We live in such interesting times that are filled with much promise but also challenges of extreme dysfunction.

I guess every age has this dichotomy …Dickens said it best…

 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.^[2]

Like a gathering storm I see the daily push and pull of life like two competing forces. One that brings clarity and the other that is one of disruption and distraction.  As a student of social psychology I am always observing, asking questions about the “why” of our human condition.

I find lately that especially with people in my relative age group ( give or take twenty years) when I make the statement “everyone has become crazy” there is this universal nod along with a deep introspective eye to eye stare. The other thing us older folks say, “so glad I’m not working is Corporate America anymore.”

Corporate America does not share their view as I also meet lots of seventy plus individuals that their corporation beg, bribe and bestow lots of remuneration not to retire. Still others that the corporation has to hire two people to replace them and have these seventy plus individual on a very limited basis still involved.

I have researched what “right stuff” qualities that these individuals possess. It all comes down to four Mindsets.

Talent  Mindset

Relationship Mindset

Integrity Mindset

Learning Mindset

In our world of such competitive global dynamics if your senior management team does not identify these in their talent acquisition process, from day one you are operating with a flat tire where too much energy is expended to move the wheel forward.

Talent Mindset

You wouldn’t try to pound a square peg in a round hole but many corporations so poorly match individual intrinsic talent with the position they just hired them to successful execute. The host of current assessments are too long to take and have a very “airy fairy” slick packaged report that gives the limitedly psychologically trained HR executive the a long list of useless information.

Natural talent falls into to four simple energy mindset- Analytical, Deductive for the Thinking Types and Creative, Empathic for the Feeling Types.

Before the assessment is even given has your HR department rated which Natural Talent Type will achieve the best results in that specific positions. Misalignment of talent is a major reason for failure or worse for diminished results. The other practicality of assessing your talent in these categories is improving the interaction of your team. So much of the conflict that we observe on teams is due to the misalignment of personalities.

Relationship Mindset

I have read all of the gobbledygook of these high priced slick assessment reports. Once again lot of useless information and a social reciprocity model that is too complicated.

There are two types of people on the world; those that like to give and those that like to take. So in developing the collaborative environment it is best to identify on that team a “whose-what” before we even start a project. If you are fortunate and everyone is a “giver” than it is all blue sky territory for you but if everyone is a “taker” or worse a “user” then the storm clouds are on your horizon every day.

In measuring this balance of Relationship Reciprocity I have found there are four types.

Champion Leader- a total Win/Win with excellent leadership ability

Tribal Chief- a Win/Lose type of individual that protect her/his interest group/resources

Underdog- a Lose/Win individual that is good at heart but negative in outlook

Samurai- a Lose/ Lose individual that is purely self-interest all the time

While I meeting lots of great young professionals there are others who are nearly sociopathic in their behavior. When I further inquire into their job history. It is more than likely many jobs that are between periods of unemployment. All I can think about is how expensive such an employee is to the poor corporation that hired them.

Integrity Mindset

The reason the corporation love us older folks is our hardwired honesty that was minted through great parents, extended families, spiritual upbringing and a collective expectation where “honesty was always the best policy”

Sadly we live in the age of Fake News and everything else where “everybody” lies. In fact if you are not lying than you are not advancing. Yet to corporations this toxic element is both expensive and  exhausting in the training dollar spent to “educate” their employees to basic social behaviors that in our youth every one possessed.

I measure the Integrity Mindset on the following personal attributes

Authenticity          Always Real

Integrity-               Always Honest

Dependability      Always Reliable

Audacity               Always Strong

The ten question assessment has the following

Honorable

Principled

Disengaged

Resentful

Harmful

I personally can live with lots of areas of personal growth in others but dishonesty is character issue that is not easily remediated. What was most shocking in the employee beta test that I administered is a question about picking up a wallet that someone dropped in front of you. The fifteen percent that answered they would just keep it on a test they knew that HR was going to review demonstrated more than just a lack of honesty but of interpersonal skills.

Learning Mindset

This is the final area of my research that I’ve just recently completed. Yet to a corporation this is another expensive/ mission critical area.

Let’s say you hired “John” and his talent mindset is strong, excellent relational and character skills but he has an inability to rapidly absorb new information and still worse no long-term memory abilities to execute the training that you invested one non-pro day and thousands of dollars for the trainers/materials.  

In developing my Jigsaw Assessment, I found there are three types of “Learns”

Outstanding  Potential –  Learns quickly, Retains and applies new information very well

Highly Teachable –  this has a graduated scale from high to low in Learning & Applying

Limited Engagement- a poor inability to Learn-Retain and Apply information.

 The impact of the IPhone as part of a Lifestyle of Distraction play a powerful role in the learning process.

Each individual is a universe unto themselves in this age of amazing information access while at the same type overwhelming dysfunctional distraction.

Successfully utilizing the assessments that establish the benchmarks is the first step in the process of Self-Discovery-Empowerment and Transformation.  

For the individual who embraces the process ….A life Change Moment of Wellness

For the Corporation.. A Transformational Event that Improve its Cultural Life