Posted by on January 15, 2021.
I was having a conversation with one of our client VP of Sales recently. He was in the process of hiring two new region managers and ten new territory managers. He had four candidates that were a very good fit with their region manager Profiles Performance Model and a number of talented industry experienced territory manager sales candidates. He asked for assistance to help determine which quality candidate would be the best fit for these roles.
I asked the VP of Sales to tell me a bit about the people the new region managers would lead. He talked about the fact that half the people in the region were very new and half were very experienced and tenured. We discussed the broad-based cultural evolution the organization was going through with rapid revenue growth driving hiring growth across all functions from a company of 60 people to 120 people within the next six months. From his comments, it became clear that he had a high need for region managers that would bring good leadership skills to the table and a high degree of emotional IQ.
The territory manager sales position requires a high degree of emotional IQ because of the sophisticated sales process required involving different departments with very diverse personalities. We brainstormed how we can use the data that the PXT Select provides to understand which of these qualified candidates would bring this level of self-awareness that is required to support this team and determined three key aspects to consider:
- Does the candidate understand themselves?
- Is the candidate aware of their impact on others?
- Is the candidate able to self-manage and make small changes in personal approach to optimize effectiveness with audiences that have a different perspective?
Let’s focus on the Thinking Style section of the PXT Select to help us understand the level of a candidate’s self-awareness. The Thinking Style scales measure the cognitive aspect of understanding words or numbers as part of the reasoning process. They form the foundation for problem solving, communication, interaction and learning used on the job. People have a tendency to share information the way that they learn it. For example, if a candidate has Profiles PXT Select Thinking Style scores in the 7-10 range this means they process and assimilate information more quickly than most people. Therefore, their tendency would likely be to share information more quickly than most people can keep up with, thus likely leaving their audience struggling to keep up.
As we bring our region manager and territory manager candidates back in for interviews, we can use the Thinking Style data to determine if the candidates understand themselves by asking questions about their preference to learn new material or previous training programs they have attended, what worked and what did not work for them. We also listen to their responses to our questions and see if the answers come across as humble and empathetic or egotistical and trying to be the smartest person in the room. We can ask the candidates what they do to best understand how their audiences pick up on the information we are sharing. Our audiences pick up information best the way their cognitive abilities allow them to learn. The highly self-aware candidates with Thinking Style scores in the 7-10 range with an audience left of them will respond with their understanding on the need to slow down how information flow to their audience to optimize their communication effectiveness. The PXT Select gives us, as the interviewer, the answer to the question of what the candidate is really like. As we listen to the candidate’s responses to our questions, we gain tremendous insight about how well the candidate understands themselves, how well they are able to articulate how they learn and process and whether they can make small changes in personal approach when their audience takes longer to process information.
Give us a call at Profiles, Inc. to set you up with the Profile PXT Select to help you make better hiring decisions as we move towards post-pandemic time and our economy begins to grow again.
