others; High
Formality: organized, responds to structure, responds to rules,
seeks to discover what is “right,” motivated by certainty; Low
Extraversion: motivated by tasks and things, process focused,
solves problems in their head; Low Patience: quick paced,
intense, motivated by a fast-paced environment, de-motivated
by routine.
Anna recommended asking behavioral questions in an
interview, such as one about the most important behaviors.
For example, ask, “Tell me about a time when you had to
manage multiple projects at once.” People typically will show
you who they are quickly. If the fit isn’t a good one, let the
person go quickly. She also advised that if you really like
someone, it might be a red flag.
Tips on managing when under stress and pressure
include – Team Ma: Work to discover what motivates your
team: notice changes in behavior and figure out the “why.” Ask
questions. Take a break from zoom. Try more meetings but in
shorter timeframes. Manage your expectations – under stress
and pressure, priorities change. Communicate more. Catch
people doing things right and praise behavior you want to see
more.
Anna Mason can be reached at
amason@pimidwest.com.