“Labels are for filing, labels are for clothing, labels are not for people” ~ Martina Navratilova

In our quest to understand ourselves we are often drawn to all sorts of frivolous games, quizzes and questionnaires to explain who we are. These approaches attempt to reduce the complexity of human behaviour to a label. In many cases the label acts like a metaphor comparing us to an animal, a car, a book, etc…

What if there were a better way to gain this understanding?

The labelling problem

When we label people we often label them as their behaviour. But a working premise is that people are not their behaviour, they are infinitely more than that! Behaviour takes place in a context and the meaning of all behaviour is dependent on that context. Some people love their labels because it gives them an excuse for inexcusable behaviour. Others hate labels. They feel disappointed in themselves and, if they accept the label, limited for life.

If you’ve ever been given a derogatory label you’ll know the feeling!

Confusing labels

We often confuse our labels with our behaviour when we describe what we do as who we are. When we say “I’m an engineer” what we really want to do is describe what we do. However, a label by its nature freezes what we do in time and space and this can be extremely limiting. Many engineers are also fathers, mothers, musicians, teachers, sports coaches. They are infinitely more than one label.

Are you a warrior lover?

So too with psychometric tests and assessments that label people with things such as combinations of letters or colours or terms such as “warrior”, “lover”, “jester”, etc… Most of these labelling approaches are derived from Carl Jung’s work on Archetypes, which in turn were derived from his interest in the Tarot cards.

There’s a better way…

A more useful way is to describe behavioural tendencies in terms of intrinsic motivators and preferences such as: tasks, working environment, interests, interpersonal relationships. This way you get a more meaningful insight into an individual without limiting their potential to develop and grow.

Since I started working with Harrison Assessments Talent Solutions (HATS) I have witnessed people gain a greater understanding of themselves and make significant strides in their own growth and development. Test HATS for yourself for FREE today.

We’re recruiting Harrison consultants. Learn more

Your sales force is the lifeblood of your organisation. They generate the sales that keep everyone else employed and hopefully enough profits to reinvest in new products and services.

However, it’s quite likely that your star performers carry the rest of the team.

What would happen if you could scientifically and accurately identify the difference that makes the difference between your highest and lowest performers? What would you do?

Learn more by downloading our short publication…

Your sales force is the lifeblood of your organisation. They generate the sales that keep everyone else employed and hopefully enough profits to reinvest in new products and services.

However, it’s quite likely that your star performers carry the rest of the team.

What would happen if you could scientifically and accurately identify the difference that makes the difference between your highest and lowest performers? What would you do?

Learn more by downloading our short publication…

When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007 people were stunned. Three mobile devices in one. Nobody had done that before. The mobile phone makers were caught out big time. Many people thought it was too good to be true. Others were impressed. Finally, someone had produced just what they’d been waiting for! Then it wasn’t long before everyone wanted a touch-screen smart phone. Today, smart phones are a part of daily life and it looks strange to see someone using a traditional mobile device.

The iPhone is just one example of a plethora of ways in which traditional industries and practices have been disrupted and overturned in the past 10 years. And, it’s set to continue affecting how many of us live and work on a frequently occurring basis. And, HR is about to become the next casualty of Disruptive Innovation.

Disruptive Talent 

Fast forward to today and to the world of Talent Management. Organisations continue to rely on outdated practices in how they hire, retain and develop their people. Surely not, you might be saying to yourself!?

Worse still, in an attempt to “modernise” HR practices they’ve invested in sexy looking software that promises to do everything but doesn’t actually deliver the essential things that an organisation needs to be an Employer of Choice. As thought leader on Talent Josh Bersin remarked in one of his recent reports, in some cases users are still trying to figure out what to do with the software. That strikes me as a bit like putting the cart before the horse!

LinkedIn’s 2015 Global Recruiting Trends report found that improving candidate and job matching is the top trend that will affect how recruiting is done over the next five years.

So, how do you do that?

Be The Employer of Choice

There is however an Apple-like 3-in-1 type solution available. One that can make you THE Employer of Choice in Your Industry. One that is user and needs driven. One that requires minimal investment and produces outstanding results. One that can match candidates very precisely to specific jobs.

Enter Harrison Assessments Talent Solutions (HATS) an online solution that provides in-depth talent analytics that match people to jobs, explain what precisely engages your people and why people are performing or not performing well in their current jobs. HATS supports you in on-boarding new recruits, employee engagement & retention, employee rotation, succession planning and leadership development. All this and more!

You get up to an 80% improvement in your hiring processes. You save money on training and development and you significantly reduce your employee turnover. You get happier people at work and become the Employer of Choice in your industry. Studies have shown that people who are happy in their jobs and enjoy at least 75% of their work perform better than those who don’t. Now, what could be better than that?!

So, what are you waiting for?

Test out HATS for FREE today and become the Employer of Choice in Your Industry.

We’re currently recruiting Harrison consultants. More information here.

If you’ve ever played on a winning team you’ll know the feeling you get when everything just runs smoothly. There’s an energy and elegance that comes to the fore and very little can go wrong. Psychologists refer to this as a state of flow. To get into a state of flow a person’s intrinsic motivators are all operating on full cylinder and the perceived difficulty of a task and the available resources are in balance. When a person or a group of people are in a state of flow engagement levels are very high!

“Dream on”, you may be saying to yourself at this point! You can’t even begin to imagine being on a team like this.

How do team dynamics actually work?

Getting back to our winning team. Let’s take the example of a football team that starts conceding more goals than it scores and losing matches. Is it really the fault of the goalkeeper? Or is it the defenders? Perhaps, the midfielders keep giving the ball away in the middle of the field. Or, is it that the forwards are not scoring enough goals?

As a team is fundamentally a system, it’s probably a combination of all these factors because systems depend on the relationships between the parts to function properly. They also depend on having appropriate feedback loops in place. If, however, the only form of feedback is criticism and pointing the finger this becomes a recipe for disaster and teams quickly degenerate into bickering and the blame game.

The net effect is that it costs organisations millions!

How do you identify your blindspots?

You may be surprised to learn that there is an easy and highly effective way to discover your team’s blind spots or potential de-railers. Harrison Assessments Talent Solutions (HATS) provides a full range of team diagnostics so you can easily spot your blindspots as a team. What’s more HATS provides a range of team development solutions, all at the click of a mouse!

How do you achieve better balance?

HATS also gives you valuable insights into how you have balance in your teams. Not everyone has the same strengths and a high performing team is made up of a range of complementary skill sets. Not everyone needs to be a goal keeper! For example, there may be someone who is very good at assessing risks at the beginning of a project and others who are good at dealing with and adapting to change during the project.

Wouldn’t it be good to know who these people are rather than guessing?

Before you invest in team building

The common approach to dysfunctional teams is to go offsite for a team building day or weekend. However, in my experience, a lot of this is hit and miss and a wasted opportunity. Yes, people usually have a good time but rarely do they address the root causes of their problems or name the elephants in the room. The result: within one week it’s back to the usual bickering and in-fighting… Deadlines slip by and costs escalate!

A better way forward…

A better way is to run the HATS diagnostic beforehand and build your team day around how to get better balance and performance as a team. The whole team building experience will be a more meaningful one and you’ll notice generative results in the weeks to follow.

You can test HATS for FREE by clicking on this link.

We’re currently recruiting Harrison Consultants. More information here.

When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007 people were stunned. Three mobile devices in one. Nobody had done that before. The mobile phone makers were caught out big time. Many people thought it was too good to be true. Others were impressed. Finally, someone had produced just what they’d been waiting for! Then it wasn’t long before everyone wanted a touch-screen smart phone. Today, smart phones are a part of daily life and it looks strange to see someone using a traditional mobile device.

The iPhone is just one of a plethora of ways in which traditional industries and practices have been disrupted and overturned in the past 10 years. And, it’s set to continue affecting how many of us live and work on a frequently occurring basis.

Disruptive Talent 
Fast forward to today and to the world of Talent Management. Organisations continue to rely on outdated practices in how they hire, retain and develop their people. Surely not, you might be saying to yourself!?

Worse still, in an attempt to “modernise” HR practices they’ve invested in sexy looking software that promises to do everything. As thought leader on Talent Josh Bersin remarked in one of his recent reports, in some cases users are still trying to figure out what to do with the software. That strikes me as a bit like putting the cart before the horse!

LinkedIn’s 2015 Global Recruiting Trends report found that improving candidate and job matching was the top trend that will affect how recruiting is done over the next five years.

So, how do you do that?

Be The Employer of Choice
There is however an Apple-like 3-in-1 type solution available. One that can make you THE Employer of Choice in Your Sector. One that is user and needs driven. One that requires minimal investment and produces outstanding results. One that is customisable to your needs. One that matches candidates very precisely to specific jobs.

Enter Harrison Assessments Talent Solutions (HATS) an online solution that provides in-depth talent analytics that match people to jobs and explain what precisely engages your people and why they are performing or not performing well in their current jobs. HATS supports you in attracting, recruiting and on boarding new recruits, employee engagement, retention & development, employee rotation, succession planning and leadership development.

All this and more! You get up to an 80% improvement in your hiring processes. You save money on training and development and you significantly reduce your employee turnover. You get happier people at work and become the Employer of Choice in your sector. Studies have shown that people who are happy in their jobs and enjoy at least 75% of their work perform better than those who don’t.

Now, you can accurately measure it. What could be better than that?!

So, what are you waiting for? Test out HATS for FREE today and become the Employer of Choice in Your Sector: http://widecircle.harrisonassessments.eu/free-report.html

We’re currently recruiting Harrison consultants & coaches. More information here.