Posted by on July 31, 2023.
I recently began sessions with a motion therapist who is a proponent of the Egoscue Method. The premise here is that before embarking on an exercise program, you first must ensure that your body is properly aligned. Shoulders, hips, knees and ankles must all be in alignment the way nature intended, in a straight line. Once this is accomplished, then your exercise program can have an optimal effect by strengthening your body with optimal alignment.
The parallels related to leadership skill set alignment are striking. The Profiles PXT Select Checkpoint 360 is a leadership development tool that measures 8 key leadership competencies, 18 supporting leadership skill sets, 70 supporting behaviors and then recommends a development plan based on the results of the assessment. The data is collected by taking an on-line questionnaire, which takes approximately 15 minutes. One feature of the Checkpoint 360 that is relatively unique is we also ask each manager and their boss, independent of each other, to select 6 of the 18 skills they consider to be most successful for the manager’s job.
Attached is an example of a recent leadership team’s actual alignment results:
On the surface a 72% alignment looks quite good. As we had conversations with each of the 4 members of this team, several key points came to light:
- The boss and the managers have never had a discussion about which skill sets were most important.
- All team members talked about a lack of trust amongst everyone.
- All team members work 100% remotely and rarely have opportunity to personally get together, therefore they do not know each other very well.
So now the key question is What would be the most important skill sets for this particular team?
As you view the attached Leadership Team Alignment Report, two key skill sets that were NOT picked standout relative to this team’s expressed key issues. NO ONE picked Instills Trust as a key success skill. We are big fans of author Patrick Lencioni and his best-selling book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. The key foundation for teamwork is developing predictive and vulnerability-based trust within your teams.
Only one manager selected Builds Personal Relationships as a key skill. One of the major keys to employee engagement is that a leader and their direct reports need to believe that upper management cares about them personally and professionally.
By now you can probably see where this is going. The Checkpoint 360 results drives conversations within teams to optimize skill set ALIGNMENT which fosters leadership development and leads to more efficient and effective execution.
Profiles Incorporated has over 30 years of experience with this Leadership Development technology. Let us apply our expertise in guiding you in a Leadership Development discussion to better understand your organization’s needs and set you up for success today and going forward. Contact Profiles, Inc. today!
