Taking the Sting Out of 360 Feedback Profiling

Feedback UnderlinedEvery thriving organization relies on honest feedback. For leaders, input is crucial not only from their bosses, but also from subordinates and colleagues. To solicit input, many organizations use 360-degree performance feedback profiles. However, with the way these assessments are structured, the comments can sting—and even cause damage to morale. Fortunately, there’s a better way. Let us explain.

A Traditional 360 (The Old Way)

In typical 360-degree performance assessments, leaders assess their own performance. Their peers, subordinates, and managers assess them as well. Challenges arise because:

  • Free-form comment sections give reviewers free rein to say whatever they wish. With input provided anonymously, the comments can be mean-spirited and demoralizing.
  • In small organizations, leaders can figure out who commented. This can make people hesitant to provide honest feedback. It also causes resentment when people are brutally honest.

So how can you get the information you need to help your leaders excel? Use Checkpoint 360, a revolutionary, online feedback profile!

360 (The New Way)

Why Checkpoint 360?

  • It produces a detailed report that conveniently highlights key points in a top section. This presents leaders’ greatest strengths and their top development opportunities, so leaders can start to improve their results right away.
  • It replaces a section for free-form comments with carefully crafted questions to produce instructive, informative comments for leaders. The focus is on constructive feedback that reduces the sting!
  • It uses the DiSC® model, so it looks at behaviors and delivers detailed, easy-to-understand data—with helpful graphs.

Here’s an example. A traditional 360 assessment might ask, “Does this leader clearly communicate team opportunities?” Meanwhile, Checkpoint asks, “Do you think this leader needs to be more active about finding new opportunities for the group?” with multiple-choice answers:

  • Yes, a lot more
  • Yes, a little more
  • No

Reviewers then select additional, pre-populated comments, such as “Their passion for finding new opportunities encourages the rest of us to show initiative” or “They already do a good job of finding new opportunities.” This allows for useful, sting-free actionable feedback that your leaders need for positive development.

We’re here to help you revolutionize the way your organization delivers feedback. Email us at learn@corexcel.com to learn more.

5 Ways Style Impacts Culture | Webinar

According to recent studies, culture remains a top issue of concern to business and HR leaders across the globe.

What is culture? Culture is a combination of behaviors, values and attitudes that many take for granted and have major implications in the workplace. It affects such things as the pace work gets done, attention paid to details, how outsiders are treated or the risk that your group or organization takes.

Join us to explore five ways that the personality style of individuals and behavior style of your group influences their workplace and their success in meeting goals. You’ll gain an understanding of areas in your culture you want to reinforce and those you may want to change.

Date: March 27, 2019Office Culture

Contact Us for More Information

 

Planning a DiSC Workshop? Set Yourself Up for Success

DiSC WorkshopAs an employer, you likely know about the power of DiSC profile tests for assessing your employees’ personalities, learning about team dynamics, and taking action based on the results. Hosting a DiSC workshop is a fantastic way to educate your team on what DiSC offers and how to use it for your organization. To ensure a successful DiSC Assessment Training workshop, ask yourself these questions:

Who is your audience?

This affects not only who should participate, but also how the workshop should be structured. Are you looking to teach first-time managers? Employees who started in the last quarter? Senior management? An entire department? You’ll want to adjust the workshop’s content and approach accordingly.

What is your goal?

What do you want participants to know or do as a result of the DiSC workshop? For example, do you want to: pinpoint the cause of an ongoing problem, improve communication, reinforce sales skills, or boost customer service? This determines which DiSC assessment to use-and how to tailor your workshop.

What is your schedule?

Can you dedicate the three or four hours typical of a workshop that includes participant exercises? Would a 90-minute workshop on two different days work better? Or would incorporating DiSC training into an existing workshop be best? Your schedule affects the workshop’s design.

What is your trainer preference?

Is someone on your staff willing and able to conduct the workshop? There are excellent facilitator kits to guide those who are comfortable in that role. If you would rather hire an experienced DiSC facilitator, we can point you to local experts.

Do you prefer an in-person or virtual workshop?

There are advantages to each. A virtual workshop lets you train employees across multiple locations. However, for some folks, nothing compares to an on-site facilitator interacting with your team.

Whether you’re using DiSC to resolve issues with individuals, improve your workplace culture, or enhance any other aspect of your organization, you should host a DiSC Training workshop to properly educate your team. Prepare yourself with these questions ahead of time, and you’ll be off and running.

Six Essential Steps to a Great Hire

Essential Hiring StepsWhen your organization has a job opening, you want to hire the right person. You also want the hiring process to be as smooth as possible. Whether you’re filling a new position or replacing an employee, follow these steps:

1. Update the job description or create a new one.

Clearly state the education, experience, and skills that you seek. Include the job’s compensation.

2. Publicize the job

Post the job opening on LinkedIn, Indeed, or other job boards. Also, post it on your internal job board, so that your current employees have an opportunity for career growth. Spread the word through your network of contacts as well.

3. Screen and narrow your pool of candidates

Review the applications/resumes for experience, education, and work history. Does the candidate’s experience match what you’re seeking? Are there unexplained gaps in job history? Has the candidate jumped from job to job? The answers help narrow down the pool to those most qualified.

4. Conduct phone interviews

Phone interviews help you gauge each candidate’s energy. If you’re filling a customer-facing job, assess the candidate’s speaking ability. If you’re hiring for a solitary job, the individual’s enunciation on the phone is less important.

5. Use a hiring assessment tool

Now that you’ve spoken with a candidate, you’ll want to “look under the hood.” We recommend using PXT Select™, an online tool that measures behavioral and thinking styles, interests, verbal and numeric skills, and even assertiveness. Importantly, it helps set apart candidates who otherwise seem equal. With PXT Select, you can compare an individual’s results with the job’s performance model—and with other candidates’ results. This adds a layer of objectivity to the hiring process.

6.Conduct in-person interviews

Interview your final, select group of candidates. PXT Select provides personalized interview questions designed to clarify discrepancies identified in the assessment.

Now you have the information you need to select the best candidate. Once your offer has been accepted, you can use PXT Select’s onboarding tips. Happy hiring!

3 Ways Unconscious Bias Can Hurt Your Workplace

People Greeting Each OtherThe Wall Street Journal recently ran a fascinating article, “Why We Stereotype Strangers“. It stated that we all have unconscious biases, even if we don’t want to. We form perceptions from childhood, based on what our parents tell us, what we see on television, and even what we observe in strangers. It’s not our fault that we’re biased–but we must understand the workplace implications.

Implicit bias directly affects your workplace. Interviewers, for instance, might be unconsciously drawn to candidates similar to themselves. Bias can hurt your organization because:

You can pass up talent

Finding good people is hard enough. It’s a shame to rule out excellent candidates because of bias.

You can miss out on your team’s expertise

If a team member’s race, sexual orientation, or religion is the root of a manager’s implicit bias, the employee’s valuable input might not be heard.

You can create an insular culture

If your organization lacks diversity, decisions can be made by a group of people not reflecting the diversity of your clients.

Thankfully, you can work around bias by having a goal. Where is your organization now, and where does it want to go? This includes revamping your hiring process:

  1. Describe the open position.
  2. State the competencies and traits necessary for it.
  3. Match candidates’ qualifications to desired competencies and traits without knowing their name, gender, race, age, etc.
  4. During interviews, be mindful of potential bias.

Perhaps the best way to work around implicit bias is to use an objective hiring tool, such as PXT Select™. This hiring assessment helps you select the best candidates by producing reports with objective data. PXT can’t tell if a candidate is male or female, black, white, or purple! With PXT, qualified candidates shine on merit.

To learn more about this topic or PXT Select, send an email through our contact form.

 

“PXT Select” is a trademark of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

New Everything DiSC Productive Conflict Video

We’re excited to share the new Everything DiSC Productive Conflict video. Are you interested in learning more about productive conflict? We think you will enjoy the new video so click on the image below to check it out:

Conflict is an issue most of us encounter with regularity. Everything DiSC Productive Conflict is used by organizations to improve the workplace and to make conflict a productive piece of their workflow. The assessment helps people increase their awareness in conflict situations. When awareness is non-existent, destructive behaviors often take over and they impact the employees we rely on. But did you know conflict can be productive? It absolutely can. When you promote the behaviors that turn conflict into a productive situation, positive results will follow. Learn more about Everything DiSC Productive Conflict.

Webinar: Maintain Team Momentum During Management Changes

Team Exhibiting MomentumWhether a manager is going to be responsible for a new group because of an internal promotion, a transfer, or company reorganization, they will be challenged with building relationships with their new team members.

On the other hand, when teams face a management change, it taxes their engagement and productivity.

Learn how Everything DiSC Management and Everything DiSC Workplace assessments can help managers understand, relate to and communicate with their new team. And how these tools can help the team work with a new boss.

In this webinar you’ll hear:

  1. Areas of communication most important to management transition and success
  2. How management style can impact a new team
  3. How to recognize and best approach the style of each team member
  4. How to create a motivating team atmosphere

Learn how you can help your managers gain traction quickly with new teams.

Contact us to request the August 29 webinar recording.

 

Webinar: Does Your Best Candidate Already Work for You?

Find Out with PXT Select!

Prospective Job Candidates

In today’s tight job market, it is more important than ever to choose right when hiring for an open position.

It is also critical to keep current employees interested and excited about future opportunities.

Solve both challenges by considering candidates often overlooked – those right under your nose!

Join us to discover a unique, new assessment that gives you objective data about your current employee’s thinking style, behavior traits and interests – PXT Select.

PXT Select will give you the data you need to make an informed decision about your team member’s capabilities and their ability to fill your open position.  You may find hidden talent and you will be better equipped to develop career paths for those employees you want to retain.

In this webinar you’ll hear:

  1. How PXT Select can help you match current employees with other positions.
  2. How  you can coach your current employee for success in their new job.
  3. What PXT Select measures and why it matters.

Date:  July 25, 2018

Contact Us to request the webinar recording.

Webinar: Discover PXT Select Pre-Hire Assessment

Identify Your Best Candidate from Sales to C-Suite

You spend hours evaluating resumes finding several candidates. How do you decide who becomes your next employee?  The wrong choice costs 30% of an annual salary and results in lost opportunities and increased employee conflict.

Most large companies have a well-established hiring process that includes a validated, data-driven pre-hire assessment. Yet many small to mid-sized compaies still rely on the resume, a few hastily thrown together interview questions and intuition to determine whether a candidate’s fit for the job.

It’s simpler thank you think to implement a pre-hire assessment.  In this webinar, you’ll learn:

  1. What makes a pre-hire assessment valid and reliable.
  2. The role of validated, data-driven selection tools.
  3. What PT Select measures and why it matters.
  4. How the PXT Select Hiring Assessment can help with hiring and onboarding.
  5. Simple steps you can take to get started.

Date:  March 29, 2018

Contact Us to request the webinar recording.

Learn more about PXT Select, request a demo or make a purchase.

Webinar: Productive Conflict – New Approach to Old Problems – Back by Popular Demand

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the cost of workplace conflict costs US businesses $359 billion per year.

We’ve all contributed to those costs when we engage in destructive disagreements or issues that bubble beneath the surface and don’t go away.

However you think of conflict, it comes down to a difference of opinion involving strong emotions.  Whether it’s a brief, explosive dispute or subtle long-lasting issues, we’ve all done things we’re not proud of.  It’s why the typical manager spends 25-40% of their time dealing with conflict.

It’s not all about following steps in conflict resolution.  It’s about understanding why we do what we do and how to change it.

Join us to explore a new DiSC based assessment – Productive Conflict.  You’ll take away an understanding of:

  1. What drives each of us in conflict.
  2. How to recognize destructive automatic thoughts.
  3. A method of changing responses that have negative consequences.
  4. How to help your team members change their behavior and improve their results.

Date:  February 22, 2018

Contact Us to request the webinar recording.

Learn more about Everything DiSC Productive Conflict, request a demo or make a purchase.