How do you know if you are suited for a career in operations, and how can you figure out if you have the innate strengths and instincts that it requires to be successful in this path?

 

Today I’m sharing the most important assessment that I use in my business for screening applicants for the Director of Operations (DOO) certification program and matching candidates to my clients. I’m going to be talking about the Kolbe A assessment. 

Kolbe A Assessment

This assessment is used in lots of industries, and in corporate settings. In fact, one of my last big projects in corporate was to administer the Kolbe A assessment to all of the managers and senior executives. This required me to become extremely familiar with the test, to learn how it worked, why it worked, what the value was and how to explain the test to the leaders in the company.

 

I’ve been using Kolbe A Assessment for the last 15 years, and I’m going to use some of that same knowledge to explain it to you today. 

 

3 Different Parts of the Mind

These all compartmentalize different parts of the way that we process information and feelings. 

 

1. Cognitive: The thinking part of your mind, including intelligence, experience, skills, knowledge, learned behaviors which become habits. This is all formed and held in the cognitive part of your mind. It is the piece of the brain that allows us to understand what we can do. 
2. Affective: The feeling part of your mind that looks at your values, personality type, types of emotions you have, your preferences and motivations. This is what you want to do. 
3. Conative: The doing part of the mind. This is all of our instinctive, innate strengths that we have, our purposeful actions, our mental energy and our problem solving methods. It increases performance and it decreases stress. It is how you will take action or execute.

Different Types of Tests

There are specific tests that measure each of these categories. You need more than one assessment to get a good idea of who is on your team, and what their gifts are.

 

Cognitive: The Predictive Index or the Wonderlic. Both of these are cognitive assessments that measure IQ.

 

Affective: The DiSC, Myers-Briggs, StrengthsFinders, and the Enneagram are all looking at the affective or feeling part of the brain. 

 

Conative: The Kolbe A is looking at the way you execute. It's how your brain takes a task and goes to work. 

The Conative Part of the Brain

Everyone has equal amounts of conative mental energy. That's not the case with the affective and the cognitive parts of the brain.

 

The conative is your natural way of taking action if you are free to be yourself. It strips away your feelings, values and what you have learned over time, and is the default way you process information. 

 

“It is massively important for operators to understand what someones natural innate strengths are because it allows us to put them in the best roles and develop people on our teams.” 

Kolbe A Action Modes

Kolbe A looks at 4 different modes. There is not a perfect profile, although I have done extensive work to identify what profiles work best as an operator. 

 

1. Fact finder: How you gather and share information
2. Follow through: How you organize and design
3. Quick Start: How you deal with risk and uncertainty 
4. Implementer: How you deal with space and tangibles

 

Kolbe looks at these on a scale of 1-10, and assigns a number to each of the categories. Kolbe is the superior conative test because:

 

• Its unique
• It is the only assessment which measures your effort and energy
• It is positive and predictive; your results will be focused on your strengths and how you solve problems
• It is unbiased, and looks at the way that your brain takes action
• It's valid and reliable

 

“When you have this information you can stop trying to change who you are, and you can adapt who you are.”

 

How Assessments are Helpful in Hiring

When you are hiring, you want to make sure the candidate has the education and required skills for the position. 

 

If you are looking at the affective (feeling part)... will their personality be a good addition to the leader or culture? Do they share the same values? 

 

Regarding the conative... do they have the instincts or natural innate abilities that are needed to do this job?

 

“The Kolbe A takes an unbiased look at how we can add the right person to our team.”

 

If you ever see job descriptions that I create, you will always see that I ask for Myers-Briggs, DiSC, and Kolbe A scores. It is a huge benefit to know this information, and I would love to see you take the Kolbe A assessment. If you are craving to know exactly what you are good at and how you can position your services and your business, you won’t regret taking this assessment!

 

“The knowledge that you can gain by knowing your Kolbe can truly change the trajectory of your decisions.”

Weekly Ops Activity

Take the Kolbe A assessment and share the results in the Facebook group.

 

Other Ways to Connect with Me:

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This episode was first published at theopsauthority.com/podcast/66.